The Problem with Booking Emirates & British Airways on the Same Ticket

Matt Graham
Emirates A380 and British Airways A320 at Zurich Airport
Emirates and British Airways do not share an interline agreement. Photo: Adobe Stock.

When you search for Classic Flight Rewards using Qantas points, the Qantas website will often show you connecting itineraries that combine flights with multiple partner airlines.

In most cases, when you book connecting flights on a single ticket, your baggage will be checked all the way through to the final destination. But this is not the case if you combine a British Airways flight with an Emirates flight!

Emirates and British Airways don’t have an interline agreement

As Qantas is a partner of both Emirates and British Airways, you can use Qantas points to book flights with both airlines on the same ticket.

Qantas website screenshot showing DXB-GVA-LHR reward availability
The Qantas website lets you book Emirates and British Airways flights on the same ticket.

However, what isn’t immediately obvious at the time of booking is that Emirates and British Airways don’t actually have any sort of partnership with each other.

British Airways is not one of the 163 airlines that Emirates has interline agreements with. And Emirates isn’t one of British Airways’ 155 interline partners.

What this means for Qantas ticket holders

The biggest implication of this is that Emirates and British Airways won’t check baggage through to each others’ flights. When you check in for the first flight, you also won’t be able to receive boarding passes through to your final destination.

If you have no checked baggage and can check-in online, this probably isn’t a big deal. But if you have checked luggage, you would need to collect it at the airport where you switch between Emirates and British Airways. You would then need to re-check it with the next airline. In some cases, this also means you’ll need to clear immigration and customs at the intermediate airport.

In some cases, you might even need a visa.

British Airways staff member
You may need to re-check your luggage mid-journey. Photo: British Airways.

For this reason, Qantas generally recommends that customers allow connection times of at least three hours when connecting between Emirates and British Airways – even if it’s on the same ticket.

Not all airlines interline with every other airline

This isn’t the only example of a situation where you could book flights with two different airlines on the same ticket, but your baggage won’t get checked through to the final destination because those two airlines don’t work together.

For example, Emirates also does not have an interline agreement with American Airlines. Both of these are Qantas partners.

If in doubt, you can check which airlines have interline agreements with each other on ExpertFlyer. Or, just ask on the AFF forum!

Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum
Matt Graham
The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
Matt Graham
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encryptededdy Jun 22, 2023 #1

My understanding is no interline agreement means it cannot be checked through. Thankfully you have 9 hours to manually handle it.

If you want to stay airside: At some airports, the transfer desk airside can attempt to get someone to grab your bag from the carousel and re-tag it, but this is not a given. You could give that a try, and, if that fails, immigrate.

I would personally immigrate anyway for 9 hours, however I'm unsure how early BA will allow you to check in bags, so you may have to find a luggage storage place depending on what you're doing for the time.

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H Hampton Mike Jun 22, 2023 #2

With a single itinerary on a single PNR, I would have thought when you check in at MEL your bags will be tagged through to LHR.

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D DAC1 Jun 22, 2023 #3

With a single itinerary on a single PNR, I would have thought when you check in at MEL your bags will be tagged through to LHR.

The issue is there is no interline agreement between EK and BA so they will not be checked through to any BA flights from EK (despite being on the same PNR).

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d dajop Jun 22, 2023 #4

ExpertFlyer indicates that EK do not have “E-Ticket Interline Agreements” with BA, so this means EK can’t issue an e-ticket with BA sectors.

But it is listed as an airline under “MAY CHECK BAGGAGE TO”. So maybe as QF have issued the ticket it can be through checked? Would need an expert to chime in here.

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A AndyC1970 Jun 22, 2023 #5

I've secured MEL-SIN-DXB-LHR F Reward seat for June next year. First 2 legs on EK, with a 9 hour stop over in Dubai before heading to London with BA. It's a Qantas issued ticket with one PNR. I've tried to look on the net/websites - I can't tell if my luggage would be checked all the way through to London in Melbourne, or if I would have to pick it up in Dubai as EK and BA don't seem to have a current interline agreement. The Qantas website, to me, looks open to interpretation. Any guidance or help would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone - agree expert help would be good! I may end up emailing Qantas directly. QF website itself is a bit cryptic - depending on what they mean by 'Qantas/Emirates'.

if the customers flights are all held in the same booking and are ticketed on Qantas or Qantas/Emirates and/or a oneworld airline, the baggage will be transferred between the flights and the customer will receive a boarding pass at check-in for their onward flights.

My hope is that as QF has special relations with both BA and EK this might override the lack of an interline agreement between BA and EK.

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tassie6 Apr 14, 2025 #6

Following on and confirming from @AFF Editor article today, we had a ticket LIN-LHR-DXB-MEL, first two segments BA then EK, and BA would not check through bags past DXB.

Ok for us though as had a short overnight layover so could deal with them fairly well, but definitely something to be aware of

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S Scash Apr 14, 2025 #7

Timely article @AFF Editor. We have a QFF rewards flight on July 9th LHR-DXB-SIN. First leg is BA in F to DXB and then EK in J to SIN, with a 3 hr 55 min layover in Dubai. BA arrives at T1 and EK departs T3, so based on this article we are going to need to clear passport control, collect bags, clear customs, transfer landside to T3 and then check in for our EK flight to SIN and then go back through security and passport control. Is this correct?

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tassie6 Apr 14, 2025 #8

Timely article @AFF Editor. We have a QFF rewards flight on July 9th LHR-DXB-SIN. First leg is BA in F to DXB and then EK in J to SIN, with a 3 hr 55 min layover in Dubai. BA arrives at T1 and EK departs T3, so based on this article we are going to need to clear passport control, collect bags, clear customs, transfer landside to T3 and then check in for our EK flight to SIN and then go back through security and passport control. Is this correct?

Yep that is correct I believe, unfortunately.

There is transfer via bus or metro between T1 and T3, we didnt use either as went for a brief stay at nearby hotel via uber

I did a quick google and Marhaba have transfer services there, not sure if they do baggage transfer for you so you dont have to go landside, it may be worth looking into

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S Scash Apr 14, 2025 #9

Yep that is correct I believe, unfortunately.

There is transfer via bus or metro between T1 and T3, we didnt use either as went for a brief stay at nearby hotel via uber

I did a quick google and Marhaba have transfer services there, not sure if they do baggage transfer for you so you dont have to go landside, it may be worth looking into

Thank you @tassie6. I was just researching Marhaba. Their website indicates that they will do a baggage transfer but reviews I've read (although somewhat dated) suggest otherwise. I will email Marhaba and see what they say. Cost is $160 each so not cheap. We should have plenty of time (just under 4 hours) if we need to do this ourselves but want to maximise time the lounge!

We land at 23:10 and the Metro stops at 24:00 but worst case we can get a taxi.

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A Ansett Nostalgic Apr 14, 2025 #10

I encountered this issue in 2019. Redeemed QF ticket which included sectors on EK to AMS and then BA onwards. The EK agent in AMS explained to me that there was some petty feud between EK and BA which had resulted in the interline agreement being terminated. When I booked the redemption on the phone the QF phone agent also warned me that there would be a through-check issue.

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