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Flight Delayed

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First flight is delayed an hour to Dallas.

Now I have TWO MINUTES to make connecting flight to Doha, wherever that is. Then on to BKK.

Was supposed to leave today...

 

Of course it's two different airlines and took ages to line up my vacation to my deceased friends birthday.

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1 hour ago, Olddaddy said:

I hope they get your baggage right, I had the same thing and they sent my baggage to the first stop instead of the final as the plane was delayed 🙄

Don't  forget to keep your luggage check receipt.  And make sure you have the travel insurance to cover your flight cancellation, delay, luggage delay or lost.  Travel insurance is especially important these day with the recent airlines performance.

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From my experience traveling a lot for work, if it's a single itinerary the second flight will wait up to 30 or 45 minutes after the scheduled departure unless the flight was already overbooked. This is especially the case if there are multiple passengers on that connection.

You might have to do the walk of shame boarding last while everyone else has been waiting, but I wouldn't worry too much, gate staff will point you or get the little speedy golf carts out to get you where you need to be.

If it's multiple independently booked flights, you're generally on your own and need to hope they're delayed as well or if they've already left then go see the transfer desk for the airline to work something out.

Good luck!

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I wholeheartedly recommend having separate flights on the same ticket. On several business trips I have had delays for one reason or another when it became the airlines' responsibility to look after me. Twice, though, I have been on separate tickets and suffered as a result.

The first was a BA ticket from Edinburgh to Munich via Heathrow to connect with a Lufthansa flight to Dresden. Both were cheap tickets purchased on the net. To protect myself against delays, I allowed 4 hours for the flight change at Munich. What I was not prepared for was delays at Heathrow. In Edinburgh the 1:00 pm 767 departure was boarded on time and the doors closed. Only then were passengers advised high winds at LHR had led to delays and our take-off slot had been moved back by an hour. What was maddening was just a couple of bays away there was an Easyjet non-stop flight to Munich which I should have taken instead of BA!

The cabin crew were great in checking onward boarding passes to ensure we were rebooked on the next flights. But then of course my next flight from LHR was delayed because the aircraft was still waiting to take off from Paris back to London. End result I landed in Munich as my Dresden flight was taking off. I ended up losing my LH return flights for which 'd paid €90, having to rebook full fare flights at nearly €450 (for a journey of little over 200 miles) and €85 for an airport hotel. Thankfully, I had travel insurance which reimbursed most of my costs but only with a lot of paperwork from the 2 airlines.

The second was probably unique. I was in Argentina visiting the stunning Iguazu Falls. I had the cheapest Buenos Aires/Iguazu ticket on the Argentine airline. On return I would be changing airports and connecting to a business class mileage ticket on LAN Chile from BA to Santiago. Before then I had to return to my excellent guest house in BA to collect my large suitcase. So I allowed for a 6 hours changeover. When I was waiting to board at Iguazu there was a LAN Chile flight departing to BA only 5 minutes earlier. Both were in the process of boarding when we were asked to leave the aircraft. Both sets of passengers were then stuck in the departure lounge with no announcements. Eventually someone told me a single engine private plane had crash landed on the single runway. Our flights would not be departing until it had been removed. 

I panicked. I called the nearest One World office in Miami to try and rebook the LAN flight to the last of the day. Unsurprisingly I was informed the next available flight was in 3 weeks time!  I called the guest house owners who very generously agreed to check arrival times and bring my case to the domestic airport and arrange a taxi for me. We finally boarded 2 hours late. With delays on arrival, a bus gate with no buses and being unable to find the guesthouse guys, I was in a complete panic. I finally made my LAN flight with 2 minutes to spare. Had I only booked LAN from Iguazu, I would not have needed to go through all that angst!

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