Please help a n00b!

October 21, 2009 9:16 AM

I will be flying to Poland on Friday from San Francisco (SFO) on United with a transfer to LOT at JFK. Do I check in at the domestic or international terminal?

Does this first leg of the flight count as domestic or international? I'm very confused.

posted by The Light Fantastic to travel & transportation (9 comments total)

Well, if your first flight is domestic, it should be leaving from the domestic terminal so that is where you would check in. You'll probably need to take the Air Train to another terminal at JFK.
posted by rocketpup at 9:20 AM on October 21

Domestic.

Look at it this way: You will be sharing the flight with other United flyers who are simply going from SFO to JFK.
They certainly wont be checking in at an International Terminal. Thus, nobody is.
posted by vacapinta at 9:21 AM on October 21

Well according to the JFK terminal plan, United fly into Terminal 7 and Lot fly out of terminal 4. So although your bags may be transferred by the airline you will have to go from one terminal to the other, so your United flight is a domestic flight.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 9:23 AM on October 21

So although your bags may be transferred by the airline you will have to go from one terminal to the other

Which brings up another question...should I check to make sure that my bags are going to be transferred to the next Airline? Is there any situation in which I might need to get my bags and re-checkin?
posted by The Light Fantastic at 9:41 AM on October 21

Domestic.
posted by nitsuj at 9:48 AM on October 21

When you are coming back, you need to go through customs at your port-of-entry (JFK) and then re-check your bags.
posted by smackfu at 9:48 AM on October 21

The agent you check in with will confirm that your bags are checked through to your final destination. Ask if they don't say anything, but in my experience, they always tell you. And they will certainly let you know if you need to manually re-check them, but that is very unlikely.
posted by Nothing at 9:49 AM on October 21

If this trip was made as a single itinerary, you should also get your boarding pass for the Lot flight at SFO, (which means no check-in at JFK, just go straight to the gate) but I would also query that with that the United desk agent when you check your bag/s.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 10:06 AM on October 21

Just came in to mention that if you booked this all as one ticket, since United and LOT are in the Star Alliance, you should have a pretty straightforward journey and that your bags should be able to be checked through to Warsaw - ask if they don't do this automatically.

You depart from SFO's Terminal F, you'll arrive at JFK in Terminal 7, and you'll need to go to Terminal 4/the International Terminal to get your LOT flight. You should get your boarding passes for the whole journey in San Francisco, but if not, you'll be able to get them for sure at the check-in desk in Terminal 4.

On the way back, you'll need to reclaim your bags at JFK, go through customs/immigration, and then re-check them in at the United check-in desk.

(And see you at the Warsaw meetup this weekend, maybe!)
posted by mdonley at 12:45 PM on October 21