Originally Posted by
jammin
Hi folks,
First off, apologies if this is a really silly question.
I live in Ireland and, in Europe at least, when you buy an air ticket from A to B but with a stop somewhere (e.g., DUB to SIN but transiting in AMS), and if you're late getting to AMS because of a delay on the DUB-AMS flight and therefore miss your AMS-SIN flight, the airline will accommodate you. I.e., they'll put you on the next available flight and give you meals / drinks / hotel accommodation (as appropriate) in the mean time.
Now, we're off to the US next month and our return to Ireland is LAX-JFK-SNN (all with Delta), but the transit in JFK is only 1hr 48mins. Now, that might be fine, but if the LAX-JFK is late, we might miss the flight to Shannon. If so, what will happen? Or are the procedures / rules in the US the very same as in Europe?
They will put you on the next available flight, although with a lot of flights being fully booked, might not be the next actual flight. Typically, food and lodging are only supplied if the first flight is delayed due to circumstances under the airline's control, such as mechanical problems. If the delay is because of weather or ATC issues, they generally won't supply meals and hotels, except possibly for their elite or premium class customers. The airlines take a broad view of what constitutes a weather delay, including the plane or crew being delayed due to weather on their previous flights.