Missed Connections

You are going to know before you land. The arrival time is on the screen, the departure time is on your boarding pass, and the arithmetic is not difficult. What matters is what you do in the twenty minutes after you work it out, because the seats on the next flight go to whoever asks first, and on a single ticket the airline is already obliged to find you one.

What You Need to Know

A missed connection is a logistics problem with a well-worn solution, and almost all of the stress comes from not knowing the sequence. The airline that carried you late is, on a single ticket, the airline responsible for getting you onward, and its staff deal with this several times a day.

The two variables that decide how bad it is are whether the journey is on one ticket, and whether there is another flight today. Everything else is detail.

How It Works

One ticket

1. Establish it early. Compare your actual arrival time with the connection’s departure, and assume twenty to thirty minutes to get off and through the terminal.
2. Contact the airline before you land if you can, by app or by phone. Frequently you will be reaccommodated automatically and a new boarding pass will be waiting.
3. Go to the transfer desk, which is inside the secure area, rather than to immigration and the exit.
4. Ask for the next available service, and ask specifically whether a partner airline has an earlier one.
5. Ask about meals and accommodation if the wait is long or overnight. Whether they are provided depends on the cause and the jurisdiction, and asking costs nothing.
6. Confirm what has happened to your checked luggage, which is usually rerouted automatically but is worth hearing said.

Separate tickets

No airline is looking for you. The second carrier records a no-show and, in most fare types, the value is lost. Your options are to buy a new ticket, to ask the second airline whether it will apply anything you paid to a later flight as a commercial gesture, and to claim on travel insurance if your policy covers a missed connection on separate tickets, which many do not.

The lesson is retrospective and worth stating anyway: this is why the gap on a self-connection has to be hours rather than minutes. International flight connections covers the choice.

What to Do Before Your Trip

• Save the airline’s app, and its phone number for the country you will be in.
• Know whether your itinerary is one ticket or several, and tell your travel companions.
• Note the last flight of the day on your route, because it changes an inconvenience into an overnight.
• Carry medication, a charger and a change of clothes in hand luggage.
• Read your insurance policy’s missed-connection terms before you travel.
• Have the destination contact details with you: the hotel, the transfer, the person meeting you.

Important Considerations

Speed is worth more than persuasion

Rebooking is a queue for a finite resource. Being early in it is worth far more than being right about whose fault the delay was. Make the argument about entitlement later, in writing, once you have a seat.

Do not clear immigration unnecessarily

If you are being rebooked onto a later flight from the same airport, you generally want to stay airside. Clearing immigration means entering the country, and re-entering the secure area means checking in again and passing security, which can cost you the rebooked flight.

Ask about partner airlines by name

An agent under pressure will offer what their own airline has. If a partner has a departure two hours earlier, asking specifically is frequently what gets you on it.

Tell the people at the other end

The transfer driver, the hotel and anyone meeting you can absorb a change with notice and cannot without. This is the step most often forgotten in the scramble and the one that saves the most trouble on arrival.

Tips for Group Travelers

• One person deals with the airline while the group stays together in one place.
• Decide the split rule in advance: if only some seats are available, who travels and who waits.
• Contact the ground arrangements immediately, before the rebooking is even settled.
• Account for everybody before moving. A group at an unfamiliar airport disperses quickly.
• Keep the travelers with onward domestic connections at the front of the queue, because their problem compounds.
• Give the group a time to reconvene, rather than an instruction to wait.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Waiting to be told. By then the next flight is full.
• Leaving the secure area and then discovering you have to check in and clear security again.
• Assuming separate tickets will be honored. They will not.
• Arguing about compensation before securing a seat. One is urgent and the other is not.
• Forgetting the checked bag, which may be on its way to a city you are no longer going to.
• Not telling the hotel or transfer, and arriving at midnight to a closed reception.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the first thing to do?

Contact the airline, ideally before you land, and go to the transfer desk rather than the exit. On a single ticket you may already have been rebooked automatically. The single most valuable thing you can do is be early in the queue for the remaining seats, which means acting before the announcement rather than after it.

Will the airline pay for a hotel?

Sometimes, depending on the cause of the delay and the jurisdiction the flight falls under. Weather is generally treated differently from an operational failure. Ask, because it costs nothing to ask and the answer varies, and keep the receipt whatever the answer is.

What happens to my checked bag?

On a single ticket it is normally rerouted onto your new flight automatically, though it can arrive after you do. Ask at the transfer desk and get the answer confirmed. On separate tickets the bag is your responsibility, and if it has already been checked through to the original flight it may travel without you.

I booked separate tickets. Is there anything I can do?

Ask the second airline whether it will move you as a commercial gesture; some will, for a fee, and some will not. Check whether your travel insurance covers a missed connection on separate tickets, because many policies specifically exclude it. Otherwise the answer is a new ticket, which is the risk the cheaper fare carried.

Should I claim compensation?

If the delay was within the airline’s control and the jurisdiction provides for it, yes, in writing, after the trip. Keep boarding passes, receipts and a photograph of the departure board. Do not spend time on it at the airport, where the only thing worth pursuing is a seat.

Related Travel Tips

• Flights and airports, the section this guide belongs to.
• International Flight Delays. Why it happened, and what you are owed.
• International Flight Connections. The ticket structure that decides all of this.
• Minimum Connection Times. Avoiding the situation in the first place.

Plan Your Trip With LABUSA Travel

Having someone to call who already knows your itinerary, the hotel and the transfer is the difference between a missed connection being an evening and being a day. That is a substantial part of what a travel advisor is for, and it is most valuable exactly when it is least convenient.

Talk with a LABUSA Travel advisor about a trip you are considering, or read about our group travel service if you are traveling with a party.

Verify Before You Travel

Rebooking obligations, compensation and accommodation entitlements are set by regulation in the relevant jurisdiction and by your fare’s conditions. Confirm both with the airline that issued your ticket and the relevant transport authority, and read your travel insurance policy’s missed-connection terms before you travel. Live U.S. airport and airspace status is published by the Federal Aviation Administration. This page is general guidance, not advice about your specific flight.