I bought a couple tickets from DFW to Venice, Naples back to DFW. Our initial thought was we were going to drive from Lubbock to Dallas because when I searched the flights out of/returning to Lubbock, the flights were unbelievably higher than just flying out of Dallas.

We have now decided we don't want to drive so I called AA to add the Lubbock leg on each end as that round trip flight leg alone was showing online to be really cheap. They said the only way they could do it was to cancel the trip and re-book the entire Lubbock -Venice, Naples-Lubbock flight which was going to be several THOUSANDS higher than the price of the separate reservations.

I have now booked (same class) round trip tickets from Lubbock to Dallas on either side of the initial trip. Is American going to be able to "link" these reservations so I don't have to gather and re-check luggage in Dallas each way? Is there a magic phrase I should ask for? Link? Combine?

TIA!

Wow. That surprises me.

I really thought if all travel was with the same airline that you could check bags all the way through and link tickets.

I did this a few years ago BETWEEN Delta and Alaska Airlines even. It is called a baggage interlining agreement. However they stopped this within the past year.