So my new wife and I are off for our honeymoon, but just realized a potential problem. We are flying to Puerto Rico using two different airlines and only have 70 minutes to switch flights. If we check luggage it won’t go straight through and we have to pick it up and recheck it with the other carrier (Southwest to Jet Blue).
We called the airlines and they said we can’t book things straight through. Any suggestions? Do we need to stick to carry-on bags? Should we risk the short time and check a bag, claim it, and recheck it?
We’re there almost two weeks, so it will be nice to have a bigger bag for everything. Your thoughts are appreciated.
70 minutes is cutting it awfully close. It depends on the airport and how big it is, I guess. I’d say check one bag only, if you absolutely have to check a bag.
Additionally, there are baggage services that can forward your stuff straight to your final destination, like luggageforward.com. You’d have to pay extra for that, of course, but their prices seem reasonable.
ETA: the typo in the title is funny - I kept typing “back” instead of “bag” in my post as well. Weird.
I’ll throw in another, off-topic, consideration. It may not apply to your case, but I’d check.
If your first flight has a problem and you miss your connection and you are on the same airline for both segments, it’s up to the airline to get you to your destination. If you are on a different airline for the next segment, they might say “too badsky, it’s your problem.”
I don’t know if Jet Blue and Southwest have any sort of inter-line agreements about this situation, but I’d hate for you to get stranded on your honeymoon.
In cases when there’s a decent chance checked bags may not arrive with you, a good plan is to have enough in your carry-on bags to take you comfortably through at least 24 hours (many late bags arrive the next day).
I don’t know about Jet Blue, but Southwest does not have any interline agreements. This means that they will not transfer your bags to another carrier or accept them from another carrier. If you check a bag, you must claim it at baggage claim, check with the next airline, get boarding passes if you don’t already have them, then clear security. Depending on the airport you are connecting in, this will be very very close.
Try one of the services mentioned above, or ship your luggage by Fedex or the like.
I would change the tickets so there is a longer layover, or just take carryon. IIRC Southwest doesn’t charge a fee to reschedule, you just have to pay the difference for the price of the new ticket.
But personally I would just do carryon. If it’s just a beach vacation you won’t need much stuff, and if it’s a better hotel then they’ll have some sort of laundry service (if not they should know a place were you can drop it off).
Just a nit pick. Puerto Rico is in the Caribbean…not South America.
Now back to the OP. I personally could pack for two weeks using just carry-on. In fact I do this frequently for business trips to Asia. However there is no way in hell my wife could pack for 2 weeks, especially a honeymoon, in just a carry-on bag. She would be hard pressed to get only 1 weeks worth of stuff in a carry-on bag.
What airport is your flight change occurring? This will help us determine if 70 minutes is sufficient time to go and collect a bag in baggage claim and then re-check it on Jet Blue. I somehow doubt it. Reschedule your SW flight and get in earlier.
Thanks for fixing the title; I must have been half asleep.
We’re changing in Fort Lauderdale. We’ve got a few things such as snorkeling gear that would be hard to take without checking. We’ll be in Vieques for over half of the time on a Sierra Club group trip.
Thanks for advice we’ll look at some of those options.
At Fort Lauderdale, Southwest arrives in Terminal 1 and Jet Blue departs out of Terminal 3. I don’t recall being able to move between terminals at Fort Lauderdale without having to go outside of security. So it may not be much extra time to grab your bag at baggage claim in Terminal 1 and then make your way to Terminal 3 to check in and then go back through security. 70 minutes will be tight though.
I’ve never flown into Fort Lauderdale, but in the other airports I’ve used, it can take thirty minutes or more to get my checked baggage at baggage claim. And it takes a few minutes to get through the security checkpoint. So I think you’re cutting it way too close with just 70 minutes between the two flights. I agree with the suggestion to arrange for a longer layover.
