Missed Connection - non refundable fare
 

Frieds will go from DUS (Germany) to San Franciso with Alitalia via Malpensa. For some reasons, they have decided not to spend their holidays in CAL, but in Denver, Colorado. So, they need a ticket to Denver. I checked the fares and realised that the best is a UAL fare. This is a non refundable and not changeable fare. I suggested them to calculate a connection time of about 3 hours (immigragtion ....). What will happen if Alitalia will have a long delay (Malpensa!!!) and my frieds will not get the connection. Are they entitled to be booked on the next aircraft? Any help appreciated. Thanx.

If the SFO-DEN flight is on a separate ticket from the DUS-SFO one and is non-changeable/non-refundable, UA will be under no obligation to get your friends to their destination if they don't turn up for check-in at SFO in time and they could wash their hands completely of the matter (to make things worse, they might even cancel reservations for the return flight in case of no-show on the outbound segment).

Many reputable airlines will often accept passengers in that situation on later flights on a stand-by basis, but they are under no obligation to do so and you have no guarantee.

[This message has been edited by NickB (edited 06-26-2000).]

My experience is that the airlines will try to help you, last January I was flying on a NW ticket from Detroit to Phoenix, and then to Tucson on a different ticket on America West. My NW flight was canceled for mechanical reasons, I was put on a later NW flight that arrived after the last flight of the day to Tucson. After putting some pressure on NW they offered me a choice of either:

1. A rental car for the 110 mile trip (at my expense) and $100 in future travel on NW

2. A hotel room for the night and change my flight to the next morning (it was a nonrefundable penalty for change ticket)

I stayed the night and continued my travel the next morning at no additional expense. I can't say if my Platinum status on Continental Airlines made any difference on the resolution.

Old Gold, don't forget America Wurst and NW FF programs are partnered. What if it is two airlines that don't have that arrangement?

I lived in Tucson in the mid-90's. We went on a great trip TUS-LAX-CRN-BRN-SYD-AUK-LAX-TUS. The "travel agent" booked us on HP for the LAX-TUS return because he said the DL flights were sold out. Turns out the flight we were booked on did not operate on Saturdays. We ended up getting on the DL flight anyway and the agency paid the fare diff, but HP was anything but understanding or accommodating and once we topped off our miles and used our freebies to go to Cabo, we avoided HP at almost any cost. If we did have to fly HP, we took the CO miles.

Like I said in a different thread, if anyone with any class and any cash would buy America Wurst and turn it into part of a real airline, what an asset that would be!