rkkwan

I welcome your comments and criticism, but may I point out I was attempting to address two separate issues simultaneously - a) can a lay person book a single itinerary as opposed to a 'travel professional' and b) what sort of things can a lay person do to minimize difficulties in the event connections are missed. It also rather depends on what exactly is meant by 'linking' the various segments, and it is possible I did make some unarticulated assumptions.

Re 'linking' baggage transfer: Yes, you can often arrange to have baggage interlined between non-affiliated airlines *that have such an agreement, in place - many discount airlines will not be 'linked' in such fashion.* For that matter, many discount airlines won't even interline baggage between their own flights - Ryanair does not, for example.

And yes, you can book tickets on one itinerary with non-affiliated airlines. (Expedia will do this all the time, and I made it clear in my answer that this was a possibility.) But I'm sticking to my guns to suggest that as a rule (yeah, all rules have exceptions) using partnered airlines when using a single itinerary is preferable, at least from the ease of rebooking point of view. But either way, if the airline in question isn't going to cooperate (as it obviously didn't for Ann41) it wouldn't matter a bean whether oneself or a 'travel professional' booked the itinerary in question.

I would have thought the alliance thing meant something, also -- maybe not for paying for a hotel, but getting you on the next plane. I always book my own tickets through online travel agencies or through one airline, and it's easy to do yourself, you don't need an agent to do that--even with connections that involve different airlines. Every time I have been delayed due to weather, and missed a connecting flight, it was no cost and no problem because I made sure to have a connecting flight that was the same airline (usually a codeshare). A travel agent might be sure to do that for a customer who didn't know about the problems, but not necessarily.

It seems to me there is no problem here in terms of law or obligations-- the OP bought a restricted ticket with limited or no changes in order to get a low price, and then doesn't like it when they wanted to make changes to it and go on a different flight. That's too bad, but it's a risk someone takes when they decide to buy the cheapest tickets and buy on a lot of different unrelated airlines and on different tickets. I don't know if other airlines would have done anything differently than Air France, but I'm sure the other price was just the going price for last minute tickets.

This is really no different than if someone showed up late for a flight due to a flat tire, had a car breakdown, or because the train or bus they were on was late or because they overslept. Basically, however you got to the airport is not relevant, you missed your flight and had a nonrefundable ticket, apparently. I guess it would be nice if airlines felt sorry for people because of weather problems and gave them discounted tickets on new flights, but wouldn't expect it. Given the amount of money involved, I think that would have been a nice gesture, and might write in that tone of voice, sort of begging, not with this attitude that you are going to hire a lawyer, etc (why a lawyer would take this case, I can't imagine but to charge by the hour for a consultation).

I don't think this was a connection time issue at all; I wouldn't want to plan every flight with a 6 hour connection time because of possible weather problems--I just make sure to book on the same airline.

This may be inane and an example of why you shouldn't talk when you have nothing to say, but, nevertheless, this thread has been a real education for me!

$65000 isn't chickenfeed; I'm sorry, Blithespirit.

I seem to have read that American Airlines, at least, has or used to have a "flat tire" rule to cover such instances. United has free same-day standby that might have alleviated this, although I don't know. I suggested posting in TravelBuzz on Flyertalk earlier, but I'd also suggest the Air France forum.

6 hours was only said by blithespirit (I'm guessing in disagreement or sarcastically) when I suggested 3 hours was a bit tight at JFK for this number of people using various airlines.

Any chance you have travel insurance either through work or possibly through the credit card you used to purchase the tickets?

Again, airline alliance has absolutely nothing to do with connections or what happen if one misses a connection. If a plane is delayed because of weather or things outside the control of the airline, and one has to spend a night somewhere, the traveler has always have to pay for the hotel. Even <b>on the same airline.</b>

As for the OP, it's a very slippery slopes for the airline if they were to start making &quot;allowance&quot; for people not getting to the flight. How about a car accident on the freeway leading to the airport? The passengers' baby getting a fever? And who's to decide -the ticket counter agent, a mid-level manager or the CEO?

Again, one should understand the limitation of discount fare tickets. You may not think a $1,000 fare to Europe is discount, but in the price structure it is.

The $6500 figure is shocking, but also a little misleading, as there were 6 people involved, so the charge was about $1100 each, which is not bad for a walk-up round trip ticket.

Perhaps its too late to do anything, but I think many airlines have conditions where a non-refundable ticket can be altered (at a healthy penalty) even for a while after the initial flight has left. In other words, at some airlines, if you miss your flight, you can ask them to change your flight to another, or even issue you a voucher for future travel.

My suggestion would be that you read the contract of carriage that is a part of every ticket; if Air France is one of those airlines that allows changes of tickets even after the flight has left, ask why you were not given that option. Also, even if the ticket has to be amended before the flight leaves, ask why you were not given that option when you were there before the flight left (they may have wiggle room on this one since the leaving time is often designated as the time, prior to departure, when they stop boarding.

Good luck.

Actually, Clevelandandbrown, it's $2000 pp RT, not $1100. I'd already paid $5,580 for 6 tickets - Air France gave me credit for the non-tax/fees portion of that charge and added another $6,504 on top of that. In other words, because I was taxed on both transactions making the fare $2000 RT pp.

And I understand, RRKWAN and Christina, how difficult (slippery slope) it is for agents to determine the factors in accomodating late passengers. But on that particular day over 40-50 flights (maybe more) were held up by weather, the airlines knew of the chaos on the ground. Shouldn't the airlines cut some sort of slack? I wasn't trying to get something for free.

Hypothetically, what happens to travellers who are delayed and miss their flights at an airport when the airport shuts down due to some security breach as they've done at LAX and Boston? Do the airlines show some sort of sympathy or just charge them double in order to go on with their flights?

True story: my sister-in-law's flight on SW Airline was delayed by several hours. SW gave her and her friend vouchers for $500.00. Then, after some sly thoughts, she went to the counter and asked/begged for a hotel voucher. They gave it to her.

Giselle, Was your sister's flight delayed because of mechanical difficulties with the plane or something similar? I ask because weather &amp; &quot;acts of god&quot; are a different category and carriers are not responsible for these delays. Delays due to planes unable to fly for technical difficulty are the responsibility of the airline, and that's usually when they are dishing out credits, meal and hotel vouchers, etc.

Duh, actually I have no idea. However, thank you for clearing up the difference between these two situations. I'm learning!

biggest mistake of all.....flying Air France....they are a mess in every way

Giselle~ I just didn't want blithespirit to feel any worse about all this, thinking people were getting perks and refunds right &amp; left ~LOL

Why all this focus on air France ?
Actually it is the other airline - JetBlue or United -which did not land and time and failed to fulfill the contracted service.
Either THEY should pay, or it is the customer's responsability -and bad luck- , but certainly not Air France.

I truly understand there are limits to Jet Blue, United, and Air France fulfilling contractual agreements. None of the airlines can be held responsible for circumstances related to weather. A flight is delayed because of weather conditions and we all accept that. But why do some airlines take such a weather-related delay as an opportunity to gouge passengers? I didn't oversleep, get drunk in the airport lounge, miss my freeway exit, take too long to pack or use some lame excuse. I'm only annoyed with Air France for unconscionably taking advantage of the situation and then rubbing my nose in it by saying the agent was kind not to penalize me an additonal $1200.

Here's a key point that the OP says in his last post... AF actually gave them credit for the unused tickets! What else do you want them to do? They are a business to make money, period; and not a charity.

So, it's not like you lost all value on your original tickets, and call youself lucky. Otherwise, you'll be out another $5-6,000; though in that case, you can choose other airlines and don't have to set foot on another AF plane, ever.

I don;t know about Italy but Airfrance has non-stop flights to Paris from LAX. I would rather pay a little extra and not have worry about flight delays especially with all the secutity. We once landed in Houston and had to get our luggage to through customs go through security and nearly missed our flight to LA. Since then I only book non-stop when possible.

I can understand being upset, but it isn't really accurate to say that Air France took advantage of the weather to gouge customers. If they'd hiked up the price for the flight you took beyond what it would have otherwise cost, that would have been gouging. But apparently the ticket price was exactly what it would have been for any walk-up customer, with or without the weather delays. And, as has been said many times, they had the legal right to charge you that price and that's the risk of a nonrefundable ticket.

Sorry Blithespirit, in my analysis of the situation I relied on your original posting, where you said &quot;Air France said that our 6 RT tickets to Italy were no longer valid. The agent said we could continue on if we purchased new tickets at day-of-departure prices(!) -- which meant an EXTRA $6500 -- besides the $5580 I'd already paid for the tickets!&quot;

When you described your original tickets as no longer valid and you bought new tickets for an EXTRA $6500 that seemed to say that the cost for the new tickets was $6500, which is actually a little less than $1100 each, which doesn't seem to be such an extreme cost when Air France was in no way responsible for your having missed the flight. It has been traditional in the airline industry to have very high costs for last-minute tickets, perhaps because its usually business travelers who buy them and pass the costs on to their customers. For instance, the least expensive ticket today for a flight Thursday 8 October, round trip New York to Paris is something like $2050; Italy would probably cost more, and you got it for, according to your latest revelations, less, without even being charged the penalty you had agreed to when you bought your original tickets. I think Air France treated you very fairly.