Experts, Help Please

[sandm]

Not a cruise flight but...We are looking at flights coming home from Reykjavik November 26 (Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend).

KEF-BOS on Icelandair arriving at BOS 5:50pm terminal E then

BOS-ORD on AA leaves terminal B 7:30pm .

Logan's website states it is a 7-10 minute walk from E to B.

Is this even doable keeping in mind the busy air traffic and customs etc. We've never been through BOS so a bit concerned.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate all of you and your insights. Although I check Flyertalk forums daily I am less intimidated on this forum. Cruisecritic just feels like home.

[greatam]

Not a cruise flight but...We are looking at flights coming home from Reykjavik November 26 (Saturday of Thanksgiving Weekend).

KEF-BOS on Icelandair arriving at BOS 5:50pm terminal E then

BOS-ORD on AA leaves terminal B 7:30pm .

Logan's website states it is a 7-10 minute walk from E to B.

Is this even doable keeping in mind the busy air traffic and customs etc. We've never been through BOS so a bit concerned.

Thank you for your help. I appreciate all of you and your insights. Although I check Flyertalk forums daily I am less intimidated on this forum. Cruisecritic just feels like home.

 

1. Is this one ticket or two?? Even if it was purchased through one of the Big 3 agencies or online someplace and LOOKS like one ticket, it may actually be two.

 

2. You will have to clear immigration, customs and security.

 

3. Depending on how your tickets are written, there is a LARGE chance you will have to check in with AA. To the best of my knowledge, IcelandAir and AA have no relationship to each other and through checking luggage after Customs is probably not an option.

 

4. Your inbound plane will have to be on time, Immigration will have to move rapidly, security will have to be very quick and you will have to be able to recheck your luggage at the transit desk to even have a prayer of making it.

 

You are cutting it WAAAAAY too close.

[Gardyloo]

I would never, ever do a 100-min. international > domestic transfer at BOS, even if I could re-check the bags on exiting customs, which you probably won't be able to do. I have missed more than one connection there when I had lots more time than you have. You'll have to change terminals (7-10 min? LOL) and have AA give you your boarding pass, then go through security (on probably one of the busiest nights of the year)... yikes.

 

I'd shoot for a Priceline hotel near Logan, then take a morning departure on Sunday, before the real crowds hit.

 

Edited to add: Or else look at jetBlue's departure from BOS at 9:15 PM, giving you plenty of time to go through Logan Yoga.

[6rugrats]

This is FI631, correct? No way I would consider this. This flight has an average delay of 49 minutes, and only arrives on time 60% of the time. This is a very poor performance rating. The odds are, you will miss your connection. You have to go through passport control, customs, recheck your bags, get your boarding passes, go through security and get to your next gate. Go here and enter your airline and the flight number, and it will pull this record right up:

 

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByFlight.do

[sandm]

I KNEW I could count on you guys. Thanks for the input.

They are 2 separate tickets and you are correct, greatam that AA has no ties to Icelandair. So we will need to check in again including bags with AA. I also felt it was too close but my better (but not as cuisecritic savvy) half felt confident this was plenty of time.

6 rugrats it is in fact Fl631 but I see my DH was looking at Sunday NOT Saturday. See what happens when he tries to set up travel? ;)

I will propose Gardyloo's ideas of a Hotel near Logan or the jetBlue's flights.

I so appreciate all your input.

We have my in laws (from Seattle) flying direct on Icelandair SEA-KEF business.

Now I just have to work on the rest of us from Chicago.

[alidor]

Even though Icelandair is not part of American's alliance, they do have an interline agreement. Most of the major carriers have this so it doesn't matter if they are in the same alliance or not. Even though you have 2 tickets, often if you point out the 2nd ticket to the first carrier, they WILL check the bags through for you so you would not have to reclaim them in Iceland. You could have a ticket with airlines in 3 different alliances or none at all, but if they are IATA carriers, as most of them are, you can check your bags through.

 

BUT, when looking at the schedules there is NO AA flight from Boston to ORD at 7:30 pm. Don't know where you are getting your info from, but this flight doesn't exist.

[sandm]

alidor, yes thank you. As I state above my DH was actually looking at Sunday NOT Saturday. He was looking at AA 1081 BOS-ORD 7:30pm.

I think we will likely be getting a hotel for Saturday night then flying home early Sunday morning.

[alidor]

Sorry, I caught the November 26 and the flight doesn't operate that day. You'll still have to claim your bags for customs, etc. in Boston. Keep in mind about the different airlines, though, for future trips. So many people on this board seem to think that an airline has to belong to the same alliance for interline traffic and baggage handling. And that is simply not true nor has it ever been. When you are talking airlines like Southwest, etc., it may not be doable, but it certainly is with most major carriers around the world.

[Fattony]

Even though Icelandair is not part of American's alliance, they do have an interline agreement. Most of the major carriers have this so it doesn't matter if they are in the same alliance or not. Even though you have 2 tickets, often if you point out the 2nd ticket to the first carrier, they WILL check the bags through for you so you would not have to reclaim them in Iceland. You could have a ticket with airlines in 3 different alliances or none at all, but if they are IATA carriers, as most of them are, you can check your bags through.

.

 

That's my experience, as well. Southwest is one airline that doesn't have such interline agreements, except for one smaller Mexican airline, so you'd have to recheck your bags. Of course, even if Icelandair was able to check your bags all the way through to ORD (and sometimes you can get this done even with separately-purchased tickets, but you need to make a point of it with Icelandair), you also have to be able to get your AA boarding pass. Icelandair may not be able to do that. Hopefully you could get the boarding pass at the transit desk outside of Customs at BOS.

 

Your final decision seems, at least to me, a wise one, though you probably realize that for your flight to ORD you'll be under domestic flight baggage weight limits, and will have to pay baggage fees which may not be charged to international flight passengers (not sure if having separately-purchased tickets would have meant you'd have to do that, anyway), so don't buy too many souvenirs, sweaters, etc.

[sandm]

As usual, I learn something new thanks to all you friends.

And Fattony...not many souvenirs. For me it's all about the experience and memories.

[6rugrats]

Your final decision seems, at least to me, a wise one, though you probably realize that for your flight to ORD you'll be under domestic flight baggage weight limits, and will have to pay baggage fees which may not be charged to international flight passengers (not sure if having separately-purchased tickets would have meant you'd have to do that, anyway)

Yes, they will have to pay checked bag fees on this next flight. It's going to be on a separate domestic ticket.

 

OP - you may want to look into using Priceline to bid for a hotel for your overnight.

[greatam]

Sorry, I caught the November 26 and the flight doesn't operate that day. You'll still have to claim your bags for customs, etc. in Boston. Keep in mind about the different airlines, though, for future trips. So many people on this board seem to think that an airline has to belong to the same alliance for interline traffic and baggage handling. And that is simply not true nor has it ever been. When you are talking airlines like Southwest, etc., it may not be doable, but it certainly is with most major carriers around the world.

 

You missed the part about separate tickets. The AA flight is STRICTLY domestic and will incur baggage charges as well as a totally separate check in on AA.

 

Only very, very rarely (high status FF) will an airline, any airline, transfer bags from an international to a domestic flight involving two separate tickets. That is the schlepp it yourself plan.

[alidor]

We had this same discussion a long time ago. I do tickets LITERALLY almost 7 days a week, both domestic and international. Some times for fare purposes, tickets are separate and I LITERALLY mean it when I say I have never had a client have problems with having 2 separate tickets and having their luggage checked through (providing they are IATA carriers). Don't know why maybe you or your employees had problems with this, but it really is a non-issue. The first airline doesn't necessarily see the second leg, either on the computer system, or in writing, via an itinerary, but if a passenger points this out, the luggage is checked through. I guess there could be unknown security issues that may have caused you to incur this, but, again, I have never had clients have problems doing this.

[sandm]

Thanks to all your help we've decided to overnight at Logan. I am happy with a rate we found on Priceline (thanks to all of you).

No fees for bags on AA for us since I have Gold status.

Now I can enjoy our time in Reykjavik and not worry about connecting flights.

[frugaltravel]

Funny that the OP used the word "expert" in light of this thread - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1419828&highlight=expert :)

 

Only very, very rarely (high status FF) will an airline, any airline, transfer bags from an international to a domestic flight involving two separate tickets. That is the schlepp it yourself plan.

 

Not my experience at all. Had it done both involving Asia once and Europe once - once in fact with THREE separate tickets. Not a HVC on any of the airlines I used for this.

[greatam]

 

Not my experience at all. Had it done both involving Asia once and Europe once - once in fact with THREE separate tickets. Not a HVC on any of the airlines I used for this.

 

May not be your experience at all but the OP has a separately booked, strictly domestic ticket that WILL incur baggage charges on a non alliance, non partner airline. While the new rules implemented in April SHOULD allow IcelandAir to collect and REMIT AA's baggage charges, there are many behind the scenes things that MUST happen to allow it. And not all have completed the work or have the capacity to complete the work. http://www.iata.org/workgroups/Pages/abrtf.aspx

 

We have been struggling mightily with the new implementation because we often have to pay transfer charges from airline to airline on some of our cargo and merchandise for trade shows that our employees and customers normally check as extra bags. Trying to do it all by computer has become a VERY time consuming proposition. Our IT guy has been working full time just to make everything work. It was so much easier to make a phone call and give the transferring airline a credit card.

[PennyAgain]

I'm glad you decided to stay overnight. I've experience horrible waits for baggage to arrive in Boston after an international flight. Hours!

 

I have actually been so tired of waiting that I sat on the floor after running from one place to another trying to find my bag.