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?

Blimey, I’d love to know what school pays their Head enough to be able to afford a £1000 per night hotel stay!!!
EDIT:
If you e hooked all elements of the holiday separately you’ll likely have no come back. However, if you booked the both flights as a package you could have some come back. I had a similar thing when flying to Thailand. Booked almost a year in advance with Ethiad - Manchester to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi then onwards to Phuket. A week before we flew, was told the flights had changed so we couldn’t get the connecting flight to Phuket the same night. In the end, Ethiad agreed to pay for hotel accommodation plus Dinner for all of us, collected us at Bangkok, fast tracked us through immigration both incoming and outgoing the following morning. I did have to push them for this though!

It would be worth the call to the insurers, however, I do suspect you might struggle - although some do cover this sort of dynamic travel, so yes, I agree with @Changingplace , call them, at least then you will know for sure. The second you book a "self transfer" type flight arrangement (i.e. two flights with different companies) you are at the behest of the main flight not changing. It is treated like two completely different flights by the airlines and they do not give two hoots if your previous one is disrupted (they only give a single hoot if they are duty bound to take your all the way to your final destination, and then the hoot is not a great one, putting you on next avail flight, often the next day, where there are seats free etc.. but they do at least move you about, put you up in hotel etc.). I understand how you could not do this - the main carriers do not fly to the places we always want to go. And as another poster says, you will not make a 30 min transfer, as the flights are treated independently, you have to get your luggage off one and onto the other - it is almost like starting again - whereas with through flights your luggage gets moved about for you and you just transfer within the terminal. Look, I personally would ring or email the hotel and explain the situation and beg for their mercy to ask to transfer the booking one day forward, rebook flight 2, and find somewhere functional to stay near the airport. If it helps, I once had to do this, 18 yr old daughter's very early morning flight got moved by 24 hours and she would no longer be stopping in the rather expensive airport hotel (at least to me) that I had booked the night before so I could be sure she got on her flight. They were sympathetic, and moved it on 24 hours. I was obviously very grateful. It was a big chain and I thought they would just say no. Maybe worth a go ? Good luck, it's not a great situation. x

Why are you assuming that the OPs DH has the 'big job' and earns more money than her? Odd comment.

Its not odd. A stereotype for sure but not odd.

Also the Op is doing the mental load on this. In my house the person paying most let's the other sort organisation as their contribution.

@Goingawayistrickyyou making snarky comments about a luxury hotel stay and expect everyone to have the same set up as you where the bigger earns shoves the organisation onto the lesser earner like they’re the hired help and not an equal. Ok got it

Nightmare!

I think your only hope is travel insurance covering the cost.

Heads are on over 100k of a Trust can be a lot more. Some on 300k.

How long is the holiday? Can you ring the hotel and see if they can change the date?
1k is a lot to lose but it happens. We lost 700 in the pandemic. Still sticks in the craw.

It’s very odd thing to question and highly irrelevant, and just because in your house something works a certain way, that’s not the law for everyone.

because the flight change was outside your control so they may refund for the missed night etc.

When we flew to Australia we had a two hour connection in Singapore. There was a ‘work to rule’ action at the time and consequently we were delayed and left very late. But there were enough passengers making that connection that they held the plane and we basically all ran across the terminal - and amazingly our luggage made it too!!
Is there any flexibility with your connecting flight? Could they possibly hold it? Depends if anyone else is making the connection I suppose.

First I'd be asking both airlines, the hotel and insurance if there was anything they could do.

If not, I'd travel hand luggage only and pray for the first flight to make up time during the flight allowing enough time to run across the airport to make the connection.

But one big problem is the flights the OP has booked are not connected in the operational/legal sense and that changes pretty much everything verses a formal connected booking.

The second airline may well not know if there are any joiners inbound in the first flight, more importantly the second, short haul airline has no liability or responsibility to the OP if they don't make the flight...that very much changes the airline's thinking.

As far as the short haul airline is concerned delays cost, can screw up the rest of the crew and aircraft's schedule and finally delaying may jeopardise the onwards travel plans of many of their other passengers...they'll want to go on time.

Booking unconnected sectors is popular and sometimes unavoidable but it definitely exposes travellers to extra risks verses connected bookings.

Is there only one small onward flight a day too or could you get one after that

Plus they don’t always hold “connected” flights either! 2 hours is too short.

I’d get DH to exceptionally ask governors for leave of absence for 1 day. Thats possible. Go the day before. If you don’t ask you don’t get!

Def worth a call to insurers
but the best they might be able to offer is pay for a night near the airport and a new connecting flight, I doubt they would reimburse £1000 for the first night in the hotel.

as others said I think it wasn’t wise to pay upfront so much money so far in advance. Really really common for flight times to change.

6-8 weeks before, by which time flight schedules are far less likely to change, I would pay upfront for a hotel, but even then only if a lot cheaper than a cancellable deal

OR you could go via a tour operator and put the onus on them to sort something if your contract is with them

Really really common for flight times to change.

Agreed, certainly ten months ahead.

I know why people sometimes buy as much as year, even more if they can ahead, and I know that some airlines encourage it...

Problem is that far ahead the airlines are sometimes still discussing which of their airport slots to assign to which route and sometimes which aircraft type to put on the route.

That sort of thing sometimes doesn't get nailed down until maybe six or seven months before the relevant season starts, sometimes even later😳