Should I check-in online both at the same time?

I am on a trip with two tickets ... One to LAX, then a separate itinerary to Europe from there.

My question is, should I wait to do the check-in for itinerary #2 until I get to the airport, or should I do the online-check-in for both at 24 hours out?

I will have checked bags for both, but they are not the same alliance (AA and LH), so I will need to visit the counter at LAX anyway. I just don't know if completing check-in ahead of time helps me or hurts me.

I am on a trip with two tickets ... One to LAX, then a separate itinerary to Europe from there.

 

My question is, should I wait to do the check-in for itinerary #2 until I get to the airport, or should I do the online-check-in for both at 24 hours out?

 

I will have checked bags for both, but they are not the same alliance (AA and LH), so I will need to visit the counter at LAX anyway. I just don't know if completing check-in ahead of time helps me or hurts me.

I don't think it would hurt you. The biggest issue you have is if you miss LAX-Europe because your flight To LAX is delayed. That flight to Europe will leave with or without you, and I do hope you have quite a long layover.

Alliances have NOTHING to do with checking in bags! Most of the airlines work together despite what alliance they belong to!

The first airline may check in the bags to your final destination. Show them your ticket for the second flight and they may check the bags all the way through.

I don't think it would hurt you. The biggest issue you have is if you miss LAX-Europe because your flight To LAX is delayed. That flight to Europe will leave with or without you, and I do hope you have quite a long layover.

3 hours. Since the flight leaves either way I may as well check in.

Alliances have NOTHING to do with checking in bags! Most of the airlines work together despite what alliance they belong to!

 

The first airline may check in the bags to your final destination. Show them your ticket for the second flight and they may check the bags all the way through.

Thanks. I'm almost too superstitious to ask, but if there are delays on the way to LAX, how might it affect my bag routing differently than if I claim and re-check myself? I'm not sure if I can trust AA, and I need to change terminals either way, but do bags already checked have different MCT?

Two separate tickets = two separate flights...I may be wrong but I didn't think carriers would check-thru bags...even if they (happened to be) were on the same carrier.

I would absolutely do the check-in for both at the 24 hour mark....one flight has nothing to do with the other...since these aren't connecting booked flights.

Two separate tickets = two separate flights...I may be wrong but I didn't think carriers would check-thru bags...even if they (happened to be) were on the same carrier.

 

Not necessarily true. Many carriers WILL thru-check bags on a subsequent ticket, and some will do this even if the second ticket is on another airline. Always ask at check-in to be sure.

That said, IMO it exposes you to the potential of "not our fault" responses from both airlines in question if something happens. i.e. you arrive and your bag doesn't...airline #1 says "hey, we were only responsible for getting it from A to B, your other airline had to get it to final destination, talk to them." Meanwhile Airline B says "hey, you didn't check in with us, we have no idea what airline #1 did with your bag."