Flight cancellation in first part of journey, no-show in the rest
 

Hi all,
I had booked two reservations with Cheapoair for the following journeys:
1. Gainesville to New York (1 stop) - United Airlines
2. New York to India (2 stops) - Gulf Air

The first Gainesville flight was supposed to take off at 9 AM and reach NYC at 2 PM. The second reservation's flight was suppposed to start at 9 PM on the same day and go on. In the morning, the Gainesville flight was canceled due to technical reasons by United Airlines. They got us into a cab to Orlando from which they provided a flight to NYC at 5 PM which was supposed to reach NYC at 7.30 PM.

Since my luggage would need to be checked in again (different reservation), I agreed to this alternative hoping I could still catch the flights in my second reservation. As luck would have it, the flight from Orlando to NYC arrived at 8.00 PM, and when I reached the counters at 8.20 with my luggage, the check in had already closed.

Gulf Air agreed to rebook my journey for the next day but it costs me about $800 for this including the airline change fee and rate changes. Since the delay was due to flight cancellation, I tried calling Cheapoair but they said they couldn't help it, and offered only to rebook (which by the way was $200 more than what the Gulf air representative told me directly, talk about swindling!).

My question is, since the delay was caused due to United Airlines, am I allowed to call them and claim the difference in fees due to their canceled flights? The change fees is expensive as it is, and was just hoping the airlines could settle the difference.

I see no reason not to try. I don't think you will get anything because they did get you to NYC the same day, which is as much as they will probably say they are responsible for. It is always a chance you take when you book separate tickets with different airlines. I am interested though because we cut it close getting to a Transatlantic cruise once. Now we always go the day before and stay at a hotel, just in case.

"<i>different reservation</i>" says it all.

Unfortunately you are SOL.

"<i>am I allowed to call them . . . </i>" Sure, you are 'allowed' to call them. But I wouldn't expect a refund.

If you had booked everything together you would have been protected.

Your beef is with Cheapoair, assuming both tickets were booked with them, as they failed to put everything on one ticket.

OTOH you have insufficient info to say they swindled you; there are several reasons for a valid $200 difference.

Neither airline nor CheapoAir owes you anything in this case. It's a risk to book your journey as two tickets. United got you to New York. That was its only obligation. You were a no-show with Gulf Air. They were within their rights to cancel your reservation and charge you extra to reticket. If you want to get to India, unfortunately, you have to pony up the extra $800. :(

Had it all been on one ticket, you'd have been protected and put on the next available flight at no extra charge to you.

<If you had booked everything together you would have been protected.>

This statement always confuses me. I understand how one takes a risk booking separate tickets, but sometimes it cannot be avoided.

For example, I frequently fly from Perth Australia to Singapore on Singapore Air and then on to the US via United. Or I'll fly the whole way on Singapore Air and then connect to a United flight for my last leg.

Although Singapore Air and United are Star Alliance partners, they each refuse to ticket the other's flights, so I have no choice but to book separately through each airline. Heck, they won't even provide boarding passes for each other's flights, which can cause problems.

This was also the case when I routinely flew Garuda Airlines to Singapore and then connected to a Singapore Air flight, but more understandable as they're not partners and have nothing to do with one another.


So, how exactly can one book everything together when the airlines won't let you?

Would travel insurance have covered this?

Having reservations on two tickets seems like the type of situation when you would want good travel insurance.

>So, how exactly can one book everything together when the airlines won't let you?

The airlines can but have policies controlling when they will.

Travel agents can often do so even when an airline will not.

"<i>Travel agents can often do so even when an airline will not.</i>"

In that sort of situation - if the airline sites aren't accommodating, I book either through a local TA or a site like Orbitz. One of the few times booking w/ those sites is better than w/ the airlines directly..

"Having reservations on two tickets seems like the type of situation when you would want good travel insurance."

I could see a travel-insurance policy saying that the passenger took a risk when they bought two tickets and that the passenger has to assume responsibility if anything goes wrong.

>The airlines can but have policies controlling when they will. Travel agents can often do so even when an airline will not.>

Huh. In four years of routinely flying between Perth and the US, neither Singapore Airlines or United has been willing to for whatever reason. I've only used a TA when booking RTW tickets and then only because I had to, and yes all airlines were on one ticket. It never occurred to me to involve a TA for something I can so easily do myself. I didn't realize it would make a difference (and I don't like TAs in general anyway, but that's just me).

Good to know though, thanks.