Bag Transfer from SAS to Virgin

[donaldsc]

We are planning a trip where we will be flying from Oslo to Heathrow and then continue on to the US on Virgin Airline.  My options are SAS or British Airways - Finnair.  Will I be able to check my bags in at Oslo and have the airline transfer the bags to the Virgin flight.  The other possibility is that I have to carry my bags from the SAS or BA flight and check them back in at the Virgin checkin.

 

DON

[FlyerTalker]

Sounds like you are planning to do two separate tickets - One from OSL to LHR and another from LHR to LAS.  Big issues, including having to pass through UK Immigration and Customs in between your two flights, as they would be separate and distinct tickets.

 

More details would make things much clearer - just what are you trying to do, and who will you be buying your tickets from.  The devil is in the details, and you just don't provide enough for any kind of meaningful response other than DON'T BUY TWO TICKETS FOR THIS ITINERARY.

 

 

[donaldsc]

OK - more details.  

 

I am taking a cruise that starts in London and ends in Bergen.  I want to fly on Delta or any of the group airlines because I have lots of points on Delta.  I also don't want to really end the cruise in Bergin because I plan to take the train from Bergen to Oslo so my travel home really starts in Bergen.  The reason I want to fly to and from using Heathrow is that I can fly nonstop from London to my home airport of Las Vegas.  Al the other options involve one or more extra stops.

 

So here is the plan.  Oslo to London.  Then London nonstop to Las Vegas on Virgin Airlines nonstop. Great connections and only 1 stop.

 

Here is the problem.  There is no airline in the Delta system that flies from nonstop from Oslo to London - my only Oslo options are SAS or British Airways.

 

So here is my question.  If I put my luggage on the SAS or BA flight in Oslo will it go all the way to Vegas or will I have to pick up my luggage in London and check in at the Virgin desk and then go through security in London to get on the Virgin London to Vegas flight.

 

DON

[Globaliser]

42 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

So here is my question.  If I put my luggage on the SAS or BA flight in Oslo will it go all the way to Vegas or will I have to pick up my luggage in London and check in at the Virgin desk and then go through security in London to get on the Virgin London to Vegas flight.

 

If you book two separate tickets, as you are describing, British Airways policy is to not through-check your luggage to the Virgin Atlantic flight. You will have to clear immigration at Heathrow, collect your luggage, clear customs, maybe transfer between terminals (at the moment, BA's Oslo flights are at T3, the same terminal as Virgin, but this could change), and then check-in with Virgin.

For what it's worth, the same BA policy applies even if you were to take a BA flight from Heathrow to Las Vegas, if the two BA flights are on separate tickets.

 

However, BA will through-check if you have a through ticket covering Oslo-Heathrow-Las Vegas (regardless of whether the Heathrow-Las Vegas flight is operated by BA or Virgin). But on a through ticket, you can't mix a cash fare on Oslo-Heathrow with an award redemption Heathrow-Las Vegas on either airline.

 

I don't know what SAS's policy is on this, but it will be a matter of policy; on two separate tickets, you would have no contractual right to have the bags through-checked.

 

In addition, even if your luggage is through-checked and even if you never exit into public areas, you would still have to clear security at Heathrow between flights.

[FlyerTalker]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

I am taking a cruise that starts in London and ends in Bergen.  I want to fly on Delta or any of the group airlines because I have lots of points on Delta.

 

There are other options to use DL miles all the way from Bergen or Oslo to LAS.  Both AF and KL fly there.

 

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

So here is the plan.  Oslo to London.  Then London nonstop to Las Vegas on Virgin Airlines nonstop. Great connections and only 1 stop.

 

Not a "great connection" because it is NOT a connection.  It's two separate trips.  You would be flying OSL to LHR on one ticket, then doing a completely separate ticket and flight from LHR.  And, since you are not making a connection, you will have to officially enter the UK.  Which means going through full immigration procedures - both inbound and exiting.  Plus the effort of collecting bags, and going through a brand new full check in with VS.

 

One other downside - if your flight from OSL has any kind of issue and you miss your flight to LAS, you have ZERO protection on that.  Virgin will merely consider you a no-show, because you are not on one ticket.  And now it's a matter of you getting an award seat from LHR to LAS for the next day or whenever.

 

 

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

Here is the problem.  There is no airline in the Delta system that flies from nonstop from Oslo to London - my only Oslo options are SAS or British Airways.

 

Your desire for that VS non-stop into LAS is a bigger problem.  Have you considered KL for the routing OSL-AMS-LAS?  I haven't checked specific flights, but if you want an all SkyTeam itinerary with a non-stop into LAS, that might be an option.

 

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

So here is my question.  If I put my luggage on the SAS or BA flight in Oslo will it go all the way to Vegas or will I have to pick up my luggage in London and check in at the Virgin desk and then go through security in London to get on the Virgin London to Vegas flight.

 

You are putting the cart before the horse.  Before you start worrying about your luggage, perhaps you should put some thought into the overall concept that you are working with.  It is fraught with peril, but you seem to think you can easily just put two tickets together into one trip.  But it doesn't work that way.

 

 

[LHT28]

Are you booking with Virgin ?

 They do have the flights  from OSL to LAS   so your bags should be through checked

 

I try to avoid  LHR  & would use KLM  via AMS

but  if your goal is to fly on Virgin  looks like LHR is your option

[donaldsc]

Thanks to all of you for the replies.  Sounds as if my "solution" is way to complicated and forgetting Virgin going home might be the best idea..

 

DON

[donaldsc]

42 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

Thanks to all of you for the replies.  Sounds as if my "solution" is way to complicated and forgetting Virgin going home might be the best idea..

 

DON

 

3 hours ago, LHT28 said:

Are you booking with Virgin ?

 They do have the flights  from OSL to LAS   so your bags should be through checked

 

I try to avoid  LHR  & would use KLM  via AMS

but  if your goal is to fly on Virgin  looks like LHR is your option

 

[FlyerTalker]

First know that you are going to be paying through the nose for redemptions of SkyPesos.  DL has moved to dynamic pricing of award tickets and you are often looking at a value of a penny or less per point.  There are no award charts with DL anymore, so they basically use SkyPesos as a proxy for cash revenue pricing.

 

I would start by using ITA matrix to do some research on pricing your tickets.  And don't look at one-way tickets for both legs if paying cash - you will most always do better for an open jaw ticket on a TATL itinerary.  Look for LAS-LHR with a return of OSL-LAS.  The distances work out so this is a true open-jaw, so your pricing should be reasonable.  For award tickets, one-ways are fine, as there is no advantage with SkyPesos to insist on a round-trip ticket.

 

You can still fly VS on your outbound to LHR, and you can do that with either cash or miles.

 

 

[donaldsc]

11 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

First know that you are going to be paying through the nose for redemptions of SkyPesos.  DL has moved to dynamic pricing of award tickets and you are often looking at a value of a penny or less per point.  There are no award charts with DL anymore, so they basically use SkyPesos as a proxy for cash revenue pricing.

 

I would start by using ITA matrix to do some research on pricing your tickets.  And don't look at one-way tickets for both legs if paying cash - you will most always do better for an open jaw ticket on a TATL itinerary.  Look for LAS-LHR with a return of OSL-LAS.  The distances work out so this is a true open-jaw, so your pricing should be reasonable.  For award tickets, one-ways are fine, as there is no advantage with SkyPesos to insist on a round-trip ticket.

 

You can still fly VS on your outbound to LHR, and you can do that with either cash or miles.

 

 

 

Thanks again.  I do have a follow up question before I give up.  As LHT 28 suggested I went on the Virgin site and I can book the whole trip through Virgin.  Since Virgin codeshares with Delta I should be OK with getting my points on Delta and maybe I can even book the whole thing on Delta but I will deal with that issue.  I can also check with either  Virgin or Delta about checking my bags all the way through.

 

My big issue is timing.  I have copied the flight details below and highlighted the possible problem areas in red.

 

OSL to LHR.  SK805.  Wed, Mar 13.  SAS flight.

flight details 1:05 pm OSL Oslo, Norway

journey duration2h 30m

LHR.  London Heathrow, United Kingdom.  Terminal 2 2:35 pm

Airbus A320neo  Economy

3h  Stopover

London Heathrow, United Kingdom. This is a connecting flight in LHR

 

LHR to LAS.  VS155.  Wed, Mar 13

flight details 5:35 pm  LHR  London Heathrow, United Kingdom Terminal 3

journey duration10h 55m

LAS.  Las Vegas, NV  Terminal 3  9:30 pm

 

I have checked on the LHR site and I think that I can get from terminal 2 to terminal 3 in a short time.  The LHR site says it takes only 10 - 15 minutes.  If I walk from terminal 2 to terminal 3 will I have to go through customs, immigration and security or am I considered a through traveler who is not actually entering England  and not have to do all this stuff.  If I can bypass all this stuff will my 3 hour layover be in LHR be OK I or am I still taking an unacceptable chance.  Obviously if I can not bypass all this stuff the option will not work.  I just hate to give it up because the connections are so good.

 

In response to FlyerTalker’s post about points - I am looking forward to earning points on this trip and not using them.  The price I got for the complete trip on Virgin (LAS - LHR going and OSL - LHR -  LAS coming coming home was Economy Classic $1019.  Premium $1759.  

 

The price is right.  The connections are great.  But if it will not work it wil not work.   I wil just have to do Virgin to Europe and make other arrangements coming home.  

 

Thanks a lot.

 

DON

[Globaliser]

3 hours ago, donaldsc said:

I have checked on the LHR site and I think that I can get from terminal 2 to terminal 3 in a short time.  The LHR site says it takes only 10 - 15 minutes.  If I walk from terminal 2 to terminal 3 will I have to go through customs, immigration and security or am I considered a through traveler who is not actually entering England  and not have to do all this stuff.  If I can bypass all this stuff will my 3 hour layover be in LHR be OK I or am I still taking an unacceptable chance.

 

If you have a through ticket, you will be able to use the airside flight connections route that means that you will only have to clear security again. You will not have to clear either immigration or customs, and you will not exit into public areas. Three hours is plenty of time; something would have to go pretty drastically wrong for you to miss your onward flight.

[donaldsc]

Thanks for all your replies.  In the end it seem to make better sense to fly home through Amsterdam and not Heathrow.  

 

DON