<p>I don’t know every detail, but I just received an email from my D, en route to her college from visiting her sister in S. America over spring break. She had 2 hours in Mexico City in the early AM. Customs was very slow (though I don’t understand why she’d go through customs, as she was just transiting) and then ended up taking a train to the wrong terminal. There is confusion as to whether her flight, ticketed as LAN Peru is on American or not. She had the same problem at O’Hare on departure. So she finally got to the right terminal, 10 minutes after the flight left. They have charged her $200 for a circuitous flight back to our part of the country tomorrow AM. My previous experience with missed flights/missed connections is that the airlines are understanding, and work to reroute without an additional charge. In addition, she needs to find and pay for a hotel tonight, though that is minor compared to missing a day of classes tomorrow. I’m waiting for an email from her before calling the airline to give them #@$%. She’s not the sort to take them on aggressively.</p>
<p>But I’d appreciate hearing CC opinions and experiences on missed connections and whether the airlines have any reason for charging her.</p>
<p>Well…my experience is that if the delay was caused by the airline and the flight was missed, the airline picks up the tab and reroutes. Any other reason…the person is charged.</p>
<p>Not knowing the whole story, it’s hard to say. I guess if this missed flight was because of passenger slowness or mistake, the passenger is responsible. If it’s an airline snafu, the airline would. DS had a delayed flight, for example, and missed his connection due to the flight delay. The airline rerouted him as it was THEIR delay that caused him to miss his flight. A friend of his went to get dinner one time and didn’t get through security (again) in time to make his connection. The kid had to pay for the reroute. It was the passenger’s error that time.</p>
<p>I think the line is drawn as others say, whether the delay is on the passenger’s end or caused by delays on the airline’s end. </p>
<p>My only experience, which was NOT good (sorry to tell ya) was last year when we were visiting our daughter who was studying abroad in Italy. After we visited her, we went to Paris for two days before flying back to NYC. When we were in the airport in Paris to fly back to NYC, we could not understand why our flight wasn’t on the board. It turned out that my husband who had booked it (and normally I am the one who books all of our travels but this one time!) had not realized that the times of the flights were marked using the European type of clock and so what he thought was a flight for a little after noon, was really a little after the previous midnight and we had missed it. The airline would NOT let us use the money paid for that ticket toward new ones. We had to start entirely from scratch as if we had never paid for tickets, no matter who we spoke with. Also, there was only one flight option to get back and being so last minute, it was costly and this was a really bad expensive mistake my husband had made! We had no recourse no matter how hard we tried as they said it was our mistake to have read the time as PM when it was AM (European ways do not mark PM but rather total number of hours in a 24 hour time period). So, while every airline is different, I can tell you that this one would not budge when it was our mistake.</p>
<p>However, I now recall once my D, as a teenager, was in FL for her break and flew on her own back to VT but through a stop in Philadelphia. She did not make the connection and they said it was her fault. They booked her on a flight for the next day at no additional charge, but she had to spend the night in Philadelphia which was not that big of an issue as not only is my family in Philadelphia, but so was her boyfiend’s at the time and he had also been in FL with her and so she spent the night at his family’s (I wonder if they orchestrated this but she claims she tried to make the second flight and missed).</p>
<p>I don’t have any encouraging words. Last June, when S2 was flying to NYC to catch a flight to Korea, that was the day computer malfunctions and thunderstorms shut down the east coast. S2 was stranded in DC and missed his Korea flight. Delta knew perfectly well that the NYC airport was shut down for incoming flights - his flight was delayed 2 hours in Atlanta (including an hour on the tarmac) but they chose to deposit my S in a random city anyway - just telling him that gate agents would help him. He had paid over $300 for the flight from Atlanta to NYC, and Delta refunded him $60 for the DC / NYC leg. Not even enough to pay for a hotel! (Fortunately his brother lives there.) He had to buy another ticket (in the $3-400 range) to California to catch a flight to Korea to make his gig. (Fortunately the Korea leg was paid for by the gig.) We were appalled at the handling of it in DC.</p>
<p>He spent the summer calling Delta. Each time, they’d give him a different name or a different fax number. He never did get a response. Our Delta loyalty has dwindled significantly.</p>
<p>Basically, the same experience as the others. That is why you usually get a substantial discount on airfare when you choose non-canceling, non-refundable, and changes made at least 24 hours ahead of time. If they didn’t live by this, then there is not reason for giving an incentive of a lower price for such guarantees. If you think this is bad, you ought to read the fine print on some of the “Priceline.com” type of ticket places.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses, if disheartening. We are not alone in this apparently! After a marathon IM session (am glad she took her laptop) figured out more of the details. She’s got a flight tomorrow via another city, waits in that other city for much of the day before getting another flight to Ohare. Probably doesn’t get to her college till evening. International standby no longer exists, so is not an option, and flights today were full. I called the airline, and the agent was rather incredulous at first that she was charged for the flights tomorrow. She spoke with her supervisor, and then her tune became less sympathetic. “Not American’s fault” Well, it is an airport processing problem to a large extent, as she had insufficient time to get to her gate after customs, though being confused about terminals didn’t help. We’ll see about standby tomorrow in her first US city. She’s on her way to a hotel way out of our budget…but needs rest after being up on flights much of last night, and unfortunately waiting till I woke up after working all night to talk this through. </p>
<p>Historically I’ve been treated well by the airlines. Overslept once, was put on the next flight with better connections. Forgot to read changed flight time email for my Ds, was sent on the next flight out of San Francisco rather than Oakland. Connecting flight to my Bangkok flight cancelled, talked my way into another flight to the west coast and then connecting airlines in Asia. Never charged. </p>
<p>Will see how tomorrow plays out. Meanwhile, well, she was excited about even a few hours in Mexico City. More chance to practice Spanish this way!</p>