Can checked bag be picked up from internat'l flight by non-owner?

August 16, 2023 9:17 AM

My daughter is flying home next week from Porto -> Madrid -> Boston -> NYC. We live in Boston, but she booked it this way because she wanted to leave from NYC to fly with her travel companion, and round trip was cheaper this way. She didn't know about the new crackdowns on "skiplagging." But coming home, she would like to get off the plane in Boston, along with her checked bag. I told her to ask very nicely when she checks in at the airport in Porto if she and her bag can be ticketed only as far as Boston, and that if they say no she can even offer to pay a surcharge (which will likely be cheaper than a Lyft from JFK to Penn Station and then an Amtrak back up to Boston). (She called Air Iberia and asked, but they said they can't guarantee it.) If they still say no, I told that her she and her bag have to fly to NYC. She is wondering if we can ask my son (who lives in NYC) to pick up her bag for her at JFK to save her all that extra travel time. I think not because of customs. Any ideas?
posted by wisekaren to Travel & Transportation (13 answers total)

Off the top of my head, I can't think how your son would get into the secure arrivals area to pick up the bag.
posted by june_dodecahedron at 9:21 AM on August 16, 2023

Best answer: You daughter‘s point of entry into the US is Boston. Even if she and her bag are checked in to travel to New York as final destination. She will have to pick up her bag in Boston, clear customs and re-check it for New York…..or leave the airport with her bag after clearing customs.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:26 AM on August 16, 2023 [22 favorites]

Best answer: In general, when flying to the US, you collect your bags and clear customs in the first US city you arrive in even if you're connecting to another US airport (scroll down to "The American Exception"), which means that as long as her bag actually gets on her flight, she should be fine. If her bag ends up on a later flight than she does for whatever reason (not impossible especially if there's a holdup on the earlier Porto-Madrid leg), her bag will likely go on to NYC.

So it's very likely to work out OK but Iberia will never guarantee this because 1) it might not be - her bag could end up checked through to NYC if e.g. it gets misplaced at some point; 2) they don't want to make skipping legs any easier; 3) Iberia customer service is where helpfulness goes to die.

Is there any way she can get down to a carry-on size bag, even if it means discarding some things/shipping some things home? That's probably what I would do.

As for having her brother pick up the bags in New York, if he can get into the baggage claim while things are coming off the carousel it would probably be fine (although not technically allowed) but he will probably not be permitted to pick up the bag if it's e.g. the next day at a luggage pickup desk and they're asking for ID and a boarding pass. Bag claim is outside of security for domestic US flights so that's not an issue.

I assume your daughter's travel companion isn't traveling back to NYC? Otherwise they would be the obvious option in case she can't get hold of the bag in Boston - hand off boarding pass to friend, friend picks up bag in NYC with their own bag, at some future point daughter is reunited with bag, possibly through intervention of brother.
posted by mskyle at 9:35 AM on August 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: ^Correct: Her travel companion is staying on in Madrid. Otherwise she would check my daughter's bag as if it were her own.
posted by wisekaren at 9:38 AM on August 16, 2023

Response by poster: So if everyone goes through customs in Boston, there's a chance that not everyone's checked bags will be there with them at that time?
posted by wisekaren at 9:45 AM on August 16, 2023

Yes, I just entered the US in Chicago from a multileg trip and my bag was stuck at my layover location in Europe for another two days. They delivered it to my final destination (which happened to be Chicago, but if I had an itinerary through to Minneapolis, they would not have been able to deliver in Chicago - this was a very automated process). That is indeed a risk, especially with the layover in Madrid.
posted by quadrilaterals at 9:56 AM on August 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

I think the other thing to keep in mind here is that even if it were not an international flight: If she doesn't board the second leg, neither will her bag. Or rather, her bag will board and then they will delay everyone pulling her bag off the plane*. I've been on planes where someone doesn't show up and they pull the bag. I have no idea if they then GIVE her the bag in any convenient way, but i think this is yet another obstacle to the "brother picks up bag in NYC" plan.

* OK, I just Googled this and it looks like how strictly this is enforced varies and it also depends on [the airline's best guess for?] the reason you did not board the flight. But still, consider this possibility in making your plans.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:00 AM on August 16, 2023 [3 favorites]

The risk of skiplagging is on the outward leg of a round trip and having your return trip canceled by the airline. Since it doesn't sound like that's the case here, skiplagging should be relatively safe from an airline point of view. I haven't heard of airlines banning people for life for skiplagging or anything like that.

If her checked bag makes it to Boston successfully she will be required to collect it and clear customs and immigration, then board her flight for NYC. There would be nothing stopping her from leaving the airport at that point.

So, if she has her checked bag in Boston, she can not board the final leg to NYC with no real downsides. If she does not have it, then yes, her brother would theoretically be able to grab it at JFK, as baggage claim at JFK is not in a secure area, but there's always a risk that an overly alert/peppy security guard or TSA employee would question him doing this.
posted by rhymedirective at 10:07 AM on August 16, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: My guess is (from experience), it will be fine. I've done exactly what you are describing on flights from Europe to the US. But even if it is not, why would you go through the whole hassle of Uber to Penn and then Amtrak? She will already be at the airport. Catching a flight back to Boston on American or JetBlue would be cheaper.

(Also the A train runs direct from JFK to Penn Station)
posted by virve at 10:14 AM on August 16, 2023 [4 favorites]

I haven't heard of airlines banning people for life for skiplagging or anything like that.

It does happen. Example

I would guess that many people do it and get away with it, but the risk is not zero. Iberia is part of the Oneworld alliance and that means that last leg is probably on American.
posted by soelo at 10:32 AM on August 16, 2023

Response by poster: Catching a flight back to Boston on American or JetBlue would be cheaper.

DUH - flying never even occurred to me! (I used to be an experienced traveler, I swear...)
posted by wisekaren at 10:45 AM on August 16, 2023

It does happen. Example

To be fair, this example is an outlier. The kid and his family had been skiplagging "almost exclusively for five to eight years". I think the airline finally got sick of it. I think a one-off is unlikely to produce a similar outcome.
posted by alby at 10:21 PM on August 16, 2023

Response by poster: Just to follow up: Our daughter got home last night. She did not do anything specific when she checked in at the airport in Porto. She and her bag went through customs here in Boston, and then she just left the airport instead of getting on the next flight to JFK, just as many of you said she could! Thanks.
posted by wisekaren at 12:43 PM on August 25, 2023