Travel question: Do airlines have to transfer bags to connecting flights?

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Phuket: it’s rare to be granted a through-check for two separate tickets (iStock)

Q We had a problem when British Airways refused to check our bags all the through to Phuket. We were travelling business class to Bangkok, then on a separate booking on Thai Airways to Phuket.

We have definitely been able to do this in the past. Of course it takes the stress out of having to get bags, go to different floors to check-in again and go through security.

They didn’t advise us of the one-hour detour they now have to make, avoiding Pakistan. So we had to run for our connecting flight as we had to collect our bags in Bangkok.

Are we right in thinking certain that this can be done, or are BA correct?

Angela L

A Because your journey was split between two tickets, your contract with British Airways was merely to fly you and your baggage from Heathrow to Bangkok. The airline makes no promises about checking your bags through to the final destination – in your case, Phuket – if you are travelling on a different ticket. I am genuinely surprised that the airline has in the past afforded that courtesy on the route you described.

For ground staff to check through a bag from an international flight to a domestic flight on a rival airline (not a member, like BA, of the Oneworld alliance), on a different booking, would be most unusual.

Even the airline with the most generous through-checking policy I know of, Qatar Airways, would not allow it. The carrier says it will check bags – and passengers – through to their final destination “when travelling on multi-sector journeys involving connections onto other Oneworld member airlines, even when the trip is booked using separate tickets”. As Thai Airways is in the rival Star Alliance, that would not work. And Qatar Airways also points out: “However, customers should note that through-check may not be possible on their return journey if their trip starts with another airline that does not provide the same level of service.”

I am also surprised – and impressed – that you made your connection, albeit with a sprint. Buying a separate ticket for a domestic flight with a reasonably tight connection after a journey of 6,000 miles is an expression of optimism that I am not sure is entirely warranted.

Leaving aside the closure of some Pakistani airspace, British Airways has had a real problem with punctuality on BA9, its Heathrow-Bangkok flight, over the past week.

Between 25 June and 1 July, the plane has arrived late every day. But that has been because of delays on departure rather than airspace issues en route; yesterday, for example, it left Heathrow almost three hours late but made up half-an-hour on the journey there.

For future journeys, I urge you to consider booking a through-ticket – to protect yourselves if the first flight is delayed. But even then you may be required to collect and re-check your bags at Bangkok, as is standard when going from international to domestic.