I would doubt that EI could issue a LH boarding pass. Their two systems won't communicate with one another in such a way to allow through check-in.

Usually through check in is only available if all segments are on one airline, or if the airlines share an agreement through an alliance.

Having said that I've seen strange things happen. Boarding cards for LX flights printed by BA on BA stock. Flights for BE printed by KL and flights for CX and QF come out of the SN system. So really, if it works then great, if not then nothing to get mad over. :ok:

Swiss use BA for load control sometimes so its not surprising they have access to there system. Think they handle them or used to at Brum as well.

And BE have code shares with KLM.

But if there are automatic check in stations you can try one of them if it has the airlines logo on it for the second flight.

I turned up at one for a crew positioning flight and it kept on giving me an additional flight. I was due to go to Brum and it was giving me a boarding card from EMA as well.

Just as the terets was kicking in which is quite frequent using those bloody machines I get a phone call from ops giving me the latest plan. I noticed the next bank of them had my third flights airline on it. So gave it a shot and managed to get an Airfrance boarding card out of it.

Also as well some Checkin agents have been doing the job for years and have a black belt in the manual codes in that system that has the blue or black terminal screen to the booking system (forgotten the name of it). They also work multiple airline desks and have login codes for virtually every large operator. So what might be happening is that the checkin desks are setup to be able to check any airline in and they just use un-officially there knowledge to quickly go in and check you in.

Yes this is a nice thing to do.... but.... It gives an inconsistent service level to the punter and can give issues when they travel again when the next agent has only been doing the job for a couple of years and have never used the other airlines systems. The punter then gets upset because they managed it the last time they travelled, and the agent doesn't have a clue what they have done wrong and has no clue how the punter managed it last time so then goes into dealing with a lying tosser pax mode.

So in reality its just creating a PAX expectation problem and generates complaints. So personally I wish they would stop doing it even if they are just being helpful.

LX, at one time dropped their own flights GVA-LHR and code-shared on BA metal. While that arrangement disappeared long ago, the systems were integrated then, and nobody has wasted money de-integrating them.

I would not depend on two non-aligned airlines being able to issue through checked boarding cards, but that can happen.

I recall travelling AF or KL via their hub and was amazed that I could print a single boarding card for both flights! Haven't seen anybody else do that!

Edilocal
 

Thru check is not (NOT) related to travelling on the same airline throughout. It isn't even related to the airlines being part of the same alliance.

If you are making a connection between 2 airlines the requirement is the existence of an "interline agreement". But not all interline agreements are created equal. There are ticket agreements, baggage agreements and checkin agreements. You can have one without the other and they can be "one way" e.g. airline A will accept a ticket issued by airline B but airline B won't accept a ticket issued by airline A.

Thru checkin assumes a connection between airline computer systems because if the airline you are checking in with is going to give you a boarding pass for a different airline they need to get the seat number from that other airline so thru checkin has a cost attached and that means the amount of traffic has to be worthwhile. Significant oversimplifiaction there!

I live in city A but only bought a ticket from B to C, intending to drive from A to B but later bought another ticket from A to B, same airline,same day, connecting flights.

I was now flying the same,National, airline from A to B, then on to C, but change of aircraft at the airlines headquarter airport.

Had I bought a ticket from A to C via B, albeit with an aircraft change, my bags could have been checked A to C, but because they were two seperate tickets, albeit the same airline, all domestic within the country - cannot.

I therefore had to collect my bags from the airline carousel in city B and then give them back to them for the second flight to city C, even tho' city A had given me two boarding cards and the two aircraft were parked side by side, one in, one out !

Monty Python is alive and well.