pofriri

I will be traveling to Madrid this summer, but booked a r/t ticket to Brussels because the airfare was half the price than to Madrid. The routing is as follows: outbound ORD-MAD-BRU and the return is BRU-MAD-ORD. I purchased the extra ticket from BRU-MAD (not the same itinerary) to get back down to MAD. My connection time in Madrid on the outbound flight is 1 hour an 10 minutes. My understanding is that this connection time is quite short but doable and I will only have hand luggage. Let's say I miss the flight to Brussels, will that cancel out the rest of my itinerary for the return trip? I don't care about the $$ loss for the BRU-MAD ticket. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Ldnn1

If I understand your question correctly, you're asking about your connection in MAD on the ORD-MAD-BRU portion of your main ticket, which is a 1h10min connection.

The first thing to note is that you will be entering Schengen on this connection, so 1h10 is indeed quite short if you have an American/other foreign passport, since you are at risk of slow immigration control. Less so with an EU passport.

However, if you do miss it then since it is one ticket (to BRU) then you just go to the IB information desk and they will rebook you onto the next available BRU service. (That's assuming you haven't already been auto-rebooked if your inbound was delayed - if that's the case you'll get a text/email about it from IB Conecta.)

If for some reason you *don't* arrange to rebook your flight, then the answer to your question is *yes* your return would be cancelled. You could potentially ask IB to reinstate on the basis you were delayed so your trip to BRU became pointless, but I'm not sure I'd want to have that argument/stress if you were not so delayed but misconnected nonetheless. Best to go to BRU.

In any event, IB have no obligation to rebook your BRU-MAD on the separate ticket.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

Just to confirm,

You have ORD-MAD-BRU

Then separate ticked BRU-MAD ( your destination)

then BRU-MAD-ORD on the return

Do you intend missing the BRU-MAD leg of the BRU-MAD-ORD return flight and just turn up at MAD for the MAD-ORD leg?

It is likely that by not turning up at BRU for the return leg your MAD-ORD flight will be cancelled autmatically. ( if you miss one leg of a fight sequence the others will be cancelled)

Regards

TBS

PS Reading Ldnn1's comments I think it is the same thing.

craigthemif

Doesn't really sound like the most sensible strategy but YMMV as always.

Just make sure to return to BRU for the return flight as well. Try to show up in MAD and you will probably be denied boarding, unless you want to be one of the first guinea pigs for the Spanish supreme court ruling.

pofriri

Thank you all so much for your responses.

Yes, ORD-MAD-BRU with BRU-MAD on a separate ticket.

I have the return flights figured out and those aren't concerning to me: I will leave from Brussels for BRU-MAD-ORD.

My concern was with the outbound flights from ORD-MAD-BRU, 1) with the connection time in MAD of 1 hour and 10 minutes, and 2) being required to fly the MAD-BRU segment if I miss it and then missing the separately-ticketed return from BRU-MAD. Sounds like I just need to keep my fingers crossed then?

BA6501

Is your BRU-MAD an immediate turnaround from ORD-MAD-BRU? Or are you spending a couple hours in BRU?

pofriri

GFrye

pofriri

Yes, that is all correct! I am traveling around Spain for 10 days, ending with a flight to BRU to catch the return, BRU-MAD-ORD.

pofriri

One last question. Assuming all goes well with the connection in MAD, can I stay on the plane once I get to BRU or will the airline make me deboard? I am going MAD-BRU-MAD on the same plane.

BA6501

You'll have to disembark.