90% of airlines (and the percentage is increasing every year) nowadays, my airline included, adhere to the IATA ruling that passengers are not and will not be thru checked on seperate tickets be it paper to paper, paper to electronic. The one exception i know of is BA who will thru check on separate tickets as long as its BA to BA or BA to another Oneworld carrier.
The reason for no thru check on separate tickets is the cost of luggage transfer which is included in the price of a thru ticket. Separate tickets are cheaper yes but why should the airline transfer your bag to your next flight (approximate cost to an airline to do this per bag is £90) when you have only paid say £20 for your flight to LHR for example. It loses airlines thousands of pounds every year and makes obviously no financial business sense, especially if said bag goes missing at the transfer point. By thru checking on seperates the carrier who checked the bag thru initially takes responsibility for that bag, both finding and delivering the bag costs money.
At the end of the day you wouldn't go into a supermarket, buy a newspaper and expect the cashier to carry it to your car so you could take it home now would you, why should they?
It is becoming increasingly more difficult to thru check unless you have a thru ticket
The simple answer is if you want your bags to go thru...buy a thru ticket.
FFHKG is one who slipped past the net of the IATA thru check in ruling...happens once in a blue moon, so dont be encouraged that it will probably happen to you as well, it just wont happen. .
Agent x
