Flight time change - what can we do?

[Funeus]

Booked 10 months ahead for a special trip. Everything non refundable. There is only one direct flight per day to this destination, flights were very expensive.

After the long haul flight, we need to connect to another small local airline for a short flight. You cannot book all the flights together on one ticket so we booked separately.

Originally we had 4.5 hours between landing and the small local flight. Now the long haul flight has been changed by the airline and will arrive 30 minutes before the local flight.

Obviously we will now miss our connection, which is the last flight of the day. We will also miss the first night in our hotel (non refundable) which is £1000. We need to book an overnight stay at another cost.

what can we do?

Have you spoken to the airline re the long haul flight? You won’t be the only one affected by such a big time change.

If they can’t do anything, then you’ll need to claim on your travel insurance for the hotel and flight cost. It should be covered, it’s not as if you could have done anything about it.

Can you move to an earlier long haul flight? Even if it means a night at that airport before the next flight.

Can you change the flight to the day before?

You’ll still have to pay an extra night but you won’t lose your original night.

I would try to fly the day before. You’re still having to pay for an extra night so why not? 🤷‍♀️

@Funeus

may be useful

If I'm reading correctly the flight time has changed by 4 hours which is unlikely to be classed as a major change by the airline, so you won't get anywhere with asking them to compensate for lost time etc. Have you checked the availability and price of the flight the day before? If not too much more the airline should allow the change so I'd try to move to that and book a cheap airport hotel rather than lose a night at the start of the holiday.

Check with your airline what they consider to be a major change. For example, BA count a two hour change as major, but for Virgin it has to be over 12 hours.

Depending on the airline, they may allow you to cancel the flight, or move it to the previous day at no extra cost.

Unfortunately, this was always going to be a risk, making the connection with separately booked flights. It might be best anyhow to travel out the day before, to ensure you make the second flight.

Agreed, I’d tell them I want to be moved to the flight the day before, book a cheap airport hotel and catch the connecting flight as planned.

Nope - I can’t travel a day earlier as dh is a headmaster and it would be term time.

You’re paying £1000 a night for a hotel?!

If you can’t go a day earlier, the only thing you can do is check the terms and conditions of the flight and speak to the airline for them to pay for a hotel and to rebook the next day flight.

Then you need to check with the airline to see if they can help in anyway. Or contact your travel insurance to see if they might cover this.

Either way, I guess you don't have much choice but to accept the time change, book a hotel at the long haul airport, then travel the following day to your final destination. A pain, for sure, but always a risk when booking separate flights. There was always a chance that the long-haul plane could change/be delayed, causing you to miss the shorter flight.

When are you travelling? If the airline has changed the flight within 14 days of travel, you might possibly to entitled to some compensation, which might help towards the cost of the hotel

Airline basically said “tough shyt”

How big is the airport you are connecting through? A 30 minute connection would definitely be possible in a lot of airports, assuming you aren’t changing terminals at heathrow or similar.

You might fluke 30 min on a connected booking at an airport with no terminal transfer somewhere set up for airside transits,.though it would almost certainly be below minimum advertised connection time, even for a switched on airport like Schipol.

The non connected aspect of the booking really complicates things because it probably means the OP is going to have to go through arrival formalities and then departure formalities..(such as re checking any hold bags in).

The £1000 for the first hotel night has been a sunk cost since the moment you decided to take their nonrefundable rate. That money has gone. So the true cost of this operation is the cost of the airport hotel for the first night. Plus dinner, if the £1000 place threw that in.

In terms of your rights, if there's more than two weeks to go, you don't have any. If there is less than two weeks, you're entitled to compensation under EU261/"UK261", but at best this will be a modest cash lump sum. The providers of the individual components of your holiday are not liable for consequent damages — your contract with the first airline is to get you to the foreign airport on the day in question, or be offered a refund.

Personally I never book nonrefundable for more than a night or two, certainly not 10 months in advance, because I have a low tolerance for risk with that sort of thing. Perhaps OP will reevaluate her own tolerance for risk as a consequence of this incident. You roll the dice and you take what comes. 10 months out, a thousand things could happen.

Have you spoken to the local airline? If it is a common connection with a few passengers on both they might hold the flight for you.

Worth an ask but the fact the two flights aren't connected means there's little to no motive to delay the second departure..

The economics are different with xinnected bookings where the airline picks up the costs of rejigging accom and flights.

Am guessing you are going to island eg Cuba or Maldives etc. your problem I suspect is going to be luggage transfer. Do you have to check in again? I would def contact the local airline annd anssistance ant the airport and see if they can help. Were you planning on checking luggage?

Travel insurance issue surely?

Can your airline change your booking to a partner airline? If not travel insurance.

Why would travel insurance care?

Because the change that’s causing you this issue is out of your hands, it’s worth speaking to them just to see, surely?