Inter-airline connections
 

Punters on this forum who have ever considered Expedia/Opodo etc. may be interested in Airlines-Airports & Routes forum, Flybe-6 #321 & on.
Would those in the know about what really happens to poor old SLF if a connection between un-linked airlines (I’m looking at a two hour connection from VS to AA at MIA) goes pear-shaped care to tell the travelling public? I have visions of “hard luck, mate, you’ll now have to pay full price for a new ticket on the next available flight. By the way, that’s in a couple of days!”

if you are on 2 seperate tickets, then you are at the mercy of the airline concerned. Strictly speaking, its a new ticket, although this is rare, options I have seen range from being put on the next flight free of charge, or paying a small surcharge to do so (if the rules of the yicket permit changes).

If you are on 1 ticket, you are fine, the airline who the ticket has been issued on have the responsability to get you from start to finish

My advise - be very,very nice and polite to the ground staff

For an interline connection it is normally the delivering carrier that is responsible to take care of you - i.e. the airline that was delayed and caused you to miss your connection. This may be the ticket issuing airline, but it may not be.

It's not only interline connections where problems can occur if you travel on separate tickets. Buy a BA ticket GLA/LHR and a separate ticket LHR/CDG for example and if BA are late on the first flight they have no obligation to carry you to Paris.

But, as others have said, if it's all on one ticket it is the responsibility of the delivering carrier to get you to your destination. That means if you buy a ticket that says BD GLH/LHR then BA LHR/BKK then KE BKK/SEL and the BD flight is delayed so that you miss BA it is the responsibility of BD to get you to SEL, not just BKK.

The only reason to have separate tickets rather than one through ticket is because it may work out cheaper.

You would expect separate tickets to be cheaper because they do not need to cover all the very substantial expenses of connecting flights, namely missed connections, and missed baggage connections, with all the considerable costs of rearrangement, wasted seats on the second sector, reaccommodation and baggage repatriation that go with that. It is indeed a substantial cost, in most cases turning the profitabilty of the sale into a loss, which is why airlines have given up the old-days connect anything-to-anything IATA approach, except for full fares.

Even for those connections that remain, eg same-carrier connections through a hub, the costs of missed connections for passengers and/or baggage are very substantial. At places like Amsterdam there seem to be whole hotels who make a living out of accommodating missed connection passengers overnight for the based carrier.

What those who have two tickets but want one-ticket service want is to get this expensive guarantee of being looked after if the connection is missed, without paying for it in the first place.

I agree, it used to be rare. However, given the alleged global downturn, I know many Reservations Agents of different Heathrow carriers are being told to apply the fare rules more strictly than before and every day, at Heathrow's Terminal 5, I see people having to dig out the plastic as yet another delayed inbound flight arrives.

Buying two (or more) tickets usuially works out cheaper in the short term, and if everything works out, you win hands down. However, the extra cost of buying one through ticket is really worth it for peace of mind!

Looking out of the window today, the sun is shining, the aeroplanes at Heathrow are all landing and taking off with ease. Out of 365 days however, we probably have about half where "flow rate" is reduced at some point during the day because of "low visibility" or "strong gusts" or "thunderstorms". If your aeroplane joins the "stack" for 15 minutes and then goes to a remote stand where you come into the airport by coach, you can very easily lose a whole hour - even more if there are queues at Flight Connections or you have to return to landside and check in!

..............and, please, whatever you do, don't miss your onward flight by making a mistake. If you smoke, don't return landside unless you know you have enough time to get back through security! In T5, the security computers automatically lock passengers out at 35 minutes before departure time and no one is allowed to proceed past security after that time! (Every day, we see people miss their connections for this very reason - and now the reservations staff must charge either for a new ticket or the applicable change fee)

Look on the extra cost as an insurance premium! ;)

Don't be under the mistaken impression that just because you're travelling on one ticket that you're safe if you miss a connection.

I recently missed a KLM to KLM connection at AMS due to a delay caused by inadequate de-icing facilities. Next flight was next day . I and many other fellow travellers were stranded overnight due to KLMs refusal to provide overnight accommodation. They just continually said that the delay was not their fault therefore they were under no obligation to accommodate us.

Dougieb2

I wouldn't take their word on that - I'm sure there is a certain level of compensation due to you forced upon them by the EU for situations like the one you experienced - something I'd investigate if I were you

Re KLM there's a difference between providing "compensation" and making sure you arrive at your destination. The point about one ticket is that if you miss your flight the airline that delivered you to the point at which you missed your connecting flight is responsible for finding you an alternative to your destination. That usually means putting you on the next flight but can include rerouting you, even on a different airline.

It's also worth noting that attitudes to all this have changed as fares have got cheaper. The less you paid the less helpful the airline is likely to be.

Dougieb 2 - Unfortunatly, if I read your post correctly, the airline isnt at fault, and so no compensation/liability legally.

You say you missed your connection in AMS due to "inadequate de-icing equipment" - inadequate in what way? Broken, no enough of, or something else?

Either way it doesnt matter, the airport operates those - not the airline, and they were needed presumably because of poor weather at the time - which is the main "get out of jail free card" for airlines.

Airlines are only liable for failures within their control - poor weather isnt.

Goes to prove that if I do have to fly.. I'll stick to the old fashioned way of doing it... go to a travel agent, and ask for it all on one ticket.

However much it costs.

I just don't need the stress.