Corza000

I’ve booked a flight from Colombia to LAX with a 24hr stopover in Cancun. The trip is so I can go watch some basketball in the USA. Since booking the flight the NBA schedule has been released and my team is playing in Houston instead of LA. If I take my original flight I’d need to go to LAX and then fly to Houston but it seems to make more sense to go straight from Cancun to Houston.

1. Can you skip your second leg flight (e.g Cancun to LAX) therefore allowing me to get a new flight to Houston
2. Is it standard to get your checked baggage back on a 24hr layover?

thanks

ajGoes

If you skip the second leg, the rest of your reservation will be canceled.

Often1

Without the details, particularly the carrier, there can't be any certainty.

General rule is that on a stopover (as opposed to a connection) your bags will be returned to you. General rule is that if there are onwards or return segments after LAX, they will be cancelled if you no show for the xCUN segment. General rule is that you can't book "impossible" routings and thus can't hold tickets CUN-LAX and CUN-IAH on the same carrier which cannot be flown because you can't be two places at once.

But, those are all general rules.

Have you looked at what it would cost to change your ticket to Colombia-CUN-IAH? Sometimes change fees and fare differences are very little and this may all be simple and cheap.

Corza000

The carrier is Interjet. Unfortunately they don’t do direct flights to Houston- at least not on the dates I’m going.

I’m just having a bit of difficulty getting in contact with the carrier at the moment.

would there be any issues with taking a different carrier at the same time to go to Houston instead of LA?

MoreMilesPlease

How are you getting back to Columbia? Is it on the second half of the Interjet ticket?

Often1

No, there will be no issues if you fly a different carrier.

But, you still have not answered the key question of whether your ticket includes onwards or return flights from LAX. If there are any, those will be cancelled if you no show.

Corza000

Thanks for the replies.

Not going back to Colombia. It’s a one way to USA and then back home to Australia.

can I assume I’ll get my checked baggage if it’s a 24hr layover? Do I let the carrier know?

Often1

If your ticket continues on to Australia, that will be cancelled if you no show for the LAX segment.

Do you have a connection or a stopover at CUN? Generally the break point is at 24 hours on the nose, so it really matters whether you are there for 23:59 or 24:01.

Corza000

The flight back to Australia is with a different carrier though

abmj-jr

Different carrier or not, is it all on one PNR (itinerary?)

If is a completely different itinerary then you should be ok. If it was all booked on one itin, even with different carriers, then you will have a problem.

Often1

That is the wrong question. The question is whether that onwards segment to Australia is on a separate ticket. PNR's, itineraries, and carriers are irrelevant.

OP has been asked the specific question twice and the answer to the separate ticket question may make a very significant difference.

Corza000

Sorry guys I’m not too savvy with this PNR stuff.

all I know is I booked a trip to from Australia to South America and then to USA and then back to Australia. Every ticket I booked was a seperate ticket that I bought myself with a different carrier for each trip. So for example I booked interjet from Colombia to LAX and I’ve booked Qantas from LA to Australia.

if it’s going to cause issues I’ll just stick to flying to LA and then make an additional flight straight from LA to Houston. Just an inconvenience more than anything.

Qwkynuf

I think what people are asking is whether this was purchased in one single transaction, as a multi-city trip for example, or whether each leg was purchased separately. This is what makes a difference. If you have it all on one purchase, then you likely have one single PNR (Passenger Name Record) that ties everything together - even if the trip spans multiple carriers. If that's the case, then skipping one leg effectively cancels all legs following.

However, if each ticket was purchased in a separate transaction, then they are all freestanding - so they won't know or care if you took the previous flight.

As an example, I can buy a ticket from Delta to fly from Portland, OR to Paris. I would fly from Portland to Seattle (127 miles) on a Delta plane, then transfer to an Air France aircraft - all on a Delta ticket. If I decided for whatever reason to drive to Seattle instead, I would not be able to board the SEA-CDG flight because my ticket would be canceled when I no-showed at PDX. If I bought a ticket from Delta to get from PDX to SEA, and then bought a second ticket from AF to fly SEA-CDG, then AF wouldn't know or care whether I got on the Delta plane. The downside to that method is that Delta is likely not going to check the bag through to CDG, so I would need to claim it and recheck in SEA.

Does that help at all?

pinniped

It sounds like the OP bought three unrelated tickets. Skipping the leg to LAX wouldn't have any impact on the unrelated LA to Australia ticket.

On a stopover (>24 hours), bags are always available to the passenger at the intermediate point.

On a connection(<24 hours), you're asking for a "short check", but most airlines are cool about it on an overnight connection. Short-checking has become more of a topic in recent years because people ask for it in relation to a hidden-city ticket. That's where they book an A-B-C itin because it is substantially cheaper than an A-B itin. Airlines don't like this and they know the airports most associated with the practice. But your route clearly isn't one of these, so your request for your bag in Cancun would probably be honored.

I've never been denied a short-check request on an overnight connection. But I've never flown Interjet so you might want to read their specific procedures (if you can find them) or see if you can find experiences from people who have flown them.

Corza000

Thanks for the replies. All very helpful!

So given all tickets are separately purchased on different carriers I can forgo my connecting flight to LA and purchase a different flight to Houston. I just need to get a ‘short check’. I’m still not sure if they do this but I’ll try and find out. Most of the help on the site is not in English and I need to make an international call to an English speaker which is proving difficult. Do I let interjet know I’m not getting on the connecting flight or do I just ask for a short check?