Hello Flyertalkers,

My family and I are traveling from IAD - Bilbao, Spain after Christmas, and we're traveling on an Expedia-booked "vacation" package. Naturally, our flights on the way back are potentially problematic. We're flying Air France out of Bilbao to CDG, where we have a 1-hour connection, then on Air France to Newark, where we have a 1 hour 20 minute connection, then on Continental to Dulles, our final destination.

Now, having flown through CDG and Newark more than I ever thought I would, I know that those are both extremely dicey connections. However, I've never flown on an Expedia-type trip spanning multiple carriers. My questions are these:

If our flight CDG-EWR is late, and we miss our CO flight, who is responsible for getting us to Dulles? Air France? or Continental? Or Expedia? Perhaps more likely, if we make it to EWR, but our luggage does not, do we have to stay in EWR to make a lost luggage report, thereby missing our CO connection? Then who is responsible for getting us to Dulles?

I fly a lot, but not on these type itineraries, so I ask the vast collective of FlyerTalk, please help me!

Thanks,

Scott

What does your ticket say? I haven't done one of those Expedia pacakages, but I think they book regular itineraries, not wholesale stuff.

If there's a misconnect, since your itinerary is Air France, they would be the responsible ones. My guess is that they would just stick you on Continental, or maybe route you through AMS on KLM, depending on what's available and the time.

There's my 2 cents.

The airline who's flight you miss should be responsible for getting you on the next available flight to wherever you're going. So in your case, Continental would be responsible both times.

Good News and Bad News

Good News: You are aware that there could be an issue

Bad News: My wife and I planned a destination wedding in Mexico this past October. Several folks booked through Expedia, and some through Apple One. I'm not sure if it is endemic to the US-Mexico City Connections, but there were several issues AND many folks ended up getting to Mexico City, only to mis the connection into ZIH, and as a result were on the hook to buy new tickets to get them the rest of the way.

Please note, these are mostly connects from HP, CO and DL to Mexicanna or Aero Mexico.

The same thing occured on one couple's return flight. So, if you connections are tight, I would bring it up with Expedia now, and figure out what the game plan is, because I'm pretty sure that an out of pocket last minute ticket on AF from CDG to EWR is pretty steep.

So for what it is worth, I've seen it happen and I have seen the result. Again not sure if it is specific to MEX, but Expedia handled it the same way for everyone . . . they didn't and now everyone has to fight for reimbursement after the fact from Expedia.

Yeah, my wife and I have flown enough that pretty much nothing surpises us anymore

We did call Expedia, but it was a first-level agent who basically kept repeating "It's a legal connection". Thanks, we know that, but things don't always go according to plan.

We're not really worried about missing our connection in CDG, since that is in the middle of the AF section of our trip, and then that might actually get our luggage caught up with us. It's just that extra leg at the end on a different carrier that makes me a little nervous.

Thanks for all the advice!

Scott

Another 2c - if you have a problem in CDG and miss the EWR flight, AF has a non-stop to IAD at 4:20pm. AF also codeshares flights with DL, so if necessary they could put you on a DL connection of some sort. If you have problems in EWR, CO has multiple flights to IAD, they would just put you on the next one. In either case, it shouldn't matter who issued the ticket, your best move is to know your options so that if the agent doesn't offer what you know is possible, you can ask.