Emirates baggage interline to Qantas on different PNR?

[volandome]

As per subject; have a J booking on Emirates from BCN -> AKL, and a seperate Qantas booking from AKL -> SYD. I'm not permitted to leave transit area in AKL, so cannot re-check bag.

Any idea on the likelihood that Emirates will interline the bag, or other creative solutions I can use to solve this problem? The other booking departs > 24hrs after the initial departure, if that has any impact.

 

[vetrade]

You wouldn't be the only one with this problem so there are probably contingency plans in place at AKL. I wouldn't expect Emirates to interline on separate PNRs. Suggest you contact QF but you may need to get it sorted with ground staff at AKL after you arrive there. If they won't let you collect your own bag a staff member will need to do it for you. Hopefully you will have a long enough transit because I can sense that you will get the run-around.

 

[Bernard Beston]

All

You wouldn't be the only one with this problem so there are probably contingency plans in place at AKL. I wouldn't expect Emirates to interline on separate PNRs. Suggest you contact QF but you may need to get it sorted with ground staff at AKL after you arrive there. If they won't let you collect your own bag a staff member will need to do it for you. Hopefully you will have a long enough transit because I can sense that you will get the run-around.

Yes, Can do that transfer. It would help if the Emirates flight ticket has a QF code number. However Menzies Aviation does baggage handling for Qantas and Dnata for Emirates. Neither have a good track records of transferring bags, so I'd be surprised if it is loaded to your Sydney QF flight. My last baggage transfer QF to Latam in Melbourne failed. Then Transfer at AKL Latam to Qantas for Melbourne failed on the return flight. Competence is not a known word in the Airline Industry!

 

[PineappleSkip]

I think your chances of interlining your bags are excellent. The EK checkin etc people generally seem to regard a QF ticket as equivalent to EK. But nothing is guaranteed and I've had yes and no results on the same routing with the same ticket combination.

cheers skip

 

[kermatu]

Don't know if this helps but I've had a F flight from DXB-SIN-MEL on Emirates then a separate booking in J from MEL-AKL on QF. Took the DXB check-in agent a few minutes to do (because the MEL-AKL flight was almost a day into the future). But it worked fine and I simply stayed in transit in MEL and my baggage arrived with me in AKL.

 

[kiwitripper64]

I hope it all works. Common sense would suggest that there wont be many bags at the moment.

 

[henrus]

and a seperate Qantas booking from AKL -> SYD

Whilst still not clear... if this Qantas flight is one of the new one way travel bubble flights you may not be allowed to board it. It's still early days but there is a chance that these flights will depart from the new "clean" area of Auckland airport which you won't be able to access.

 

[oz_mark]

I hope it all works. Common sense would suggest that there wont be many bags at the moment.

or baggage handlers!

 

[volandome]

Whilst still not clear... if this Qantas flight is one of the new one way travel bubble flights you may not be allowed to board it. It's still early days but there is a chance that these flights will depart from the new "clean" area of Auckland airport which you won't be able to access.

Yeah there's indeed many ways this plan could fail. I haven't heard any specifics about this; do you have a link with some more detail I could take a look at?

 

[henrus]

Yeah there's indeed many ways this plan could fail. I haven't heard any specifics about this; do you have a link with some more detail I could take a look at?

I haven't officially heard anything from Qantas but the latest update was a couple of days ago from Air New Zealand who said "We are awaiting official advice on the process for handling transit passengers, further communication will be sent in due course."

Auckland Airport also confirmed that transit passengers and departing passengers (those originating in NZ) currently have access to different parts of the international terminal.

It seems that no official decision has been made yet but I can't imagine they're going to let people travel in the bubble sitting next to someone who will then have to quarantine. The other thing is that capacity limits still apply for international arrivals into Sydney but these flights are the exception to that (because people on those flights don't need to go into a hotel) so it's almost as if they've only been set up for non-transit passengers.

I'd be very careful and have a backup plan because I think your plan will fail.

 

[volandome]

Agreed - at this point I consider that this plan is not an option. Will wait and see if they bother to contact me before I cancel though.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Who's going to contact you re separate tickets? EK have sold you a ticket to AKL, QF AKL to SYD.

Cheers skip

 

[henrus]

A further update to this... It's now 3 days until the "bubble" gets started and the details are still yet to be made public.

AU Home Affairs still has the following message on their website "On Friday, 2 October 2020, the Australian Government announced changes to international travel restrictions with quarantine-free travel possible from New Zealand to New South Wales and the Northern Territory from Friday 16 October 2020. Further details will be provided when available."

No idea when these details will be made available but one would hope sometime in the next 24-48 hours.

 

[henrus]

Agreed - at this point I consider that this plan is not an option. Will wait and see if they bother to contact me before I cancel though.

It's now official from Qantas:

"The Safe Travel Zone is not available for customers transiting via New Zealand as part of their travel to Australia from other international ports." Source

Volandome, it looks like your plan has failed. Air New Zealand still hasn't provided an update and is still selling flights with AKL-SYD pax alongside transit pax however that will probably have to change.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Don’t see the relevance of te proposed travel bubble, which is about Quarantine free travel. OP was never looking for that.

 

[henrus]

Don’t see the relevance of te proposed travel bubble, which is about Quarantine free travel. OP was never looking for that.

If you re-read the OP's original post they indicated that they were intending to fly EK BCN->AKL and then transit to AKL->SYD on the new Qantas (safe travel zone) flights. Sure the original question was about baggage but since that question was asked things have changed and it now makes the original question a moot point now that EK->QF transit in Auckland is not possible.

 

[volandome]

I'd agree that it's most likely impossible. It still remains unclear, though, what the arrangements are in AKL airport that would actually prevent me from doing it. Some months ago AKL was talking about the "safe travel area" in the terminal, but it's unclear whether they actually built it. Waiting to hear what happens on Friday!

 

[PineappleSkip]

EK->QF transit in Auckland is not possible.

The QF advice you cite doesn't say this at all. It says that transit via NZ will continue to occur, but that people transiting can't access the 'safe travel zone', which is a cute political slogan about quarantine free travel to Australia, but not to NZ.

The Safe Travel Zone is not available for customers transiting via New Zealand as part of their travel to Australia from other international ports.

 

[henrus]

The QF advice you cite doesn't say this at all.

You need to read the sections around for context. It introduces the 'safe travel zone' and says they're putting limited flights on as a result. It was only this afternoon they added that section saying that transit into the 'safe travel zone' isn't allowed so one would make a very strong assumption that these Qantas flights are operating within the 'safe travel zone' and transit passengers won't be allowed.

This text was only added to the agency version as I assume many agents had been asking this question but it's just been very poorly worded.

It says that transit via NZ will continue to occur

No where on that page does it say that. Given Qantas hasn't operated passenger services to/from NZ for months they haven't had to worry about transit passengers up to this point.



Last week Auckland airport confirmed that transit passengers don't have access to the same terminal space which indicates that the "safe travel area" is already in use with those departing NZ leaving the "safe travel area" section of the terminal right before boarding their flight.


Auckland airport back in August published details about how this works with gates 1-10 devoted to 'safe travel zone' flights and gates 15-18 for other flights:

Safe Travel Zone: Auckland Airport’s international terminal to be split into two zones

Auckland Airport’s international terminal will be separated into two zones as part of a plan to protect the health and safety of people flying to and from countries with which New Zealand has formed a safe travel bubble.

corporate.aucklandairport.co.nz

 

[volandome]

You need to read the sections around for context. It introduces the 'safe travel zone' and says they're putting limited flights on as a result. It was only this afternoon they added that section saying that transit into the 'safe travel zone' isn't allowed so one would make a very strong assumption that these Qantas flights are operating within the 'safe travel zone' and transit passengers won't be allowed.

This text was only added to the agency version as I assume many agents had been asking this question but it's just been very poorly worded.



No where on that page does it say that. Given Qantas hasn't operated passenger services to/from NZ for months they haven't had to worry about transit passengers up to this point.

View attachment 230370

Last week Auckland airport confirmed that transit passengers don't have access to the same terminal space which indicates that the "safe travel area" is already in use with those departing NZ leaving the "safe travel area" section of the terminal right before boarding their flight.
View attachment 230368

Auckland airport back in August published details about how this works with gates 1-10 devoted to 'safe travel zone' flights and gates 15-18 for other flights:

Safe Travel Zone: Auckland Airport’s international terminal to be split into two zones

Auckland Airport’s international terminal will be separated into two zones as part of a plan to protect the health and safety of people flying to and from countries with which New Zealand has formed a safe travel bubble.

corporate.aucklandairport.co.nz

That's an old media release, there is still no confirmation that such a zone in the airport actually exists and is operational yet.

You've also selectively quoted that Auckland Airport Twitter thread; their answers are far from clearly referring to this mythical "safe travel zone".

I agree that this is very unlikely to work out, but as the facts currently stand there is nothing standing in the way.

I've reached out to both Qantas and Auckland Airport for clarification. Still awaiting responses.