dand99

I was very surprised to read this on another forum (see below)

AFAIK, if you book direct, with an OTA or any other way if you have one single ticket, with a connection/s, then the airline is responsible to get you to your destination if the connection is missed (for example, long queue at CBP).

Has anyone had experience of this ? Having an airline refuse to protect their connection because it was booked third party ?

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"....I have worked at one of the major airlines. Delta (or any other airlines) would help the guy if he missed the connection due to the airline's error (delay, IROP, etc). If everything runs smoothly, yet he misses the connection, then he needs to contact the travel agent who booked it. This is the case for all the major airlines..at least in North America. Policy wise, that's the case. However, most agents I have seen (from most major airlines) do try to put the customer on another flight. When these situations occurred while I was working, I usually just put the guy on the next available flight. It sucks enough to get stranded..so I do sympathize....."

Carpedictum

Your contract of carriage is with the airline. If the responsibility is on either the airline or the agent, it's on the airline.

That said, how would anyone "miss a connection" in a way that was not the fault of the airline? Like, the person left the airport for a period of time and didn't make it back? I'd call that a no-show for a leg, not a missed connection, in which case, the entire trip would've been scrapped. In that case, maybe an agent could help but I don't think the responsibility of the airline changes based on the way the ticket was booked.

LondonElite

I'm not sure I understand your question or point. Your quote from the other website is written in a confusing manner...

1. If you have separate tickets you don't have a connection and there is no protection whatsoever of the second flight as a result of anything irregular with the first flight

2. If you have a single ticket (regardless of what airlines are operating the flights on that single ticket) you are protected from origin to destination (not necessarily through any specific intermediate points)

3. Your travel agent becomes completely irrelevant (in both cases) within ca 24 hours of departure from any ticket. That's when the airline owns the booking.

Some airlines choose to offer protection across separate tickets (case 1) but don't have to.

dand99

Whatever was unclear, let me clear up (although I am simply repeating as above).

As I mentioned - ONE SINGLE TICKET - this is NOT about two separate tickets.

Missing the connecting flight: I did actually give an example above .
Assuming the connection is legal - some MCTs as we know are very optimistic. For example, connecting intl=>dom in a US hub, with a legal MCT of say 2 hours. If there is a long queue at CBP (not unusual), you miss the connection although the incoming was on time. If you get flagged for secondary you also miss the connection.

I was surprised because the poster, who claimed he had worked for a major US carrier, explained that non-IRROPS missed connections would be protected if the ticket was purchased direct but not protected (if going by policy) if purchased third party.

Granted, he may have worked for McDonalds at JFK, but this is the first time I've heard this position and was interested to know if there was something to it.

ginmqi

Well this would've helped in my situation of course I was in China when we were refused our connecting flight/boarding pass due to what was supposedly an error from the OTA we booked the ticket from.

When we called later....the Airline that we had contract with (Hainan) said they coudn't do anything and to call the OTA...we called the OTA and they said they couldn't do anything and to call the airline.....

Aliquot

This is a not what the OP is talking about.

Aliquot

If you are on one ticket the same contract of carriage applies regardless of where you purchased your ticket. Once the first flight has departed the OTA can not do anything to your ticket.

it can be troublesome to get rebooked when everything is running on time and something beyond the control of te passenger occurs regardless of where the ticket was booked. I had an issue like this with a BA to AA connection at SJC on a ticket bought from AA. The initial responce from AA was that I would have to pay the fare difference for my rebooked flight. When I complained, the next offer was to pu me on standby, even though there were still seats available, finally they agreed to confirm a seat, but only because "there are so many seats availible it's not likely to sell out".

dand99

I assume you don't want to detail the reason for the delay -

Was it something to do with the airport, or something personal ?

I would have assumed (?) that an airport issue, perhaps impacting many pax, would be dealt with differently by the airline than a personal issue ?

LondonElite

Where or how you bought the ticket (unless illegally) is irrelevant mid-journey.

paperwastage

technically yes, but airline and OTA can just point fingers at each other

until you miss your flight

(eg buying codeshare, operating airline and marketing airline can point fingers at each other when things go wrong)

seawolf

Not accurate. The A in OTA stands for agent and that's what they are; they are an agent for the airline for that ticket. As mentioned previously, the carrier owns the problem on day of departure.

paperwastage

my comment was about mid-journey...

seawolf

Day of departure refers to day of the flight on any segment in the itinerary whether segment 3 in a conjunction ticket or a segment one way. The airline owes the problem. Contract is with the airline not with the OTA.