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I am flying from Houston to Abu Dhabi in Economy. Flight is sold by Etihad but has an American Airlines leg from Houston to Chicago. Baggage Allowance is just 1 bag. Etihad website has an option to pay for extra baggage but would not let me since the first leg is operated by American Airlines.

I was wondering if I can check-in an extra bag with American Airlines at the airport after paying the surcharge. I hope I don't get denied checking in the extra bag at the airport.

Does anyone know?

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    Have you tried managing your booking on the AA website? If it doesn’t work with your PNR, there may be another one to request from Etihad (or if you are lucky it’s shown somewhere in your booking on the Etihzd site or in the confirmation e-mail).
    – jcaron
    Commented Apr 25 at 14:01
  • Related facts in this question.
    – DavidRecallsMonica
    Commented Apr 25 at 20:01
  • @DavidRecallsMonica Thanks, My question was if AA would let me check-in an extra bag in addition to the free first bag. I know for the flights that have an AA starting leg AA baggage policies apply.
    – erase.ego
    Commented Apr 25 at 20:48
  • @erase.ego If you know you need to check in an extra bag, you need to start contacting the companies involved and pre-emptively pay for this. This is much cheaper than doing it at the counter and is a reserved spot, guaranteeing you the extra luggage. You can always try it at check-in, but that's risky and much more expensive.
    – Nelson
    Commented Apr 26 at 2:21
  • @Nelson For AA, the difference between prepaying and not showing up is just a few bucks. And have you ever had an airline refuse to check a bag because you didn't have a "reserved spot"? I have never had this happen on a full-size passenger airplane.
    – Sneftel
    Commented Apr 26 at 7:50

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Yes, you'll be able to check the extra bag.

Ordinarily there should be no fee for this, as long as it's actually a connecting flight (i.e. with only a few hours between one flight landing and the next flight taking off). Under IATA policies, the baggage terms of the "Most Significant Carrier" (in this case Etihad, since they're flying you to a completely different continent) should apply to all segments. However, this is something that airlines sometimes "forget" about, demanding that you pay extra. (In my experience, American Airlines does handle this properly.)

When you check in, just indicate the total number of checked bags at the kiosk. If there is an additional fee, you can pay it on the spot. There's no need to arrange this ahead of time.

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  • Thank you. I checked my email and went through the "fine print" and noticed that they explicitly mention that the first leg is sold and marketed by American Airlines and the remainder by Etihad. What this means is that I might have to pay while checking in at the airport.
    – erase.ego
    Commented Apr 26 at 18:21
  • That doesn’t impact the rules. If they’re on the same itinerary then Etihad’s policies control.
    – Sneftel
    Commented Apr 26 at 19:20

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