Do I expect too much of Qantas?

[ozbeachbabe]

I sympathise with OP and as many have said this is definitely BAs fault as they caused the misconnect. Surprised that your travel insurance doesn't cover it I'm pretty sure mine with TID would.

Also - I am sorta hijacking the thread and this is a touch off topic but does anyone here know if ORD is known for having bad weather/storms in around March lol ? Is it their cyclone season or something like that lol ?
Have a HKG-ORD-JFK flight that I am about to book and left 3.5 hours between international arrival and the domestic leg on one ticket however an award ticket and considering if I need to move the ORD-JFK to a later time ?

What airlines are you flying HKG-ORD-JFK?

If it's all on the one ticket I wouldn't be so concerned - 3.5hrs is reasonable, gives you basically a 2 hr buffer, allowing 1.5hr for immigration and security. ORD can be subject to snow/ice still during March so there's always chance of delays.

If you can do HLO then you can use the 'One Stop Clearance' at ORD which bypasses the baggage claim area altogether. We did it in April and took us about 10 minutes from stepping off the plane to exiting the terminal.

The CBP Officer that does the fingerprinting and takes your photo also takes the blue customs declaration at the same time. Anyone with checked luggage (after the initial processing by CBP) would then need to claim their luggage and line up again to hand the blue form in.

 

[DC3]

....Surprised that your travel insurance doesn't cover it I'm pretty sure mine with TID would.

Also - I am sorta hijacking the thread and this is a touch off topic but does anyone here know if ORD is known for having bad weather/storms in around March lol ? Is it their cyclone season or something like that lol ?

My TID policy covers weather delays, and I have successfully claimed. The OP may not have taken out travel insurance and ended up at the mercy of the airlines and their T&C. Happy to be corrected on this.

Edit: ORD has had late-season snow/blizzard in March, from time to time.

 

[Nizar]

What airlines are you flying HKG-ORD-JFK?

CX then AA on an AA award ticket. And we will definitely have checked luggage ! Going away for around 3 weeks. And I'll be with my wife, which means that even for 3 day trips we would have checked luggage lol.

 

[Nizar]

My TID policy covers weather delays, and I have successfully claimed. The OP may not have taken out travel insurance and ended up at the mercy of the airlines and their T&C. Happy to be corrected on this.

Edit: ORD has had snow/blizzard in March

Does your TID policy cover weather delays or all TID policies generally cover weather delays ?
I am not reading off my policy documents but just off of their website it doesn't seem to specifically mention (nor does it specifically exclude) weather delays. I could only find the following on their website.

Travel delay
Where your scheduled pre-paid transport is delayed, cancelled or rescheduled we will pay for: additional accommodation, meals and transfers after the first 6 hours of the delay; reimbursement of pre-paid accommodation, transfers, tours, events and attractions you miss out on because you can’t reach your destination on time. No excess applies.

http://www.travelinsurancedirect.com.au/what-we-cover

That to me means if travel is delayed/cancelled/rescheduled for any reason that you will be reimbursed ?
There is probably more detail in the full pdf no doubt but it's probably 16,000 pages long lol. Would def be worth knowing though.

 

[dajop]

If you can do HLO then you can use the 'One Stop Clearance' at ORD which bypasses the baggage claim area altogether. We did it in April and took us about 10 minutes from stepping off the plan to exiting the terminal.

The CBP Officer that does the fingerprinting and takes your photo also takes the blue customs declaration at the same time. Anyone with checked luggage (after the initial processing by CBP) would then need to claim their luggage and line up again to hand the blue form in.

It wasn't the checked luggage that was the issue when I did HKG-ORD on CX, it was the queues in immigration... probably about 35-40 mins from memory. Of course once through, the checked luggage was there. Unlucky that a couple of flights with significant numbers of non-US pax were in front.

 

[DC3]

... That to me means if travel is delayed/cancelled/rescheduled for any reason that you will be reimbursed ? ...

This may help (the bolding is as per the policy document):




Edit: However, travel delays are only part of the policy. You are insuring against a whole range of unforseen circumstances.

You need to provide a letter from the carrier, regarding delay. Also keep all receipts for accommodation, meals, etc

 

[Kangol]

It is NOT possible to combine an award ticket with a paid ticket. There are many times when I would have liked to have done so.

The most common area is when you want half of a round trip on mileage and half on the bank account. And not only is impossible to combine, but in many cases you will find you are required to purchase a one way fare which is far in excess of the (half) round trip.

This was one proper enhancement to the QF website changes at the time when online ASAs in PUZX buckets were removed.
You can book a return trip with one leg classic and the return a revenue fare.
I've just picked a random date to show you:

Or are you talking about combining award and revenue tickets from two different ticket issuers? ie BA avios and QF revenue?

 

[Nizar]

Thanks DC3.

I wonder how it works with award travel. If you miss a flight due to unforseen or circumstances outside your control, do they reimburse you for what you paid, or what your next flight is reasonably worth, or do they just aim to you to your next destination even if its in Y.

Say if you were flying AUH-LAX on EY F then LAX-MEL on QF F. And you were on separate tickets (so QF won't help) and the flights six hours apart but your EY flight had to be re-routed due to weather and you missed your QF flight. $2k per person is probably not even enough to cover QF PE lol ?

I've heard stories where people have missed an award F flight and got reimbursed like $10k coz their next onward journey was actually worth that much as a revenue fare ? I wonder which insurance company that was ? Or maybe it was like Black Amex or something like that ? Whoever it is was it doesn't seem like it was TID lol I might need to change my insurer :mrgreen:

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Say if you were flying AUH-LAX on EY F then LAX-MEL on QF F. And you were on separate tickets (so QF won't help) and the flights six hours apart but your EY flight had to be re-routed due to weather and you missed your QF flight. $2k per person is probably not even enough to cover QF PE lol ?

If you're on separate tickets EY won't help either.

With airlines outside of an alliance in that scenario I would definitely overnight as insurance against the potential grief that you'll subject yourselves to should you misconnect.

 

[Nizar]

If you're on separate tickets EY won't help either.

With airlines outside of an alliance in that scenario I would definitely overnight as insurance against the potential grief that you'll subject yourselves to should you misconnect.

Totally agree. My point was what sort of travel insurance would cover you to the extent that they would pay you out the value of the F revenue ticket for the flight that you missed.

 

[DC3]

Nizar, there's always a lot more to insurance of course (and "horses for courses").

You may need to contact possible insurers for a full copy of their policy documents.

Anyway, my current policy document is about 50 pages, but I'm posting some more extracts, below, just for information. Also, the extract that I previously posted was in relation to delays, not cancellations. Here is something on cancellations:







Edit: The $10,000/$20,000, above, refers to individual/family for domestic trips. The Unlimited is for International and Annual Multi Trip cover.

Also, I have no connection with TID and we all need to decide on what's an appropriate cover for our situation.

 

[Nizar]

The $10,000/$20,000, above, refers to individual/family.

Now that's more like it !
And yes I will look into it. I need to find out exactly what my insurance covers me for.

 

[DC3]

I have just edited my most recent post:

" Edit: The $10,000/$20,000, above, refers to individual/family for domestic trips. The Unlimited is for International and Annual Multi Trip cover.

Also, I have no connection with TID and we all need to decide on what's an appropriate cover for our situation. "

 

[BD1959]

This may help (the bolding is as per the policy document):

View attachment 34223

I'm missing something here.

This policy is proposed to help in circumstances per the OP. The policy states $2000 max ($4000 for families) where there is significant delay, QF were asking $5,000 each or $10,000 for both travellers.

Wouldn't the OP still be $6000 out of pocket if they had this insurance and used it to get to the destination as quickly as possible?

Regards,

BD

 

[Cynicor]

Travel delay is separate. The missed flight will come under another area of the insurance.