Aer Lingus baggage agreements - please help!!

psychology5

Hi,

I'm kind of freaking out. Due to fly Monday morning and connect from an aer lingus flight at Heathrow to a Malaysia Airlines flight. On their website, aer lingus say they have a baggage agreement with Malaysian airlines and will through-check bags if flights are on the same ticket, however I just spoke to someone at Malaysia Airlines and they say they have no such agreement with Aer Lingus. Aer lingus offices are closed now until the morning so I can't contact them and am panicking because although we have a 3h15m connection time, I know how busy Heathrow is and I had been counting on not having to re-check baggage. Does anyone know anything about this?? The exact wording of aer lingus on the website is:

"Aer Lingus will through-check a passenger and his/her baggage as a courtesy onto any carrier with a baggage agreement in place, upon presentation of documentation of the itinerary showing Aer Lingus and partner carrier flights on the same ticket. Aer Lingus will also through-check baggage for passengers holding separate tickets for connecting travel onto another Aer Lingus flight."

They then list all airlines they have this agreement with, one being Malaysian. The only thing I can think of is that we have booked with 'Malaysia Airlines' and not 'Malaysian' but I was dead certain these were the same airlines?? I would really appreciate any advice if anyone has been through this or knows anything about it, I'm in full panic mode! Thanks.

Sigourney

Aer Lingus will check your bags through for your Malaysia Airlines (MH) flight.

psychology5

Thank you for your reply. I spoke to a second person at Malaysia Airlines and they are adamant that they have no agreement in place and we will have to check our bags out I really don't understand how Aer Lingus could say this on their website if it's not true?!

steve-o

The people at Malaysia Airlines are talking nonsense.

If your flights are on one ticket, your bags will always be checked through (unless affected by customs restrictions, which definitely have no bearing on your trip).

Enjoy your flight.

Sigourney

Aer Lingus have always accepted my bags in Dublin and tagged them for Malaysia Airlines flights. Likewise, Malaysia Airlines has always tagged my bags straight through from Kuala Lumpur to Dublin. MH is good in the air but they're not great on the ground. All of their customer service (call centres and frequent flyer programme) could do with some improvement.

psychology5

Oh great, thank you both so much for your help, I feel much better now. I will ring Aer Lingus tomorrow anyway for further clarification but like you, while I found the representatives I spoke to to be friendly, they didn't seem too confident in what they were saying. Fingers crossed all will be well! Thanks again.

Zonda999

Hey guys, just a similar question stemming from this. Wednesday, I;m due to travel to from Cork to Hanoi with Malaysia airlines via Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur. I know Aer Lingus will check bags through to Malaysia airlines flights on the same ticket, but will they do it for your final destination. The final flight on the leg is Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi is with Malaysian also so that should be no trouble I;m assuming. just a bit worried about the chances of losing a bag considering theres two stops as well though.

Just another thing though, seeing as there is no codeshare between Malaysian and Aer Lingus (Just an Interline baggage agreement), what does this mean as regards actually checking in for the Malaysian flight? As in, will I actually have to do that in Heathrow as opposed to doing it in Cork?

I imagine this is a fairly common scenario seeing as the only airlines Aer Lingus have codeshare agreements are BA and KLM, so any other transfers with any other carriers would be like this. So I;d appreciate if anyone could clear this up for me. thanks!

BuffyBot

If it is on one ticket they should check it through to your final destination.

They should be able to print boarding passes but if not you can pick them up at the Malaysian desk at the Flight Connections centre in Heathrow.

Zonda999

Thanks for the quick reply. I have 3 hrs 15mins in Heathrow so should be plenty time. Likewise I have nearly three hours in Amsterdam on the way back so that should be okay too if I need to do the same for Aer Lingus on the way back.

BuffyBot

More than sufficient.

psychology5

Hey, I'm the original poster and just to let you know I was much the same, stopped twice in Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur with aer lingua and Malaysian. I had no trouble with my bags coming over, they were tagged straight through and arrived safely, waiting for me when I got off. I did have to check in twice but I also had 3 h 15m and it was more than enough time for everything. Hope that helps!

Zonda999

Thanks, that's good to hear. Turns out I can check in online(Found out that you can check in online from 48 hours before your flight) for my outbound flight anyway so I might do that in any case

LTM

Hi,

I also have a question about Aer Lingus and Malaysian Airlines. I am travelling from Cork to Paris with Aer Lingus and then onto Kuala Lumpur with MA. I booked through ebookers. It says we are entitled to 20 to 30kg baggage allowance with MA. However Aer Lingus only allow us 20kg. Also, should we pay the Aer Lingus baggage fee before we get to the airport?

BuffyBot

If you're travelling on the one booking you a) won't need to pay the Aer Lingus baggage fee (that's for point to point bookings made with Aer Lingus directly only) and b) you'll get the larger, Malaysian Airlines allowance.