I'm flying from NRT to CWL via TPE and AMS. I have two tickets, one NRT-TPE with China Airlines in the morning and one TPE-AMS-CWL with KLM in the evening, as I needed to expense them separately to different organisations (I'm spending a week in Taiwan and a week in Japan).
Since China Airlines and KLM are both Skyteam, will I be able to check my baggage from NRT to CWL?
In this instance, it was possible. The checkin staff at NRT took some time to try and make it work; their systems didn't want to let them put in the details for the final leg, and they said I would need to visit a transfer desk at AMS to provide the details to KLM. However, the staff at AMS said all the details were already there, so I don't know who was mistaken. Either way, the luggage made it all the way from NRT to CWL, arriving at the same time I did, with no intervention from me.
Usually it works fine.
It is a long travel, so you may not be able to check in at the initial airport. You need to keep your baggage receipt ready when you check in again in the second airport (transfer check-in or sometime only on normal check-in counter).
Probably they require them to put also on the company computers (it was so in my experience, in the past, in other airports).
Note: if you are a passenger in transfer, you cost less to the airlines (fewer taxes and fees), so usually they try hard (also with different alliances) to get you as a transfer passenger.
