Booking air travel involing mulitple airlines
 

To date, we've booked directly w/the airlines. However, I'm considering booking through Kayak, Sidestep or another of the online consolidators for a trip to Australia in March-April. What worries me is that a number of airlines are involved. What if one of the segments is late getting you to the next airport and you miss your flight? Has anyone had experience with this? Do they accommodate you on their next flight? (Better late than never!)Or are you just out of luck?

Hi
We have booked with multiple airlines and have been lucky never to have been stranded. Check with the airlines terms and conditions but mostly they are not obliged to help you if you miss your onward flight but I think most will try to help. Make sure you allow plenty of time between flights, including time to collect your luggage and arrive at the next terminal and check-in. Also read carefully what your travel insurance policy says about flight delays and and missed conections. What will they compensate you for? They vary greatly..Finally...Good Luck

I had a recent situation like this when my first sector was put off for several hours which would have seen me miss my flight/s in the next and third sector. Fortunately I was able to change the first sector to a day earlier whereby avoiding the problem but at least I found out that the ticket that I had for the second and third sector was able to be changed and altered. Had this not been the case I would have had to resort to claiming on my insurance. So the lesson is: either have a flexible ticket or have good insurance which will endemnify you if you miss a flight.

Seriously, there are a few factors you are not taking into account -

1) Kayak, Sidestep and a few others are NOT consolidators - these two in particular just point you to the cheapest fares on OTHER sites. So they are not the booking sites themselves.

2) People throw the word "consolidator" arond willy nilly - what a consolidator does is buy the ticket from the airline in bulk and then resells it at a profit. This can mean if there is a probblem,you may have to deal with the consolidaotr and not the airline. If you are planning a trip with multiple airlines you should be veyr careful who oyu buy the ticket from.

3) Routing a trip with multiple airlines also means if one flight is late you have no rights about the flight you miss - the next airline does not have to do anything for you . Now depending on how you bought the ticket, what airlines are involved etc they MAY help you esp if it's a popular routing. But they don't have to.

4) Given you don't seem to have much kmowledge of how this all works, maybe you should think about keeping with one airline or at least one alliance. Australia is a long way away if something goes wrong.

Thank you for the information. No, I don't have much knowledge about how all this works - that's why I'm asking questions. On another board I was told that as long as the entire flight is booked together (from one source at the same time), it doesn't matter that there are multiple airlines involved. Is that incorrect?

Correct, it doesn't matter if all are on the same ticket.

However, if you miss a flight due to a late incoming arrival, you might not be put on the next available flight out, but on a subsequent one. It can indeed lead to a domino effect if you have a series of flights. The moral to the story is to try not to book yourselves too tightly.

What is your itinerary and what approximate travel dates?

I think it also comes down to what personality you have. It you miss a connecting flight will it ruin your holiday or will you just take it in your stride and regard it as all part of the adventure? We usually don't book things too tightly and could cope if there were a few hicups. Only you can decide if the money you save is worth the risk.If you book the whole thing through an agent they would probably offer some assistance. If you have a very tight schedule it may be worth sticking with the one airline.

re the same itinerary (commonly as PNR) - it's true if you have several flights on the same PNR the airlines involved will often do more to help you then if not. BUT - keep in mind that if problems do occur (lost luggage, missed flights) etc) it is much more complicated to work with different airlines than with the same airline.

Thank you all for your help. We don't have our flights booked yet, but are anticipating March, 2008. We are staying with relatives, so it's not a matter of losing $ on a hotel if we are late. However, obviously, nobody enjoys spending unnecessary time at the airport. So, I guess if we can get on a subsequent flight we can deal with it. My fear was ending up half-way through the flight and be stranded, needing to rebuy as well as rebook!