Dumb flight booking question

I know I can't mention the site here, but if I am considering booking a roundtrip flight through a travel site instead of the airline itself because I can get a good deal with a rental car included and it's going to save me a lot of money. But, when it comes down to the day I need to check into my flight, I still go to the actual American Airlines site to check in correct? Sorry that seems really dumb and elementary but I have never purchased airline tickets through a 3rd party website so I just really didn't know!

Assuming the initial flight is on an AA plane, the answer is yes. You should be able to obtain the AA record locator, then use that to find your res on the AA website. You can check in online or at the AA airport counter. You will also pay any applicable bag fees to AA.

Thank you! I knew I was overthinking things, but since I hadn't ever booked outside of the airline's website itself I really didn't know what to expect!

Know that you may very well be getting a conso ticket as part of your package. The "third party" needs to make their profit margin somewhere, and the two choices are the air ticket or the car rental.

Before you plunk down for that car rental, I would suggest that you first do a matrix search on Orbitz (which is a good baseline reference), then check into both Hotwire and Priceline; and for PL, both the name your price and other sides of the house.

I can almost always do better with those two than buying the rental direct from the rental car company (or agent).

Yeah check in is always by the airline issuing the ticket not who you bought it through or who operates it

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Yeah check in is always by the airline issuing the ticket not who you bought it through or who operates it

 

 

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This isn't true in the slightest. Check in is with the carrier operating the first flight.

Yeah check in is always by the airline issuing the ticket not who you bought it through or who operates it.

Totally incorrect. You check in with the operating carrier.

Yeah check in is always by the airline issuing the ticket not who you bought it through or who operates it

 

 

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I don't know where you got this info, but it is totally wrong. You check in with the operating airline.

FYI, you can mention airfare booking sites, it's only cruise agencies that can't be mentioned (and you can refer to a site like Travelocity when talking about booking airfare and hotels, just not cruises).

FYI, you can mention airfare booking sites, it's only cruise agencies that can't be mentioned (and you can refer to a site like Travelocity when talking about booking airfare and hotels, just not cruises).

Thanks, I just didn't want to break any rules. I was booking for my parents anyways and since they tend to be mind changers I decided to go ahead and book with american airlines. The price was the same, I just paid more for a rental car paying through enterprise themselves. I think it was the best choice though, because if they would happen to need to change dates, travelocity isn't going to accommodate that. It ended up working out for them. I got them one heck of a deal on airfare! They're not going on a cruise though. My mom loves cruising but my dad can not be convinced to go on one :rolleyes:

Yeah check in is always by the airline issuing the ticket not who you bought it through or who operates it

That would certainly be an interesting feat to accomplish when the airline who sold the ticket doesn't even have a check in counter at the airport from which one departs. ;)

Ex. I can go to the AF website and buy a ticket to fly from my home airport of CHS to Paris (via ATL.) Would buy from AF, and have AF flight #'s, but Delta would be the operating carrier. I'd be searching til the end of time to find the AF check in counter because there isn't one at CHS.