

Personally, having a little more time abroad when my hotel and my meals are paid for doesn’t bother me too much (not at all in fact).
Separate tickets booked together free#
This is a free protection that’s included with most good travel cards.

It’s so easy to have your meals paid for (and your hotel if the delay makes you spend an extra night somewhere)… all you need to do is to pay for your plane ticket with a travel credit card. Yes, they will assign you a seat on the next available flight, but if you want a compensation for the incurred costs (meals or hotels for example), simply take responsibility and don’t rely on airlines. As soon as it’s weather-related, you won’t be getting a penny (and that’s normal: airlines can’t control the weather). It always depends on the amount of time, the reason for the delay and the airline’s policies. You won’t need to pay extra for airfare if you miss the flight, but on the other hand, you will most likely not be compensated by the airline for the incurred delay. So even if it looks tight, don’t worry about the money part, you can book an itinerary with a short connection time. Of course, the missed flight has to be because of circumstances outside of your control, such as your first flight being late or delayed (and not because you decided to stay in an airport lounge too long and didn’t make it to the gate on time for example).

Separate tickets booked together pro#
We’ve got great pro tips below to make everything better. Missing your connection means you’ll arrive later than expected, sure, but you won’t have to buy a new ticket (we really don’t know where this myth comes from). (If you are building a multi-ticket itinerary by combining tickets and airlines yourself, go to the end of the article, because the following doesn’t apply in your case, it only applies to those buying regular tickets in one piece). The airline will simply put you onto the next available flight, free of charge. If your itinerary was purchased as one ticket (as in: you have only one itinerary and one confirmation number), and the connection time was too short and you miss the second (or third) flight, you can rest easy, no matter what happens. Here’s what happens if your layover is in fact too short and you miss your connection: nothing. We often read comments from travelers who are sooooooo stressed out by the fact that the flights they found have tight connections.
