The Non-Connected Itinerary Dilemma

[anat0l]

I'm sure we've seen our fair share and then some of this, and some of us have probably done it more than once as well.

You know how it goes. Two itineraries. Some connection time in between.

You know the response. Non-guaranteed connection for delays. Better off trying to get one itinerary / ticket segment. You take the risk, caveat emptor, etc.

But... sometimes we have to do it, and it's a necessary evil or risk to be taken, especially if there's a financial incentive.

So I started this thread mainly for people to discuss:

• How often you do this
• Have you had any hairy stories / close calls / times that it's gone pear-shaped and the recovery / etc.
• What you think about when you consider such scenarios (if at all)

For me, the most frequent time I've had such a situation is positioning flights to larger award flights / itineraries. For example, starting a US DM itinerary in SYD (only F services out of Australia), so having to book a BNE/SYD return.

Normally I'd prefer overnight connection, but I know that's seriously not feasible most of the time. So I normally leave at least one flight of the same sector between when I have to arrive at my next stop and my current selection. For example, if I have to be in SYD at 3 pm (e.g. for a 5 pm departure), I will try to select a flight that ensures there is at least another flight to SYD (on any carrier) apart from my selection, so if my flight is delayed, I can try to back out and fly on another flight, even at walk-up rates (or alternatively try to convince the carrier I'm flying to change me to another flight).

I know some people here will swear not to create a non-connected itinerary situation, but for many of us it may be necessary. So what's your experiences and rules of thumb?

 

[ozbeachbabe]

If I've got an international am flight booked ex SYD or MEL I would fly down from BNE the day prior eg QF93 MEL/LAX as it departed before noon. Stayed in the Holiday Inn MEL Airport so we could get up at a reasonable time in the morning then just stroll across to the terminal.

Last trip we flew BNE/SYD/HNL same day as QF3 departed at 1940 so got the 1325 flight arriving SYD 1500 ish as we wanted some Flounge time.

I try to avoid super early starts on holidays if it can be avoided as the travelling itself is tiring without adding extra undue stress when there's an easy alternative.

Also, a lot of people go to the trouble of securing 80K & all those other good seats so even if you mis-connect on the same airline & get rebooked without penalty, chances are you won't get that same seat on the new flight.

 

[tuapekastar]

I do this sometimes and am very conservative with the connection times. If an early(ish) departure on second leg, happy to fly the first the previous day and overnight at/near the airport. If same day, then a I leave a lot of time to connect. I usually have lounge access so it's not too taxing. I also factor in the consequences of missing the connection - the bigger the impact the more connection time I leave and 'Plan B' opportunities I ensure are available. I'm not going to risk big weather delays screwing me up for example. Even flying the day before one never 100% guarantee something is not going to screw up.

 

[Cynicor]

My connection time is proportional to the importance of the flight, and how long I have for my holiday. So this F award to LHR that may have had issues rescheduling if we were late, I built in a day (from my regular SIN-PER returns). But, we do the SIN returns regularly and for our short trips (7-10 days) I only build in 3-4 hours. Especially if my connections are paid J, which they mostly are nowadays. SIN has a great transfer system too, so this helps a lot.

 

[shearsense]

So I normally leave at least one flight of the same sector between when I have to arrive at my next stop and my current selection. For example, if I have to be in SYD at 3 pm (e.g. for a 5 pm departure)

Exactly what I do. Been lucky and never had to use the alternative flight, as the original flight has never been delayed been delayed past the backup. I generally don't fly in the night before unless there is no second alternative like this. I figure even if the flights are separate, my status will get me on the alternative if any delay is significant.

 

[MYT105]

On our reasonate trip to Europe we were flying QF SYD-DXB-LHR (one a paid J return and one a points F out and J points back, with the J out upgraded to F) we had a approx 4 hours in LHR before our separately booked BA flight to CDG. As it happened QF1 was 2 hours late boarding and over 2 hours more sitting on the plane for final paper work to clear the flight. I was approached to advise that we wouldn't make my other flight, which I had linked and had boarding pass for and would I like it rebooked, I said fine as long as it was for both of us and explained my wife was on a points flight. They advised this maybe an issue but they would check, just before landing in DXB we were advised we would be going to CDG direct from DXB on a EK A380 also in F. We were meet by the first host and escorted to the F lounge and shown where our flight would be leaving from in about 4 hours so had a bite to eat and relaxed. I also checked about chauffeur pick up at CDG and was advised it needed to be booked 48 hours in advance, but as we were only rebooked a few hours before they said they would see what they could do, it was at least 12 hours ahead of us landing in CDG. Got no update but there was a driver there when we landed in CDG to take us to the hotel, which made things a lot easier.

We were very impressed with the recovery and service and I suspect some of it was due to being in F and a WP, so it has its benefits.

It was interesting to get to try both QF and EK in F back to back, and even though they are rated very highly from what I read and hear, we both said we would prefer to be on QF, and after looking at EK J as we waled around the plane we were happier to be on QF J on the way home so we could be side by side and have a window on the way back, it also looked and felt less cramped then the EK layout.

 

[harvyk]

I've had two non-connected itinerary flights, and in each case I've had double the MCT as to what the airport recommended, but I do try and avoid them at all costs because the last thing I really want is to be stranded a long way from home.

 

[Boris spatsky]

Frequently do this out of CBR when flying foreign carriers as most don't sell CBR-MEL/SYD legs. Everytime i go to the US now i fly Air NZ - i have to buy a separate ticket CBR-MEL as NZ don't sell CBR-LAX at all. I give myself 3 hours in MEL. Haven't got stuck yet but it scares me a little!

 

[nonpop]

We tend to find ourselves doing this where the QF (or other departing airline) fare to the long haul destination is just too expensive in terms of what we are prepared to pay. So we may use QF (either paid or *ASA) to somewhere and then connect up with another OW flight e.g CX, AY, RJ etc especially where booking both as unique PNRs is much cheaper than in 1 ticket. But we try to look for fares where the airlines is prepared to sell them as a single PNR as we figure that there will be pax on our flights that need to transfer. This approach has worked well so far. Plus baggage interline seems to work fine as well.

On a recent trip we got off a flight in HKG to find there was someone from CX standing gate when we exited the plane. It had other pax names and the flight number on a sign board. This happened to be our next flight as well, so we just joined them. The saving was considerable.

Or we also look to break the journey up with a few nights along the way.

So I think with a bit of careful planning it tends to mitigate the risks.

And for general MCT ... for most airports (excluding LAX) we tend to work on 3hrs as ideal if the complete route can't be purchased as a single ticket (excluding HEL where we allow about 40 mins).

Again YMMV and I guess it would depend on what a disruption would mean to your trip plus the class of travel.

 

[harvyk]

Again YMMV and I guess it would depend on what a disruption would mean to your trip plus the class of travel.

Well chances are a disruption would mean at a minimum a very expensive "last minute" ticket which would probably offset all the cost savings of risking a non-connected itinerary.

 

[ftm]

Frequently do this out of CBR when flying foreign carriers as most don't sell CBR-MEL/SYD legs. Everytime i go to the US now i fly Air NZ - i have to buy a separate ticket CBR-MEL as NZ don't sell CBR-LAX at all. I give myself 3 hours in MEL. Haven't got stuck yet but it scares me a little!

NZ do combine with both VA and QF domestically, but you probably can't do online. A TA can do it for you though. Depending on the dates and the base fare trans-Pacific, it only adds a couple of hundred for the domestic legs (which is what the legs would cost as stand alones).

Nice to have less stress where you can

 

[nonpop]

Well chances are a disruption would mean at a minimum a very expensive "last minute" ticket which would probably offset all the cost savings of risking a non-connected itinerary.

Yes and crossing the road is dangerous.

But like with everything we do understanding the risks allows one to make an informed choice. So hence I was explaining my experience in an attempt to share. With a success of over 15 of these such bookings we may just be lucky. But after the 2nd trip we've more than saved enough to buy an emergency fare. And connecting out of HKG, BKK or SIN always ensures we have a fall back of a LCC (heaven forbid). To date we've never needed our back-up plan. But we do understand one day we may very well. So be it. Hopefully by electing to stay within OW and not pick LCCs and fly in J or above we have some 'protection' coupled with carefully selected routes.

We have chosen to self insure and as such the financial gains have been massive (along with the SC haul). But again each will have their own approach, circumstances and time specific needs to take into account. So my contribution was based on actual experience in an effort to help people make an informed decision with multiple inputs.

 

[Mardi]

In the past we've always booked multi-leg trips in one go but this year we've changed, mainly because I bought vouchers at Christmas when they were earning 10 FF points per $. When we went to HKG in May it was part of the Asian specials and there was no option for PE from CBR to HKG. So we booked CBR-SYD-CBR and SYD-HKG-SYD separately. I left reasonable connection times but the day we travelled to HKG was the second of the "big fog" days in SYD. It all went off OK and we even got half an hour in the Flounge so we might have been lucky we weren't travelling the day before, but at the QF J lounge in CBR they seemed to know that we were going on to HKG and assured us that QF127 wouldn't leave without us. Coming back the connection time was huge so we got ourselves on an earlier flight, earning a bit of a lecture about booking in a different fare bucket if we want to change flights, we'll do it this once because husband is Plat etc etc.

When we go to NYC in October we've done something similar - booked MEL-LAX-NYC-LAX-SYD through a travel agent and then booked the domestic legs individually using the vouchers. We are on QF93 from MEL-LAX and we are travelling down the night before so we don't have to get up at hell o'clock, plus we'll get more Flounge time so I'd imagine there'd have to be a serious problem to make us miss QF93. Coming home I've left ages between arriving in SYD and leaving for CBR and every other time we've asked to go on an earlier flight (without a big lecture!)

I always have in the back of my mind that there are so many SYD-CBR or CBR-SYD flights each day that we'd have to be pretty unlucky for it to backfire. MEL I don't feel so assured about though!

Speaking of non-connected itineraries yesterday I did my first ever status run (platinum here I come!) I needed to travel CBR-SYD return in Business and CBR-SYD return in cheapo economy. The J flights are hardest to schedule so I started with that and booked the 9:55am to SYD and the 15:10 return to CBR. I didn't want to do the economy either before or after those flights so I booked a quick trip on Dash 8s SYD-CBR-SYD in the middle. My connection times were 40 minutes, 55 minutes and 1:10. The first flight landed slightly late so I bolted off to gate 19 thinking I'd be last on the plane but I wasn't, heaps of people boarded after me. The second flight was fine so I had lunch in the CBR J lounge but the third flight was running late. I was just on the verge of going to ask if I could get on the next scheduled flight when they called mine. At SYD I had seven minutes to boarding on my final flight back to CBR so I went to the J lounge for a toilet break and a glass of sparkling wine All went well and I was back in CBR at the scheduled time.

I was imagining arriving back in SYD to find I'd missed my flight home and wondering what would happen to my J status credits if I was put on a Dash 8. My year ends on Sunday and I have a DSC offer so I'm checking my account constantly to see if the flights are showing up and to see the magic word Platinum appear - good thing Feper is no longer around!