AA baggage check through agreements

Steve, they must. We flew from Palermo to Michigan in October, on AA and AI, and our bags were properly transferred -- though arrived a day late. Having read the numerous postings about the terrible luggage problems on AI, we did as RS suggested and carried on our bags for the trip over to Rome. We bought the roomiest 22" carry-on bags we could find. After many Europe trips where we took much larger bags and checked them, we were amazed and quite pleased with how we got by on just two 22" bags for two weeks. We will probably carry on from now on.

Does anyone know about a check through agreement with AA and British Airways? We'll probably check our bags on the way home, and we have a layover in Heathrow where we change airlines. I'm worried about the length of the layover if we have to recheck bags.

Thanks!

Yes AA and BA are partner airlines so you will be able to check your bags all the way through to your next destination.

Irrespective of any alliances that might exist, almost all major airlines will transfer baggage to another carrier. The only real exception to this is low-cost carriers such as Southwest, Easyjet, Ryanair and JetBlue. While transfer among members of the same alliance might be more seamless, I've done so outside of alliances more than once and never had a problem.

Sorry to disagree with the last post. In October we flew Virgin Atlantic from SFO-LHR. Virgin Atlantic would not transfer our bags to our next flight on British Air from LHR-Rome.

I believe the rules are that they will transfer if both airlines are part of an "alliance", or if both flights are listed on the same ticket. I had a similar problem in S. America last March with a transfer between Aerolinas Argentina and American Airlines.

It is best to call customer service and ask; probably even better to call more than once, just to be sure to get a consistent answer.

Let's imagine you have a flight on carrier 'A' then an onward flight on carrier 'B'. The bag can be through checked ONLY if the check-in system carrier 'A' uses can access the system that carrier 'B' uses to check-in baggage. As part of any alliance agreement all alliance partners have to be 'compatable' but a lot of the major players will be 'compatable' anyway, regardless of whether they are in or out of an alliance. On the other hand some carriers have a hostile view of other carriers. This is the case between Virgin and BA. They will block each other's access to their systems ( some years in the past Virgin took BA to court for abusing their check-in system and 'poaching' passengers. Since then they have barely been on speaking terms ). On the other hand if you fly on the airline I work for you can through check your bags onto both BA and Virgin, even though we are not in an alliance with either. I't a difficult area, system compatability is part of what I do for a living.