Luggage transfer - Virgin/Aer Lingus

BRM

cml387 wrote: »

Flew to HK with them some time ago. IMO better than BA. The IFE is fine.It's a very long aircraft and at the back it tends to wallow a bit but I find tha strangely restful.

Im considering the same trip to HK from LHR next month on virgin my concern is the baggage.

Can I check my bag all the way to HK from Dublin or do I have to collect it in London and check it in again? Ill be flying to London with Aerlingus are they any more accommodating with checking bags thru on connecting flights?

I flu BA before and didnt have to check in the bags in London but this time I’ve booked the flights to London on the aerlingus website and either virgin or BA from there.

BuffyBot

Because they are seperate bookings Aer Lingus's official policy is not to check baggage through (so you would have to collect it at Heathrow and check it in again at Virgin's desks in Terminal 3).

On the return journey, it really depends on the Virgin check-in staff in Hong Kong. They're under no obligation to check it through as you have a seperate ticket (so again you will have to pick it up, and check it in with Aer Lingus in terminal 1), but you might get an agent willing to do it.

jhegarty

BuffyBot wrote: »

Because they are seperate bookings

Unless it's on the same booking.

glaston

I once had two flights with British Midland (Dublin - London - Amman) but they wouldnt check the baggage through because the two flights werent booked at the same time. I doubt if they will be helpful.

carleigh

We flew with Aer Lingus to Gatwick and onward to Las Vegas with Virgin last month, all on the one booking, and in Dublin, they would not check our bags in all the way to LV. In the end, we had to go and identify our bags before we boarded for LV in Gatwick because they had not tagged the bags correctly in Dublin! So Aer Lingus are not very accomodating, and its not the first time we have had such an experience with them.

BRM

carleigh wrote: »

We flew with Aer Lingus to Gatwick and onward to Las Vegas with Virgin last month, all on the one booking, aSo Aer Lingus are not very accomodating, and its not the first time we have had such an experience with them.

ok so it seems pointless to make the one booking with BA if aerlingus arent even gonna stand over the BA booking and check the bags thru in dublin.

If Im gonna have to pick up my bags in london then theres no way im making one booking and spending 200 more in the process!

BuffyBot

Unless it's on the same booking.

OP wrote:

this time I’ve booked the flights to London on the aerlingus website and either virgin or BA from there.

I'm assuming seperate bookings from this description.

BRM - if you book it all on one ticket (i.e. both the Aer Lingus and BA flight together via ba.com or Aer Lingus/Virgin via some other site) then Aer Lingus will check the luggage through for you, and vice versa.

If you book two seperate tickets (i.e Dublin - London with Aer Lingus and then another booking with BA or Virgin etc for London - Hong Kong) then expect that they won't check it through for you.

One bad experience (see above) doesn't mean much - thousands of bags a day are checked through by Aer Lingus to all sorts of airlines without problem.

TingTong

BuffyBot wrote: »

I'm assuming seperate bookings from this description.

BRM - if you book it all on one ticket (i.e. both the Aer Lingus and BA flight together via ba.com or Aer Lingus/Virgin via some other site) then Aer Lingus will check the luggage through for you, and vice versa.

If you book two seperate tickets (i.e Dublin - London with Aer Lingus and then another booking with BA or Virgin etc for London - Hong Kong) then expect that they won't check it through for you.

One bad experience (see above) doesn't mean much - thousands of bags a day are checked through by Aer Lingus to all sorts of airlines without problem.

I could be mistaken, but the reason AL will not check bags through is because they are not part of the One World Alliance anymore. Have booked an all in one with AL/Virgin for next May and this was told to me by someone else. Please correct me if I am wrong.

BuffyBot

Nothing to do with being part of an alliance.

Airlines have what are called baggage interline agreements - meaning they can send bags from one to another. Aer Lingus has these agreements with all sorts of airlines, across all the different alliances and with airlines that are in no alliance.

The reason they don't want to check bags through one seperate tickets is because of cost: if the bag gets lost, the cost comes back to bite them on the ass eventually. This is why low-cost airlines like Ryanair tend to have no interline agreements.

It's a cost/risk Aer Lingus have to accept when the trip is all on one booking: but when they are seperate bookings, they have no obligation to do so. Up to a few years they would do it without a problem. These days, now that they are trying to be a low-cost carrier, they've cut out doing it if they can help it.