I am traveling on AA air miles again and connecting in London. This time I did not get a direct flight to London. I am flying AA from Dallas to Madrid, BA from Madrid to London, and BA from London to Johannesburg. On the return flight it is BA all the way through.

Does anyone know the possibility of carrying my rifles with this itinerary?

It all depends on if AA and BA have a luggage handling agreement between them. Ask AA if you can check your bags all the way through to Johannesburg from Dallas. If they say yes, then it should be no problem.

I use United to Heathrow and SAA to Jo'burg with my guns checked through to South Africa with no issues.

AA didn't used to allow transfer of firearms through Heathrow to BA or any other airline. However,if you fly BA all the way no problem. This really messes up the air mile usage. Check with your travel agent.

Best regards, D. Nelson

I have checked baggage, sans firearms, through to Johannesburg before. American just won't accept firearms checked on flights to London. I will have to check with them to see if they will check them with my itinerary since they are only handling them as far as Madrid.

Traveling via Madrid might work! Let us know what you find out!

Best regards, D. Nelson

quote:

Originally posted by D. Nelson:
AA didn't used to allow transfer of firearms through Heathrow to BA or any other airline. However,if you fly BA all the way no problem. This really messes up the air mile usage. Check with your travel agent.

Best regards, D. Nelson

American will not transport firearms to anywhere in UK. American and British Airways are oneworld partners so I can use AA miles on BA.

After some research I am not sure it is worth it! Damn what a mess connecting through Heathrow. No wonder American decided to not do it.

I am of the opinion this is how AA avoids us using our air mileage. We have had to pay the big bucks to fly BA all the way from LAX, plus BA won't give you miles credit LA to Heathrow.
That being said, biz class on BA is really good and we've used our BA mikes to fly free on other flights.
The Madrid route sounds interesting because BA will definitely transfer firearms from their flights through Heathrow. So if you can transfer firearms in Madrid to a BA flight you shouldn't have any problems in Heathrow.

Best regards, D. Nelson

Just for general information I can tell you that using BA States-Heathrow-O.R. Tembo is nearly seamless. I have done it many times and will be doing it on Wednesday. You check your guns and gear in at the airport where you international flight originates and pick them up in JNB. SIMPLE! I recommend BA to my clients and all have had good experiences as long as their flights only involved BA.

The only drawback to using BA in recent years is that they charge a fuel surcharge when you use mileage that almost eliminates the savings from using cash. Having said that service and firearms handling is generally outstanding plus recently they have had some excellent pricing. The best part may be that not many hunters use BA and therefore when you arrive in JNB you may be the only hunter in the queue for SAPS.

Mark

Thanks everyone for the great information. It sounds like this may be worth pursuing. The inability to get a direct DFW to London flight may have been a blessing in disguise.

I traveled to RSA and Namibia this summer and it was anything but seamless! I flew Delta from MSP to EWR then BA to JNB via HTR. Shawn at Gracy Travel made all the arrangements. To make a long story short, in EWR the head person at BA insisted that my 4457 was not valid because at the top of the form (right hand corner) it read: OMB No. 1651-0010; Exp. 08-31-2012. Naturally, this is the expiration date for the form itself and nothing more. She said I did not have a licenses for my guns, even though she left me with them and my ammunition and of course I had the keys! After a tense half hour, THREE Port Police arrive and tell me, she called them to arrest me because I wasn't permitted to have these guns!!!
Thankfully, I managed to remain in control and when the police learned that I am a retired Veteran they told the agent that all my documents were in order. She still refused and so the police escorted me to the CBP folks and upon hearing my dilemma sent three more agents with me back to BA. I asked her to call BA London to confirm all my paperwork was in order weeks in advance but she still had a problem with the form. The CBP agents then stamped my 4457 on the spot and she grudgingly accepted my guns and let me continue to the BA First lounge. This entire process took nearly an hour and a half and was stressful beyond belief! After that, I was called to the gate for every BA flight to open and identify my guns before they were put on. I assume it was my luck to deal with one idiot in EWR but I doubt I'll ever fly BA with guns again. The return was to JFK for an overnight before flying back to MSP and CBP delayed me for nearly an hour as well!

Read BA's policy regarding transporting firearms carefully...they may deny them if the cargo hold is too full....ie someone is anti gun and doesn't want you killing poor defenseless African animals. Friends had this experience with both rifles and bows despite informing BA they would be flying with them.

You'll never eliminate idiots in charge in any situation you may encounter. The point is that BA has no anti gun agenda.

Mark

Because we are in Houston and because I didn't want to take the long Delta flight with my family along, I chose the BA flights (Houston to London to JoBurg) to Joburg too. I did ask my agent (Riana at Frosch) and I also spoke with Mark. We also went on to Zim and then back and to Namibia and back. Mark was spot on.

We of course did all the normal paperwork and notifications that BA requires too. Our check in was as smooth as it is with guns, and TSA took at least 30 seconds with smiles too. Our trip was great all the way around. As a matter of fact, Africa Sky had collected the rifles and ammo cases and were at the BA luggage turnstile with smiles on their face before our other luggage was coming down. Which was darn fast.

In Namibia on the way home I checked the rifles all the way though to Houston at our SAA Business class check in. But in JoBurg I made a mistake that was my own doing. We went to the in transit BA desk and got our boarding pass. I could see that it said "Firearm" by my name, but not wanting to upset the system and hoping that it would go through as checked I said nothing. Mistake by me.

When we had gone through I got a call from BA to return to the transit desk. One was to pay for the rifle service. The other was to compete the final paperwork and declare that I had no ammo as I did not have any ammo on the return. It was still not a problem really and I should have asked when we were there the first time.

So in the end BA was great as was SAA, and SAPS, Namibia Police, TSA and Customs were all as good as could be. If you have everything together it will be a snap really.

During our whole trip over three weeks , and with a fair amount of traveling, I encountered exactly one negative person with a anti gun anti hunting attitude. And he was from the USA (of course right) and in the JoBurg airport. I let him have his opinion twice. Then I put the brakes on that and he decided to move on which suited me perfectly. And I was there in Africa when the whole cecil the lion thing broke in the media.

For reference on a separate trip last year I had a heck of a lot more rifle check in trouble with a Southwest Airlines agent until a boss showed up and got it all moving. Southwest right here in Texas.