An update on through-checking on awards...
Background:
I'm in the middle of a 280k award at the moment and I have a total of 20 flights in one PNR. 14/20 flights form part of the 280k award, with the remaining 6/20 being paid for separately as commercial tickets.
This PNR consists of three tickets:
Ticket #1 is the 280k award on QF (081) ticket stock
Ticket #2 is a combo of SA+BA on BA (125) ticket stock
Ticket #3 is WS on HR (169) ticket stock
The commercial tickets were added long after the 280k award was finalised.
Test case #1:
QF to JNB, overnight, then BA onwards.
QF flight was on the 280k award ticket, and the BA flight was on a commercial ticket.
Result:
QF OLCI could only go as far as JNB.
QF airport check in could see the onwards BA flight but could not issue a BP for the BA flight nor through-check the bag - this is expected as JNB officially is marked as a closed airport overnight.
BA the next morning could see that I came in on QF.
Test case #2:
SA domestic, approx 3 hour connection, then QR long haul to DOH.
SA flight was on a commercial ticket, and the QR flight was on the 280k award ticket.
Result:
SA OLCI could see the QR flight to DOH and checked me in for both the SA and QR flights.
SA airport check in could see the onwards QR flight. They through-checked the bag and issued both the SA and QR BPs without batting an eyelid.
QR could see that I came in on SA.
SA OLCI:
SA issued BPs at airport check in:
Test case #3:
BA short haul, overnight at LON, then BA long haul, approx 8 hour connection, then CX short haul, overnight, then WS domestic
Both BA flights were on the 280k award ticket, CX flight was on the 280k award ticket, and WS flight was on a commercial ticket.
Result:
BA OLCI didn't work at all - "too many flights in your booking" error. This error isn't specific to this PNR, I've encountered this error numerous times with long PNRs.
BA airport check in through-checked all the way to the final WS domestic destination, and issued all four BPs for BA/BA/CX/WS but only tagged the bags to LON due to the overnight (specifically requested).
The next morning, BA airport check in tagged the bags all the way to the final WS domestic destination. The transit airports in between are not marked as closed overnight, thus making this possible. Second overnight was spent without the checked bags (intended).
CX could see that I came in from BA. WS could see that I came in from BA and CX.
As a side benefit that also meant that I was exempted from paying the WS checked bag fees.
BA issued BPs:
Bottom line...
The airlines don't seem to care who they are through-checking to, oneworld or not.
In particular, BA has publicly stated in various pieces of documentation that they will not through-check to non-oneworld. However, the above results prove otherwise. No one batted an eyelid at both BA airport check ins.