Author Topic: Separate tickets with short connection?  (Read 2652 times)

Offline CtownBin

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Separate tickets with short connection?
« on: February 02, 2017, 05:22:23 PM »
I hope this is the right place for this- I have found myself in an unusual flights booking situation that hopefully some of the experienced veterans can help me with.

I was fortunate enough to find $475 round-trip flights from Toronto to Israel. It is for myself, my wife, our 3-year-old, and 6-month-old. It's the Jet Airways flight through Amsterdam, with the Tel Aviv leg on ElAl.

Unfortunately, there were only 2 tickets at that price, and we need 3 paid tickets. Since I knew I had 24 hour cancellation on Orbitz, I grabbed 2, putting myself and 3-year-old on the ticket (since the baby is still nursing and will need to fly with my wife, in case they ended up on separate flights). My thinking was that I'd either buy them separate flights, or just buy the same flight at the higher price for just the third ticket- it would still be a bargain.

Unfortunately, for some strange reason, the price for the next seat jumped to $1,800+. I know, from $475 to $1,800 in one shot- pretty strange. So I started playing around. By removing the single TLV-AMS leg on the way back, and booking it multi-city, the flight dropped to $600- with the other 3 legs being the same flights as me. I grabbed it, and booked the lap child together at the same time ($100). All that was left was buying the ElAl flight to Amsterdam- and voila, it is available on ElAl points, it will cost 20KMR plus $80, not great but valuing MR at 1.5, her flight still comes through at $980 total, with 2 flights at $475. All in all, could be worse.

However, I realized that this means that, even though we will all be on the same flights, for my wife that TLV-AMS leg is a separate ticket completely. What will she need to do in Amsterdam before getting on that second flight? Since, from the perspective of Jet Airways, she is beginning her journey that day in Amsterdam- will she need to go through immigration and go down to the regular check-in counter like someone showing up in Amsterdam, or can she just go to the gate and get her boarding pass there? We'll make sure she doesn't check any luggage. Most importantly though- What happens if that first flight gets delayed? Our connection is only 1 hour and 15 minutes. Both Jet Airways and ElAl are in the same area of the airport, but I think we will all still have to go through security, right? If the worst happens and we miss the connection, will we get rebooked? Or, is there chance Jet Airways will say "We will rebook you since it was one ticket, but your wife simply missed her flight through no fault of ours and we don't  have to accommodate her." What will we do in this situation? I'm a bit new to this kind of situation, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all!

Offline travel agent

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2017, 05:41:30 PM »
you can check in online & then she can go straight to the gate, but if you miss the flight, they don't have to rebook her.

Offline yuds70

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2017, 08:03:32 PM »
... What will we do in this situation? I'm a bit new to this kind of situation, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all!
I can only answer you about the bags. First of all YMMV. If what Im understanding from your story, you are both on the same aircrafts NYC-AMS-TLV but she is on a split ticket throughout. If that's correct, then whatever baggage conditions are for your full itinerary should at least be the same for hers. For example if the baggage gets forwarded without your interference in AMS, then hers should too. That's only if you request it, which should be based on those airlines' interline baggage agreements'. Good luck.
Make stuff happen.

Offline KidOOO

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2017, 09:23:47 PM »
Check-in can (and should) be done online as mentioned above as otherwise will probably be too late to check-in at AMS by the time you are there

Bags you will easier and less hassle to just check them under your name.

Connection time is a risk you are taking.  Not sure how accommodating they will be. One thing you can do is check the avarage delays for your first leg to estimate the chances you will miss the next flight

Offline CtownBin

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2017, 10:57:07 PM »
you can check in online & then she can go straight to the gate, but if you miss the flight, they don't have to rebook her.

Good to know! I wasn't sure that Jet Aiways had a robust online check-in system that is sure to work and give a boarding pass in advance, I've had some bad experience there. But I'm hopeful it should be okay.

"They don't have to rebook her."  Does this mean you think they may, even though they don't have to? I can see why they shouldn't have to, since the delay would have been ElAl's fault and they're not connected on the same ticket- at least for that part of it. I guess I'd be hopeful that they'd see a woman with an infant, as well as the rest of her family travelling with them on the exact same flights who they WILL rebook... would they leave her there to find her own way home? I'm pretty unfamiliar with how a situation like this would play out on the ground.

The other issue- and this will affect all of us, not just my wife- is which airline can they rebook us on? All their partner airlines (KLM, Delta) will have had their last flights of the day. The only options that day will be connecting flights on non-partner airlines- would they book us on any non-partner airline?

Offline CtownBin

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2017, 10:59:29 PM »
One thing you can do is check the avarage delays for your first leg to estimate the chances you will miss the next flight

Great idea, thanks. Can you (or anyone) recommend a good website to check these statistics? Will they take into account time of year as well?

Offline yochai

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #6 on: February 03, 2017, 03:47:39 AM »
Great idea, thanks. Can you (or anyone) recommend a good website to check these statistics? Will they take into account time of year as well?
flightstats.com

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #7 on: February 03, 2017, 05:43:43 AM »
Great idea, thanks. Can you (or anyone) recommend a good website to check these statistics? Will they take into account time of year as well?
Statistics are meaningless. It is only your own experience that will count.

One thing you can do is get travel insurance that covers missed connections.
I've been waiting over 5 years with bated breath for someone to say that!
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Offline Ploni3

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2017, 07:03:17 AM »
We did this exact itinerary. (We actually had the same booking issue and I booked my "missing" passenger on a more expensive direct flight).  The connection is very tight and you do need to go through security (though it was empty for us). I would not recommend taking the chance.

Offline Ploni3

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2017, 08:35:19 AM »
I'd also point out that Elal will not be able to check you in for the Jet flight - and we were not able to checkin for Jet online. So it is a harried connection in the best of times.

Offline CtownBin

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2017, 01:52:15 PM »
One thing you can do is get travel insurance that covers missed connections.

Could be a good idea. Any idea where to begin looking to buy this? Will they cover a missed connection even on a separate ticket? This could be a great option.

Offline ExGingi

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2017, 02:16:10 PM »
Could be a good idea. Any idea where to begin looking to buy this? Will they cover a missed connection even on a separate ticket? This could be a great option.
My goto website to find out what's available is insuremytrip.com

Enter all your information, as some policies include children for free, you'll find a lot of options there, but I find it a good starting point.

Most policies allow you to cancel for free within a certain amount of time. Also, many policies offer better benefits if purchased shortly after travel was paid for (usually within 10 days or two weeks).

Just beware that sometimes your own actions can be detrimental to your eligibility for benefits. My BIL just had a flight cancelled by the carrier, and he accepted the alternate flights they put him on, even though those flights weren't good for him. He ended up dropping out of the connections they booked him on, and purchasing a separate ticket, in order to get home on time. He hasn't tried filing a claim yet, but I am fearful that what he did might invalidate his claim.
I've been waiting over 5 years with bated breath for someone to say that!
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Offline KidOOO

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #12 on: February 04, 2017, 10:25:34 AM »
Could be a good idea. Any idea where to begin looking to buy this? Will they cover a missed connection even on a separate ticket? This could be a great option.
Squaremouth.com

Read carefully the definitions of missed connection to see if it's relevant to your situation.

IMO I wouldn't do it based on the report above of issues checking in online

Offline CtownBin

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #13 on: February 06, 2017, 03:35:17 AM »
I'd also point out that Elal will not be able to check you in for the Jet flight - and we were not able to checkin for Jet online. So it is a harried connection in the best of times.

Thanks for the data point! Were you ever able to figure out why you couldn't check-in online? Did Jet ever tell you? The reason I ask is because, IME, when one ticket has 2 separate airlines on a connection, you often aren't able to check in with the second one- since that airline isn't the first point of contact on the journey, and you're supposed to check in for the whole journey at once (checking bags through etc) with the first airline. Depending on how connected the airlines are you either can or can't get boarding passes when you check-in with the first one. But in my wife's case, since she will be starting that ticket with Jet Airways in Amsterdam, I would hope that she WOULD be able to check-in online- for her, it's just a one segment, direct flight with one airline, she should be able to check in for it.

At least you provided a DP for the flight that you made the connection. Can I ask how far apart the gates were? It seems ElAl and Jet are in the same concourse, though I understand there is security. Did you have to walk far?

Thanks for your info!

Offline Ploni3

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Re: Separate tickets with short connection?
« Reply #14 on: February 06, 2017, 06:53:20 AM »
We were not even able to do online checkin for the yyz-ams leg. The system said that the flight was closed to online checkin - whatever that means and it was with plenty of time before the flight. The gates in Amsterdam are a few feet apart. When you arrive from yyz you don't have to go through security but you have to go identify all yur luggage for elal and that takes lots of time. On the return they send you on a long (5-10minutes) walk around the airport so you can go through security.  Also, I'd point out that on the way in they lost one suitcase that arrived after about 5 days. On the return none of our bags made the tight connection and they took 2 days to get to us.