Help! What happens if I miss a connecting flight?!
 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum and hope you can help me. I will be flying into London Heathrow from Manchester, UK, with BA at 8:25am. Having watched the arrivals at LHR online, I realise that this flight is invariably late arriving.

I'll be transferring from T1 domestic to T3 international and by all accounts this will take forever. As a result, I'll only be taking hand luggage.

What do I do if I miss my 11:00am connecting flight to SFO with Virgin Atlantic?
How can I get on the next flight out?
Will I be able to seek compensation from Virgin/BA?
Sorry to sound so frazzled, but feeling quite stressed about what should be the highlight of my holiday!
Thanks.

Why not ask the airlines after all we can give an opinion but they hold the answer

I hope you got the info you needed--there were a lot of us at JFK yesterday missing flights.

I was straight through to SFO from Rome on Delta with a JFK stop, and missed my connection, but it being also on Delta they ticketed me for the next day, today, to LA. I just got a Jet Blue ticket and went to SFO last night, and will now deal with trying to get money and miles back from Delta.

Sandy - it depends on how you purchased your ticket. If all the lights are on one single itinerary and a flight delay makes you miss a connection, the offending airline will usually be responsible to get you rebooked for your ongoing travel. If, on he other hand, you have two separate tickets and the first flight is so late that you miss your connection you are likely SOL.

Hi Seamus,
What does SOL mean?
Cheers

Supremely Out of Luck. Or something like that.

Close enough, Gardyloo. Could also be Stranded On your Lonesome ;-)

LOL!

Your main worry would be that if you miss the connection you could wait a long time for another seat. As annw noted, sometimes that means "next day", which can really throw a wrench in your plans. Especially now that planes are flying at high capacity, snagging a later flight the same day is becoming more problematic.

See this article from today's NYTimes re: airline delays. (Basically sticks to US, but I'm sure the basics are true there, as well.)

Thanks for the info, guys!

I spoke to my travel agent and he told me that I am travelling on one ticket from Man-->LHR-->SFO. So, if I miss my connecting flight I won't be stranded at LHR.

Have any fodorites used the check-in kiosks at LHR for Virgin Atlantic? Are they quick and easy to use? I think I may have to use them because on-line check-in won't allow me to print my own boarding pass.