<p>I have a bit of a quandary and I am having a hard time deciding what to do, so I am turning to the experts here.</p>
<p>My son is returning from Taiwan next week. He flew out of Chicago (ORD-NRT-KHH) but on the way back we added a leg from ORD-MSP because our family was planning to be up in the Twin Cities the day he returned. Now our plans might be changing, and we potentially want to have him get off the plane in Chicago and meet him there.</p>
<p>I called American and they were completely unhelpful. They said that my son has a “contract” with American to take all the flights. They said they could formally change the ticket for an extra $462 --which is hilarious because we paid more to add the extra leg in the first place. All we want to do is have him get off the plane at O’Hare, get his bags, go through customs and leave. It isn’t costing American anything to not have him on the third leg of the trip.</p>
<p>So, my question is–how should we approach this? Should he say anything when he checks in for his flight in Kaohsiung (my guess is NO), or potentially have his bag tagged to end the trip at ORD? Will he DEFINITELY have possession of his bags before he goes through customs, and thus be able to leave the airport from there? (Will armed guards come after him??) Alternately, what if he ends his trip in Chicago but his bags go through to MSP–can we have someone else pick them up?</p>
<p>This is all so confusing and annoying. @Pizzagirl, somehow I think you might have the answer. But I would love any advice anyone can give me!</p>
<p>He can say nothing in Kaoshiung and have his bags tagged to the “final” destination MSP, as normal. When he lands in ORD, he has to claim his bag and go thru Customs. His bags will NOT continue on to MSP unless he personally rechecks them with American after going thru Customs. He just walks out of the airport with his bags. No one will stop him.</p>
<p>I’ve done this before after arguing w Northwest Airlines about changing a ticket from Amsterdam. They wouldn’t change the last leg of the ticket, so when I landed in the US, I waved “tot ziens!” and walked out w my bags and checked in with a different airline. </p>
<p>Everyone on his plane will go through customs in Chicago and will have to collect their luggage. Those going on will recheck bags and for those where Chicago is a final destination they will depart the airport. I don’t know exactly how ORD is set up, but in MSP you can just take your bags and walk out of the airport. 9 times out of 10 there is no one watching the baggage carrousels at MSP. If I am interested to learn the answer to your question. I am sure it would annoy the airline and mess up their paperwork. I would ask to talk to a supervisor (anonymously) Your son would for sure get in trouble if his luggage was on the plane and he was not, but that is not your plan. If he plans to get off before his final destination, I would probably not say anything to airport personnel in Tawain. </p>
<p>Thank you, Kajon. When I tried to talk to a supervisor (after the first agent hung up on me on purpose) she sort of intimated that they can’t tell passengers to do something that is against the contract, but that they couldn’t actually stop us. My experience with AA was so bad that I don’t trust anything they say, though–it’s nice to hear from real people here. :)</p>
<p>Passenger-Bag matching is only done for int’l segments, not domestic segments. </p>
<p>Trust me, his checked bag isn’t getting on the nxt ORD-MSP flight unless he personally rechecks it. No one will stop him from leaving w his bag & no one will ask questions. </p>
<p>Here is what this link says about luggage at O’Hare;</p>
<p>“1. International Arrivals: Unless you have gone through US customs clearance by participating airports, you need to go through passport check, retrieve checked bags, go through customs clearance and - if transferring to another flight - re-check-in bag; then proceed up one level to the Airport Transit System (ATS) station and take the ATS train, which runs every few minutes, to your connecting terminal, where you need to go through security check before proceeding to your connecting gate.”</p>
<p>So he will have access to his luggage. The only issue I see if for some reason his luggage does not make it onto the plane with him, then it will be a pain in the rear to deal with the airline. However, the likelihood of this happening is really tiny. </p>
<p>busdriver, you should SEE the size of his suitcase. He has been in Taiwan for two months and had to take a lot of clothes, bedding, towels, etc.</p>
<p>BunsenBurner, good thought. But not the end of the world if the luggage goes on without him, as long as his dad could pick it up at MSP. We would just have to wait a few days for our souvenirs.</p>
<p>Make sure son doesn’t checkin late in taiwan. If his bag doesn’t make it on the plane to ORD w him, then it’ll be put on a subsequent flight to ORD then MSP without him, after they’ve verified he actually boarded the int’l flight to ORD.</p>
<p>Is ORD-MSP on the same ticket as KHH-NRT-ORD? If so, then getting off at ORD would be called using the “hidden city”, which many airlines do not like.</p>
<p>If separate tickets, then no problem, other than losing the ORD-MSP ticket or change/cancellation penalty.</p>
<p>I believe GMT is right. ORD is his first port of entry into the US. Everyone at first port must clear customs, get bags at carrousel, and recheck bags to final destination. </p>
<p>He just has to go through customs, get his bags, and walk out of the airport. As he leaves terminal 5 (international terminal), he will see the sign for people rechecking bags on UA and AA and the airport exit. Just walk outside the airport and you’re done. </p>
<p>Airlines don’t “like” this, but unless you do this frequently they aren’t going to go after you. </p>
<p>I did something similar earlier this year because it was cheaper to route a flight from GRU (Sao Paolo) as GRU-ORD-CLT than just GRU-ORD. I had no intention of going to Charlotte, but I acted as though I did and just walked off at ORD.</p>
<p>Just don’t tell the airline. They can’t “approve” of you doing this but they can’t stop you. </p>
<p>Since ORD is first port of entry, I think the chances that it will go to MSP are minuscule. Everyone’s required to pick up bags at first port, so it would be a mistake on airline’s part to forward it through. </p>
<p>Ucb, Sally wants advice from people who do this, not warnings about what airlines don’t like. We all know the airlines don’t like it. Sally wants to know if she can do it. </p>
<p>Sally’s fear is that he would be stopped. Extremely minuscule. I come into the international terminal at ORD all the time. For me it’s obviously irrelevant since it’s my home base, but once through customs, you just walk straight out. No one is checking to make sure your tags match or that you’re going into the recheck line for your airline. </p>
<p>Just don’t let on in your checkin process, and be sure to get there in plenty of time - no sense asking for trouble.</p>
<p>Sally - I did this as well last year when I came back from Dubai through Dulles and then onto ORD. My plans changed and I needed to stay in the DC area for a few days. So my business partner and I just collected our bags and walked right out. We took a separate flight to ORD (sep ticket) a few days later. </p>
<p>Assuming that ORD-MSP is not a separate ticket…</p>
<p>There is another risk of trying to use the “hidden city” (ORD). If the NRT-ORD segment is cancelled or delayed, or if he is bumped from it due to overbooking, the airline may rebook him to MSP using different intermediate stops – e.g. KHH-NRT-DFW-MSP instead of KHH-NRT-ORD-MSP.</p>
<p>ucb, ORD-MSP is part of the whole trip. We booked it all at once. You are right about the “hidden city” thing but as far as I know they don’t like that when people use it to then book an add-on trip at a lower cost. We would not be doing that (not that they’d know, anyway).</p>
<p>You are also right that he could get rerouted from Tokyo to MSP. In that case, there would be some disappointed people waiting for him at O’Hare and some frazzled but happy people waiting to meet him in the Twin Cities. But we would figure it out. I’m glad you mentioned it, though.</p>
<p>Pizzagirl, you are reminding me that I need to see what terminal he is flying into. His departing flight to Tokyo didn’t leave from Terminal 5.</p>
<p>Actually, re the rerouting: now that I think about it, it would work either way for us to pick him up, no matter which city he lands in. The flight from Narita to anywhere in the U.S. is long enough to give us more than enough time to get wherever he is going to end up.</p>
<p>Those are big planes, though. They do everything in their power to keep those planes routed – they need to move then in and out of position. I think that’s a pretty remote chance. ORD is a turnaround hub. They want to get a plane full of passengers to ORD to fan out elsewhere over the country so they can turn that flight back around to NRT. They care more about getting the bulk of the pax to ORD, not DFW. </p>
<p>Of course anything is possible but that’s relatively remote. In any case, if he got to MSP, he can easily take a one way to ORD, AA runs a few. </p>
<p>Sally - at ORD, flights TO international destinations may leave from domestic terminals (my UA flights leave out of T1 right next to domestic flights) but all flights FROM international destinations should be at T5 since that’s where customs / immigration are. So it’s possible he flew out of a different terminal, but he should come into T5 at ORD. </p>
--which is hilarious because we paid more to add the extra leg in the first place. All we want to do is have him get off the plane at O’Hare, get his bags, go through customs and leave. It isn’t costing American anything to not have him on the third leg of the trip.</p>