Next week I intend to fly from Glasgow to Heathrow in order to catch a flight with Qatar Airways. Can I protect my second flight from the possible cancellation of the BA journey? Considering all the chaos happening with BA recently.
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3Why did you buy them as two separate tickets? Both BA and Qatar are members of the One World alliance; this allows through ticketing, and baggage handling. It also means that if BA fails to get you to Heathrow in time to catch the Qatar flight, it's BA's responsibility to you to your ultimate destination. (Assuming, of course, that you get to Glasgow Airport in good time)– CSMCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 10:17
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@CSM BA is glitchy and didn’t allow me to book despite the tickets being available on Qatar Airways website.– UlkomaCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 10:19
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1I'd be tempted to phone BA, say that you couldn't through-book at the time, and ask them if they could merge the tickets. However, it might cost you, especially if the flights were booked a good while ago. travel.stackexchange.com/questions/4518– CSMCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 10:52
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@CSM : sometimes, they are a lot more expensive on one ticket (but most of the time it's the other way round). I have sometimes intentionally split my bookings to save significant money.– AganjuCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 21:18
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3 Answers
Here are your options.
- Rebook on a single ticket. This will require you to change or cancel your existing ticket.
- Buy travel insurance. You would have to carefully read the terms and conditions. Most insurances won't cover a self connection. If they do it will be expensive. Even if they cover, best you can get is a refund on the Qatar flight, but they won't buy you a new ticket.
- Create a large safety buffer. BA currently operates a whopping 11 daily non-stop flights from Glasgow to Heathrow. Make sure that there are at least 2 more flights that will work if your original one is delayed or cancelled.
Option 3 seems doable. Qatar operates 4 flights from LHR to Doha. If you are on the 10.00am flight, you MUST arrive on the day before departure. For any of the other three, same day connection should be fine. Example: If you are on the 3pm flight from LHR to DOH you can book the 7am out of Glasgow. If this one fails you still have the 9:40am and 10:40am which will get you there on time.
Glasgow to LHR is pretty inexpensive, so this should still be an affordable solution even if you have to scrap your existing ticket.
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Insurance providers that don’t cover missed connections as standard may offer it as an extra eg insurewithease.com (no affiliation) Commented Apr 18, 2022 at 15:17
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I’m not familiar with those policies, but a policy covering the cost of the new ticket, up to a given amount does not seem impossible. Obviously the higher the limit the higher the premium.– jcaronCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 16:35
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I went with option 3. I had to wait for long hours in Heathrow but it was the best choice.– UlkomaCommented Apr 28, 2022 at 14:09
You bought separate tickets. That means Qatar doesn't even know about your first flight. It is your personal duty to make it to Heathrow with enough time in-between flights to allow for rechecking bags and going through security. Or in other words: this is not a connecting flight.
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What options do I have to protect the ticket? Would travel insurance cover a no-show due to such circumstances?– UlkomaCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 9:58
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Usually you need to have insurance when buying the ticket. But if BA cancels the flight from their end, they have to reimburse you.– 8192KCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 10:00
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1You have to be in Heathrow in time as I wrote. No insurance will cover you being late for your second fight since you have separate tickets.– 8192KCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 10:02
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3If you can't rely on BA, how about coming down to London by train?– Willeke ♦Commented Apr 18, 2022 at 10:09
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1I believe some travel insurance policies will cover missed self-connections, but as usual, this will come with a lot of strings attached, probably a pretty large time gap between the two flights. BTW, how long have you budgeted, and is there checked luggage involved? What terminals are involved?– jcaronCommented Apr 18, 2022 at 11:05
Your best option in terms of security would be to rebook so that both flights are on the same ticket/PNR. In that situation, it is the airline’s responsibility to get you to your final destination, and in case there is any disruption they will rebook you as soon as possible and take care of you in the meantime (that can include hotels and meals if you are stranded overnight for instance).
The other big advantage is that you would be able to through-check your luggage to the final destination, so you don’t have to worry about it in Heathrow (and that makes the minimum connection time much shorter).
If you still want/need to travel with separate tickets, remember that you need to budget enough time to:
- Deplane
- Get to baggage claim, wait for your luggage
- Exit the arrivals area, go to departures
- Check-in/drop your luggage before the check-in deadline (one hour before departure)
If all goes exactly according to plan, 2 hours between scheduled arrival and departure should be plenty (same terminal, no immigration…). But things can go wrong, with flights delayed or cancelled, luggage not loaded or unloaded timely (if at all), and so on.
If you miss the check-in deadline for your second flight, you’ll be considered a no-show, and for most fares, your ticket will be cancelled (possibly including further flights on the same ticket).
You would the be on the hook to book and pay for new tickets at last minute prices, which may be a lot more expensive.
To mitigate this, one option is to buy a more expensive “flexible” ticket which may allow you to cancel or change your second flight if needed. Note that there can be complex rules about this (including having to cancel or change before departure, or even a few hours in advance), there may be fees/penalties for doing so, you may have to pay the fare difference (again, based on last-minute prices), and there may be different levels of flexibility, at different prices. Fully flexible tickets are usually very, very expensive.
Another option is to purchase travel insurance. Again, this is not an easy task, with lots of options and details. Missed self-connections are unlikely to be covered by the cheaper policies, you may have to select more expensive policies or add options to get it. They will come with lots of conditions, probably including a minimum time gap between the two flights which may be quite a bit larger than you would expect. Read the small print carefully, make sure the policy actually covers self-connections, and covers all the cases you can think of (see above for a few ideas).
Yet another option is to have a gap large enough that you are unlikely to miss your second flight. If you were travelling in the other direction, the rule of thumb of 4 hours should do it: in the rare case you would be delayed so much you would miss your second flight, there are still enough options which should be affordable that you can pay for a new ticket.
In that direction (short-haul connecting to long-haul, where the second flight is significantly more expensive), a larger gap is a good idea, and many people would advise to arrive the day before, stay overnight, and be ready for your second flight the next day in nearly any event.
You can of course combine several of these options. But again, your best bet is to have both flights on a single ticket.
