Booking Myself Can Flights Be "Linked"

I have found that I can do better on airfare cost by booking my own flights rather than what the cruise line or my travel agent are offering. The flights that I have found are Jetblue from Tampa to Newark then Norwegian Air to Barcelona. The layover time is 2:45 so fairly close for making the connection. My question is, can I somehow link the 2 flights so my luggage goes directly to my next plane rather than my having to pick it up from Jetblue and carry it to baggage check at Norwegian? This is in hopes to save some time and be able to make the connection. The earlier available Jetblue flight would leave me with an over 11 hour layover.

Thanks

Eric

Some airlines have "interline" baggage agreements where they will transfer bags. Discount carriers like Norwegian, Southwest and some others do not have these, so if you're going to buy separate tickets for the flights, you'll have to claim your bags, go back through security and check them all over again. And if your incoming flight is delayed and you miss the Norwegian flight, you'll have to buy a new ticket, as neither jetBlue nor Norwegian will have any responsibility for your connection.

My suggestion is to use an online travel agency like Expedia if not the airlines themselves. Expedia will sell tickets with multiple airlines that will meet connection and interline baggage rules. You might pay a little more but you'd be "protected" for the connection.

Otherwise, while 2h 45m might seem like enough time, the stakes are pretty high. I'd probably look at a considerably longer connection, or, preferably, just book with one airline and call it good.

No, you can't link two separate bookings. I wouldn't feel comfortable with your plan. Just not enough time between flights.

You have no protection with separate tickets if you miss your Norwegian flight. You fail to arrive on time, you'll lose your ticket value and have to purchase a ticket at walkup prices.

If you must do this, suggest you take your JetBlue flight the day before.

More on interlining. It's been reported that some airlines within the same alliance won't even transfer bags on separate tickets, and sometimes not even on the same airline on different tickets.

Jetblue has a flight earlier in the day but it leaves me with 11 hours to kill in Newark. I suppose a quick trip into the City might be fun. Or, there are a couple of other airlines with flights that give about a 4 hour layover which is also a consideration if I am willing to give up on Jetblue's superior service. Either way I won't have to have a nail biter of a connection. Thanks all for your valuable input.

what about flying from FLL or MCO to BCN on Norwegian ?

Maybe you could get a better connecting time

just a thought

LHT28, that was a good suggestion. I checked and Norwegian does fly from MCO to BCN with one stop. Not a bad amount of layover time either but for some reason the total flight cost compared to my combination is over $800 more expensive. I don't know why

I saw some lower fares but it depends on when your flight is

just looked at random dates in Nov/Dec

oh well it was a thought

Don’t forget, that with some International flights, the check in counter can close 60 or 90 minutes before the actual time of departure. Your price is low because you have no guarantees of making your connection with your luggage.

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More on interlining. It's been reported that some airlines within the same alliance won't even transfer bags on separate tickets, and sometimes not even on the same airline on different tickets.

To add a bit more information....

Here is the list of airlines jetblue will interline with:

- https://www.jetblue.com/airline-partners/

Norwegian is not on the list.

Interlining is usually used to transfer bags sold on the same ticket. I think most of the airlines can tag and transfer bags with another airline if they have an interline agreement in place even when on different tickets. This process is ancient and goes back to before the existence of alliances.

The key difference is between "can" and "will". Despite the fact they have the mechanism in place to do it, over the last few years they have generally become unwilling to do it if sold on different tickets. Some may still play nice if it their own tickets or a alliance partner or you have a friendly gate agent that knows how to do it. However it is more likely they will say no.

In the old days, as an example if you were connecting in Hong Kong coming in on a Cathy flight departing on a separate Air Canada ticket. When you checked in you could show the Cathy agent both tickets, they would create a baggage tag to the final destination. When you arrived in Hong Kong at the Air Canada transfer desk when picking up your boarding pass, you would show the baggage stub and they would enter it into their system. Today your more likely to have the agents at both locations say they are not suppose to do it.

Your price is low because you have no guarantees of making your connection with your luggage.

No, this is not why the price is low. The price for OP is low because he wants to book the transatlantic flight on Norwegian, which is a low cost carrier (LLC).

Exactly. :cool: