Yes, it’s a massive issue and one that is causing a lot of trouble. A lot of air travel is not point to point and we generally rely on the “Minimum Connceting Times” (MCT’s) as laid down by IATA for getting people from one flight to another. MCT’s do NOT work with the low cost carriers (but at least you know where you stand) but the real pain comes with legacy airlines masquerading as low cost airlines.

An airline cannot, however, be expected to “hold” a connection – this is imply not practical. The responsibility, if you do miss a connection, rests with the delivering airline to do something with you (obviously this only happens when the ticket is staright through or a proper interline ticket). They have to then put you on the next available flight and if appropriate to look after you in the interim – but you have to make sure you have the right sort of tickets. I often say that if you are going from A to C or D, E and F for that matter) rather then simply A to B then it can be worthwhile doing this via an agent even if it does cost you a few bob, it is not straightforward – and with E tickets, it is not always clear to all how something has been ticketed.

A long time ago, I wrote a lengthy article on the subject of interlining and Minimum Connecting Times, which is on my website, which I trust is relevant to this.

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Darren

If you miss your flight on a proper ticket (not any frills) e.g. British Airways to American Airlines, then the airline picks up the bill. Even if that means they now have to place you on another airline to get you there.

If you have a ticket, say Ryanair to British Airways and you miss the flight, not only do you foot the bill, but no one is responsible. So say the next flight is now with another airline and costs £900 even though you only paid £200 for the flight in the first place you would have to pay or not go.

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As soon as one comes off a simple A to B (and return) ticket, one does need to be aware of how things are being done. There are cost implications – A to B to C, for example may be cheaper (or very much more expensive) than A to B AND THEN B to C. Mutliple sector itineraries are becoming a tad more difficult. Many legacy airlines have intorduced more point to point fares (so A to B return may be a combination of two single tickets) – for example, British Airways on many short haul routes. Two things are happening as airlines seek to hike up fares – firstly, a lot of the interline type cheaper fares have quietly gone by the board (say out on airline A then back on airline B – but this can be ameliorated by the trend to point to point fares and secondly, rules have changed. For example many BA short and medium haul Y class fares cannot be change on day of travel. For business use, this knocks them out altogether as many business travellers will not know that they need to change a few hours before travel, let alone the day before.

For many leisure people, who use the cheap fares, this is another world. They plan their travel well in advance, book their flights go and come back. it is an adventure. Other leisure types see an advert to a place and pick up a cheapo return – nothing wrong with that. BUT what one forgets is that a Boeing or Airbus does not cost 2 shillings and sixpence on the never-never and so these leisure travellers have to be paid for – it is the business traveller that funds this (even in the case of low cost airlines, the business traveller, for it is often he or she that books at the last moment or so cops the most expensive fare)

So with a multi-sector itinerary, the traveller needs a slightly different skill-set and needs to know not only what has been booked but how it has been booked as well. The MCT provisions only apply where the flights are booked as an interline ticket that is, the sectors making up the whole are all on the same ticket – and with etickets, it is not as easy to tell if this is the case. As Nick points out, if you are going from, say QANTAS to Virgin Blue, these do not interline. It is two seperate tickets so one must allow enough time to land, allow for late arrival, collect baggage, go through customs, go to the departures bit and re-check-in. Stupidly (IMHO) some GDS systems show connections with a legacy/ low cost carrier – I don’t know why and it is very silly. For example, I have seen BA connecting (in the US) to JetBlue, which of course, they can’t. Even some quasi-lowcost airlines can create problems, where a legacy airline codeshares with a “quasi-webby” type airline – eg BA do not interline with CCM airlines (Corsican outfit) Okay, so use the Air France codeshare for the CCM flights – but that doesn’t work either (incidently, splitting the tickets costs £200 more than a through ticket to boot, so you lose out financially as well as losing any “connection guarantee” that one may have).

In fine, if you have a properly issued multisector ticket, you are safe and you do not have to worry – if you miss a connection you are the airlines problem and they have to look after you and get you to your destination (and on balance nearly all legacy carriers do this well and with good grace) But on should think very carefully before trying to multi-sector using low cost carriers.

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