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I tried looking for this scenario here, but I haven’t found anything the answers the entirety of the question yet. Sorry if it is a duplicate and I couldn’t find it!

We’re traveling from Asia to the US back on a return flight. That ticket has already been booked, but plans for one person have changed and they are planning on going elsewhere in Asia. So one person will be taking the return flight and the other won’t. However, it’s easier for the person staying in Asia to find an onward flight from the connecting airport in the multi leg flight, so they want to abandon the flight halfway through.

To be precise, the situation is:

  1. DPS - SIN
  2. SIN - LAX

That is for the person that is going to the US. The other person wants to do:

  1. DPS - SIN
  2. SIN - ICN

If they were alone, this would be fine, with some asterisks for baggage problems. However, since the two people are traveling together, what happens to the baggage of the two people for the second leg of the journey? Does one set of luggage get removed? If only the person that continues to the US checks luggage, I assume nothing happens, right?

I also assume that the person that is skipping the final leg won’t be able to check any luggage at all?

I saw this answer in the past:

PPBM: What happens if you check in luggage and then miss the flight? And it covers some of this question, but not all of it. If I’m trying to prepare for this situation, it sounds like I should check baggage under the person who is heading to the US, and no baggage under the person skipping out? What it seems to suggest is that the person heading to the US may get removed from the plane? Is that accurate?

Would love any insight into this! Sorry if there’s anything not clear in this description.

Thanks!

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  • Side note: Make sure there's plenty of time in SIN between the arrival from DPS and the departure to ICN. That arrival from DPS could be delayed, causing that pax to miss his flight and make things even more difficult.
    – FreeMan
    Sep 9, 2022 at 11:21

2 Answers 2

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Your safest way the handle this is to split the reservation. Airlines can do this easily and in most cases it's not a big deal. Just call them and ask to split it. After the split you have two independent reservations and individual PNRs. The ticket numbers stay the same, so the tickets themselves remain unchanged.

I also assume that the person that is skipping the final leg won’t be able to check any luggage at all?

Correct. There is no way for them to retrieve the luggage in SIN.

Does one set of luggage get removed?

That's a moot point. See previous question. There is only one set of luggage

If only the person that continues to the US checks luggage, I assume nothing happens, right?

I highly doubt it and I wouldn't risk it. Doing nothing feels like a significant security hole: it's not unrealistic to assume that person B (not on the flight) uses person A (on the flight but not very smart) as a mule to carry nefarious stuff for them. At they very least I would expect them to pull you out for some serious questioning.

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  • 3
    Thanks - didn’t realize that splitting is a possible option, appreciate the help!
    – Mike S.
    Sep 8, 2022 at 12:08
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    +1, the option of splitting didn't occur to me -- even though I last did it in April! I still wouldn't recommend purposely missing the connection, it's an asshole move that would likely delay everybody else while they offboard your bags.
    – lambshaanxy
    Sep 8, 2022 at 12:35
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    And after you split, you change person B's ticket to go where they want to.
    – Jon Custer
    Sep 8, 2022 at 16:10
  • @lambshaanxy: As long as you don't check luggage no one will get delayed. Most airlines don't blink an eye leaving you behind if you are 2 minutes late to the gate. And I clearly state that person B cannot check luggage, there is no way get to it in SIN.
    – Hilmar
    Sep 8, 2022 at 16:32
  • @JonCuster: In most cases this would be way more expensive than just buying a new ticket. Airlines love to squeeze passengers on flight changes.
    – Hilmar
    Sep 8, 2022 at 16:32
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Depends on who the baggage is tagged to.

Typically, if you're traveling in a group, all the bags are linked to one person, and usually this is shown by attaching the baggage tags to that person's boarding pass.

In your case, assuming your flights are on one ticket, your bags will be tagged all the way through to LAX. If they're linked to the person who no-shows for the connecting flight, they will all be offloaded. If they're linked to the person who continues, they will all be sent to LAX. Both options sound pretty poor for you. Better options are:

  • Ask them to "short check" one bag only to SIN. This is likely to be denied.
  • Have the person going to ICN take everything they need in carry-on baggage, and check in nothing at all. The person going to LAX can check in bags and continue normally.

All that said, are you sure there's a financial advantage to flying to SIN in the first place? There are direct flights from DPS to ICN, or you could get cheap connecting tickets via eg. KUL or BKK on Air Asia.

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    Thanks for your response - sounds like if the baggage is done well, it is possible to get them all the way through to the US, but very limited options to have the person heading to ICN maintain their bags. Appreciate the thoughts here! DPS - ICN is generally very crazy price wise these days with the post Covid price situation, hence why we’re looking at options. Appreciate it!
    – Mike S.
    Sep 8, 2022 at 11:45
  • In many cases check-in agents have explicitly asked which bag is to be associated to which passenger. But that’s probably indeed not necessarily always true. You’re more likely to have the bags short-checked if the new connecting flight is on the same airline, but you won’t know until check-in, so it’s difficult to make plans on that assumption.
    – jcaron
    Sep 8, 2022 at 14:55

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