What's Singapore Airlines' recheck luggage policy for international transit/stopover/layover at Singapore Changi Airport?
Assume a multi-city flight between 3 airports was purchased on https://www.singaporeair.com with an international transit/stopover/layover at Singapore Changi Airport of x hours. What's Singapore Airlines' recheck luggage policy? I.e., is picking up and rechecking one's checked-in luggage at Singapore Changi Airport impossible, optional or mandatory?
Related question: Will my luggage transfer during an 18h layover in Changi?. In my case, I'm also interested in the cases when:
- The transit/stopover/layover is longer, eg 24h, 48h, or a few days. At some point, I assume that Singapore Airlines will start giving back the checked-in luggage at Singapore Changi Airport. I wonder at what point. E.g., does Singapore Airlines give the checked-in luggage iff the stop in Singapore is >24h?
- The transit/stopover/layover is the the same or shorter than 18h but the passenger wants to get back the checked-in luggage at Singapore Changi Airport. Is that an option?
Best Answer
This is actually the main difference between a stopover and a layover.
A stopover is when there is an interruption in your travel, you get your checked luggage, exit the airport, usually spend a night or more in a hotel or elsewhere, then check in again when you resume your travel. The airline will tag your luggage with the stopover location as the final destination, you will usually only get boarding passes for the flights up to that point, and they will check you have the required paperwork to enter the country of the stopover.
A layover is the opposite: your luggage is transferred and you usually don’t even see it (with the usual caveats like at the first point of entry in the US). You are not really expected to exit the airport (though you usually can). Luggage will be tagged through to the final destination, you will often get all boarding passes, and they will check paperwork for entry into the final destination country, but only for transit for the layover point.
The usual criterion used is 24 hours between arrival and departure. Under that it’s usually a layover and above that a stopover.
A stopover also means that if there are operational issues and they have to reroute you, they will reroute you to the point of stopover, while for a layover they may simply change the itinerary and completely skip the layover point to get you to your final destination.
Basically a stopover breaks your trip in multiple parts exactly like the outbound and inbound parts of a return ticket.
Note that for many airlines, stopovers are not possible for all fares, and require more expensive fares. Other airlines on the contrary will encourage stopovers, usually in cooperation with local tourism authorities, with promotional hotel deals and the like.
Whether it’s a layover or stopover is usually determined at booking time. Check-in staff will often inquire to confirm what your final destination of the day is, but I’m not sure what flexibility they have in changing things (though this is probably quite variable depending on the airline, the fare and the actual time between flights).
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Do I have to pick up my luggage on a connecting international flight Singapore airlines?
You have allowed sufficient time to collect your baggage upon arrival at the airport, clear immigration and customs, and check-in for your connecting flight, as well as any other potential delays to avoid the inconvenience and costs of a missed flight.Do I have to recheck baggage during a layover International?
If it's headed to the layover country, you'll need to recheck your bags there. If it's headed to the final destination, you won't need to recheck your bags. This is the most accurate way of knowing whether you'll need to recheck your bags or not.Do I have to recheck my luggage on a connecting flight?
If your flights were booked under one ticket, your bags will be checked through to your final destination. If your flights were booked under separate tickets, you will need to collect your bags and recheck them before your connecting flight.When you have a layover what happens to your baggage International?
If you have booked two separate flights, then you'll have to collect your luggage during the layover at the baggage claim. You need to check in your luggage again for the next flight. Some airlines won't let you do this early. So, your big task is to find a space inside or near the airport to store it safely.what. (Bo Burnham FULL SHOW HD)
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