Taking a flight to take a flight
 

I have a flight booked from BOS-LIS in July. I live in Mississippi, but the flight was only $650, and I figured that even if my r/t to Boston cost $400 it would be substantially cheaper than flying to Europe from any Southern airports.

My flight to Europe is on USAir. If my flight to Boston is also on USAir would i be protected should the first flight be late or cancelled? If so, I will probably just take a morning USAir flight to Boston. Otherwise, I will fly in the day before on whatever airline is cheapest.

Does anyone know how the airlines handle it when one of their flights is late or cancelled and a passenger is unable to make another flight on the same airline? Does my question make sense?

(I haven't posted this in the USAir forum as I think most airlines probably have similar policies).

Taking a flight to take a flight
 

If you are on one PNR (ie one ticket reservation) you will be protected in case of delays or cancellations. US will/should put you up in a hotel and rebook you as necessary. Note also that if you are substantially delayed or your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to compensation under the EU's scheme EU261/2004. There is excellent guidance around this in the BA forum. Happy travels!

I'm afraid the tickets won't be on the same PNR. One is already booked, I'm just thinking about booking the other. They won't merge nested tickets into the same PNR, will they?

AA has a written policy to protect you on two tickets, however I don't think US or any other airline has a similar policy.

If they don't, you are not protected if your first flight is delayed. However they may as a gesture of goodwill help you to get to your final destination.

This is one of the reasons why a more complicated itinerary can cost more when booked as one ticket, because it includes protection for flight delays. You are taking the risk booking seperately.

EU261 wouldn't apply for BOS-LIS on US as it is a non EU carrier and not departing an EU country.

It is my experience that USeless Air will do anything in their power to classify any delay in such a way as to deny hotel accommodation even if on the same PNR. Complete fail airline in this respect.

Reb, I'd proceed by assuming you won't be protected. I think they might protect you, but at least a reasonable chance they might try to screw you. If I were flying, I'd schedule the night before or with a lengthy layover. YMMV.

+1. I have done this several times, always go the night before and just spend the night in a cheap airport area hotel that has a shuttle to/from the airport. The peace of mind is well worth the 75 or 80 bucks I spend for a bed. Wi-fi and free breakfast are just gravy.

Taking a flight to take a flight
 

You're quite right that 261 doesn't apply as it isn't a European airline bringing the OP IN to Europe.

Great advice in this thread. Here is another thought, if they were to protect you it would be for the next available flight. Who knows when that would be. What if the next couple flights are full and you miss a couple days vacation?

Fly up the day before and go see Boston, get a good night sleep and avoid the worry.

Just gravy for breakfast? Which hotel chain?

So gunshy am I after 50 years of Translants, my insecurity enhanced by the first few couple of decades until there were some (few, and even now, not always the ones I wanted) direct flights from DFW and IAH, I became a "day before" flyer, connecting with my departure (and occasionally return) return airport with a night to spare. With friends, business associates, and the otherwise obligated, those extra evenings have often returned more than the cost of a hotel (of modest luxury, 'free", even mediocre breakfast preferred).

I will always recall the words of a grizzled veteran as we wound our way slowly across the Pacific toward SEA....."Never hurry to a war. It will still be going on when you get there." The same can be said of most business and pleasure travel destinations.

If you are on two tickets and the flight from Mississippi to Boston is delayed you're up the proverbial creek without a paddle. There is no reason for US to link two tickets that you bought on the cheap to create an ITIN that they would have charged you more for had you booked it that way. This isn't in their interest.

The only good plan is to plan way more time than necessary for the connection and hope that your 1st flight isn't cancelled completely.

I used to do this all the time to save money and one misconnect when my flight to LHR landed at MAN instead burned up all the money I'd ever saved when I needed to rebook my LHR-FRA connection on a list minute and very expensive fare. I was lucky that they let me keep the return portion of the wasted LHR-FRA, in many cases they'll just cancel the return as well.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If the OP were to purchase a ticket on AA from Mississippi to BOS, then he would be protected by AA in the event that IRROPS caused a mis-connect with the US flight departing BOS. AA's policy is here:

http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Bookin...tkt_policy.jsp

Book a flight to Boston the day before. Fortunately it's July and the chance of your flight getting canceled completely and being stranded over a day is low, as compared to during the winter when snowstorms cancel flights for days.

Kind of off topic, but I once witnessed a couple going on their honeymoon from Panama City, FL to Paris, France. They came to check in for their flight and found that they were in the wrong country. They had purchased tickets PTY-CDG on Air France. Air France is nowhere near ECP. When all was said and done, the easiest option (least expensive) for them was to change the date by a few days on each end on their PTY-CDG ticket, and buy a round trip ticket from ECP-PTY to catch the flight to Paris on the way there and the flight back to ECP on the return. Probably sucked at the time, but I bet they tell the story and laugh about it now. Probably what they remember most about their honeymoon... Plus they got a couple of honeymoon days in Panama along with it.