Comments on: Missed flight penalty: American Airlines charges $742 to student delayed by customs

By: Roger Alexis

Roger Alexis — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:46:56 +0000

The formula for calculating the minimum connecting time is to ensure you stick to to the respective airline check in time.Some airline dictate that your check in time is 2 or 3 hours before departure. Secondly, linking PNR’s is one thing, linking different fligths of other carriers is another. There is something call “legal connection” if missed will be honoured by the carrier as long as they are the one responsible for contributing to the lost connection.It is the responsibilty of the travler to ensure that they understand their transportation contract. The airline is not obligated to ensure that you understands the rules of contract.

By: How the travel industry can win you back

How the travel industry can win you back — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:46:45 +0000

[...] of her flight — which was more than the cost of the entire roundtrip ticket — don’t buy it. (Here’s more on her experience.) “I explained the situation to them and they still insisted that I had to purchase another [...]

By: Ginny

Ginny — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:03:08 +0000

I would fully expect the airline to provide alternate flight for me if my flight is missed. I leave Tampa to Charlotte with one hour & five minutes between to my connecting flight to Frankfurt. should my Tampa flight run the least bit late, my chances of making the Frankfurt flight are slim. Should I miss the flight I would expect nothing less than for the airline to accomidate me. I think it’s high time the airlines started treating their customers with a little respect.
I have had Contintal Airlines board my grandaughter & myself on a plane at 7:30 A.M. & the plane did not depart until 7:00 P.M. where I was taken to Texas only to find out there were no outbound flights until 7:00A.M. Having arrived in Texas to find hundreds of people in the same situation. No hotels were available within a 2 hour radius. Everything in the airport was closed down at 10:00 P.M. Nothing was open to get a drink or food of any kind. The airline claimed bad weather was the cause of the problem, yet they continued to drag people into the airport knowing they had no place to go. The people had no Idea until they reached Texas what the situation was. I watched women with tiny babies & no formula to feed them. 86 year ols women trying to sleep upright in chairs. I was one of the lucky ones that brought a blanket that I could lay out on the floor for my 3 year old grandaughter to lay on as to not be directly on the marble tile floor. The airline had the nerve to go around & sell little pillows for $5.00 each, All the while claiming that it was not the airline’s fault for the weather.
reading this story, you may have sympathy for the airline, but before being to sympathetic understand that they could have told me the situation in Tuscon where I could have gotten a hotel & just resumed my flight the next day, which is when my flight left anyway. I would not have had to sit up all night watching over my 3 year old grandaughter sleeping on a marble floor. It seems to me that the airlines does have an obligation to it’s customers, & being upfront & honest is one of those obligations.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:25:45 +0000

I’m appalled at the lack of empathy here, folks. I wish you the same response the next time the airlines greet your concern/problem with the company policy handbook. Seems too many people only want flexibility when it benefits them.

By: Denise

Denise — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:43:25 +0000

How does one find out what the minimum connection time is? Comments here are making it sound like there is a chart somewhere that one can reference to make sure they’ll be able to get from one airline/gate/terminal to another at each airport.

Not being a very frequent flier, the only rule I know is to make sure that there is at least one hour between connecting flights (I actually prefer two hours). I’ve learned the hard way that sometimes sixty minutes just isn’t enough time to get between terminals at some airports, even for domestic flights when the planes are running on time, so something like a chart would actually be really handy.

On the plus side, because I have mobility issues (I need a walker and don’t move very fast) I make certain that before I get on the first plane I tell them I will need assistance getting to my connecting gate. Not only is there usually a courtesy tram waiting for me, I’ve never had an airline close the door before I got there, even the one time I was late because the tram broke down!

By: Grace

Grace — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:56:59 +0000

My Monther-in-Law just had a similar experience this morning. She booked a flight on AA from SFO-Mimi-El Salvado. She missed her flight from SFO to Miami, so she was told she needed to pay $627 for her to be able to fly on the next available flight. The agent explained that this was for the $150 change fee and the difference between the fare she paid at the time of booking and the current fare today. This is ridiculous considering her original rondtrip ticket cost her $560 now she had to pay more just to get there one way? She asked if she could just be on stand-by and they said they do not allow you to be on stand-by on an international flight so they make you purchase the ticket at the new fare and give you credit (minus the change fee) on your old ticket.

How can they justify this? Of course the fare is going to be ridiculously high for an international ticket purchased on the day of dearture. She ended up having to postpone the trip a few days to fly out on aday when the fare was not as expensive and pay $399 instead of the $627. What a bargain! – yeah right!

By: Graham

Graham — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:56:34 +0000

Please take care not to mix the terms “ticket” and “PNR (or reservation)”. You can have many flights in one PNR/Reservation and have those flights all on one ticket or on two, or more tickets.

It’s the tickets that are the issue. Each ticket is a separate contract and each contract requires you, the passenger, to present themselves for checkin within stipulated limits.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:45:34 +0000

Lisa S, the Mireault’s missing their flight isn’t American’s fault. In Nassau, Bahamas, US Immigration operates a pre-clearance facility so that instead of clearing US immigration/customs upon landing in the US, you clear US immigration/customs before boarding your US bound flight (same thing happens at many Canadian airports and also in Ireland). So their delay was cause by US immigration NOT American Airlines. American has no control over when the US immigration facilities will be open/staffed.

By: AllisonH

AllisonH — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:36:46 +0000

Obviously if you’re going to take the risk to book seperate tickets for a cheaper fare make sure you have TONS of time between the flights to account for any delays… or better yet just eat the cost as insurance against missing the second flight and being charged for another one. It probably would have been cheaper to eat the cost up front than to pay for the second ticket.

By: Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:28:57 +0000

@Lisa, thanks. Sigh. I guess I could have been clearer about that advice.