How risky is it to have two separate bookings on flights departing the same day?
 

I am planning to book an ex-EU flight with Qatar from Oslo for later in the year but in order to save money and time - I’m considering getting the 7am flight from Heathrow, arriving into Oslo at 1040. My flight from Oslo would be a 1600 departure to Doha, the same day. Is this risky? The next flight to Oslo from Heathrow would be at 1235, arriving into Oslo at 1550! Do you think I should take the risk or build a night into my trip and get the Qatar flight the following day? Thanks :)

Go the night before.

Generally speaking, my policy is to de-risk the connection as far as possible.

By departing from OSL you are saving substantial cost that could very easily be wiped out (and even more expensive than the original LHR-MAN-BHX ticket) with a last-minute booking change on QR. Even for the 1640 QR from OSL, I would suggest to catch the 1950 from LHR the evening-prior. If the 1950 is cancelled for any reason, you can "force" BA's arm to get you on the 0725 the next morning; and if all that fails, you still have an SAS departure from LHR or a DY departure from LGW early the next morning (and still with sufficient time to book the ticket etc) to get you to OSL in sufficient time for QR.

Your money, your risk. But I'm happy to spend £100 for a hotel to protect the £2k+ saved for the wife and I to travel QR J from OSL, ARN etc.

Personally I would fly out the mighty before, but as an alternative, fly SAS which has a couple of flights which will get you there in time or why not fly Norwegian from LGW- go for the first flight of the day and you could catch the later flight, alternatively fly FR from STn and there are tags in a couple of flights that would get you there in time.

Nobody here can tell you whether your LHR-OSL will be cancelled or delayed and if so by how much.

Only you can evaluate the impact of a no show and having to be prepared to purchase a new ticket xOSL (as well as onward or return segments if there are any) at walk-up prices.

Once you evaluate that risk against the cost of a hotel room and a meal or two you will have your answer.

Thanks guys for the replies! I think I will stay the night before. It’s definitely not worth the risk just to save around £100. The savings I made from not flying from London is already substantial. Any suggestions on what to do in Oslo?

If it were me I would go the night before and avoid the crazy early morning start while also de risking the trip. If you travel to OSL on the morning of your flight to DOH and there's something wrong with that flight you need to make sure you (a) have a backup plan or (b) are prepared to forfeit the ticket to DOH and onwards.

No risk no reward

I have had the bitter experience of this. If there are just two flights never take the last flight.

Always have a sound plan A and a plan B as well. Personally I never take the last of a number of flights if I’m on separate tickets and will always overnight if necessary. For example, I’m on currently on an itinerary with separate tickets. We’re overnighting in Calgary and flying back tomorrow. The weather has been bad in the mountains as you would expect. We’ve had a good couple of feet of snow and it was snowing at 9am this morning when we left to drive to the airport. The roads hadn’t been ploughed particularly well and yesterday, we had to get a plough to unblock the road outside the condo where we were staying because there was so much snow.

The alternative scenario was to leave at 6am tomorrow morning to catch the one flight that would have gotten us to Calgary on time to make our connection tomorrow afternoon and there’s another storm rolling in tomorrow. Just not worth the risk of not making it.

Always this. Why take such unnecessary risk that could ruin the whole trip. Besides, there are many worse places to spend the night than beautiful Oslo :)

What is your plan if your flight to OSL is cancelled?

I book these kinds of tickets all the time for intercontinental trips from the US (domestic positioning flight on a US airline connecting to intercontinental flight on a non-US airline). There is definitely an inherent risk to doing so but also a strategy I use for minimizing such risk.

A few key points that I follow each time I do this:

-layovers must be 3 hours at a minimum
-must have lounge access at transfer airport
-always try to make sure there's at least one more positioning flight after the one you are on that will still make your onward connection (in your case if there were another LHR-OSL 2 hours later for example)
-minimize luggage (I almost always travel only with hand luggage, I wouldn't feel good about having to check and re-check luggage)
-familiarize yourself with the historic performance of the positioning flight you are booking (for example if the 7am LHR-OSL is consistently delay by 3 hours, maybe skip that one)
-have a plan B, C, and D before you ever need them so that if an issue arises you know your next move immediately
-understand the fare rules and what change/cancellation/IRROPS policies are in place at each airline so that there are no surprises

I'm bolding the one that I wouldn't feel great about in your scenario.

Personally, if I were in your situation I would probably feel comfortable enough to do it given there are a few LHR-OSL flights on other airlines that would still make the connection on QR to DOH assuming there was some sort of cancellation with the original flight, however at that point it comes down to whether or not you are checking bags and how much hassle you're willing to tolerate to not have to spend a night in OSL. Only you can determine that for yourself.

I fly exEU from Oslo on a regular basis and always position the night before.

One of the benefits of Oslo is that there are 2 reasonably priced hotels that are walking distance from the terminal.

There are also 2 SAS flights (obviously day dependent) at 07:05 and 10:20 that would potentially be bookable should your BA flight (and even a Norwegian flight at 09:05 from Gatwick should you be given advance notice) so there are other options, albeit ones that could be very expensive (or even not possible) at the last moment - although the SAS flight one way starts at £50, so you could always book yourself onto their 10:20 flight as a back up..... (i'd overnight!).