Airliners.net

What did you do then?
Did you find a reasonable new connection and air fare?

Once I made a self-transfer in VIE. The first flight was going to depart late, so I asked the FR staff at the gate if they could do anything. The reply was "We are a point-to-point airline". xD
In VIE I was shocked that I had to go through the security check again even though only travelling with carry-on luggage. There was a long line. I asked two people in the front of the line if I could join the line there because according to my flight ticket, the gate was about to close in 10 minutes. I ran to the gate and made it. But from that on I plan at least 4 hours between intra-European flights. If possible I don't mind making an overnight-stay out of it where's enough time to sleep in an accomodation not far from the airport.

A self-transfer/self-hubbing is where you book two seperate flight tickets. The transfer is not protected by any airline. In case of missing your onward flight, you find and buy a new onward flight ticket.

This thread shows some experiences about self-hubbing:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1448951
But the thread is closed and I'm especially interested about what passengers did when missing a self-transfer flight.

Some of us book 2 onward flights at the same time when the gap between flights is less than about 2 hours... one being if all goes well... and another one many hours later or the next day (ideally refundable / changeable or at a very cheap price) as a backup. Regardless, when booking, I always think "What is my backup plan if my primary self-connect fails ?"

FR24 pre-Covid was useful at showing how reliable a self-connect would be... I've found myself deliberately booking an onward flight that was often late, so as to improve the chance of catching it. When planning a tight self-connect, I am more risk averse with airports I don't know well... but if asked nicely, most FAs will usually let you change seats to the front of the aircraft before landing so you can be first off and able to run.

Of course it can occasionally go wrong... in which case you just need to use your credit card

No, I never missed my onward flight and I've self-transferred quite a bit. As you said, leave a few hours in between and you'll be fine.

In case I would miss my connection I guess I'll have to look for another flight home which can be rather expensive at the last minute, but that's the way it is. With all the money I've saved so far by self-transferring, I could buy that new onward flight and in the long term come out about equally expensive. But I'm doing everything to make sure that doesn't happen.

The last time I self-transferred was in Milan Malpensa. The thing was, I arrived on Wizzair (terminal 1) and my onward flight was on EasyJet (terminal 2). Those familiar with Malpensa know that these terminals are not connected to each other, you have to get landside and take a bus from one terminal to the other. No worries, my flights were perfectly on time and I had over 4 hours in between them. In fact I had so much time I went out to take a look at the Volandia museum opposite terminal 1. Still had plenty of time to go to terminal 2 after that.

Usually what makes self-transfer convenient is online check-in, it saves you a whole lot of time compared to check-in at the airport. If available, I always check-in online. However one time this wasn't possible, I was self-transferring in Copenhagen onto a Norwegian flight. My first flight was on Transavia, which was no problem as it offered online check-in and it was perfectly on time. But once in Copenhagen I had to go landside to the check-in desks to get a boarding card for my Norwegian flight. Then I had to clear security again only to end up back where I was just before, only this time I was checked-in. How much easier could that have been if Norwegian would have offered online check-in. No worries, I had plenty of time but if the Transavia flight would have been late online check-in could potentially have made the difference between catching and missing that flight.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

but if asked nicely, most FAs will usually let you change seats to the front of the aircraft before landing so you can be first off and able to run.

That doesn't work if the plane uses a remote stand with bus boarding. You can be the first off the plane and into the bus, but the bus still won't go to the terminal until it's full.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

davidjohnson6 wrote:

but if asked nicely, most FAs will usually let you change seats to the front of the aircraft before landing so you can be first off and able to run.

That doesn't work if the plane uses a remote stand with bus boarding. You can be the first off the plane and into the bus, but the bus still won't go to the terminal until it's full.

Been there, sworn and cursed at length, and got the T-shirt

Come to think of it, of the many self transfers I have done over the years I have actually failed twice.
First was MNL-SFO on PR and then self-connect to a SFO-BOS redeye on UA in 2013. The PR 747 had a technical problem, so they swapped an A343 and had to reassign all seats, etc. resulting in a 3+ hour delay. I tried to contact UA customer service to see if they could do anything but the connection was so poor they couldn't hear me. I finally bought a reasonably priced ticket SJC-IAH-BOS that departed early the next morning and made the transfer by train to SJC and waited in the airport.

Then, flying MAN-JFK on PIA and connecting to an AA flight to BOS. I had given myself over six hours for the connection and even thought about leaving the airport during the layover. The departure from MAN was a little delayed as all the pax were rescreened, but nothing too major. Over Connecticut we started holding due to weather in New York, then finally diverted to IAD. By the time we refueled and approaching JFK, it still looked like I might make it as the flight to BOS was a bit delayed too. I quickly got to the terminal for the AA flight but couldn't get the boarding pass to come up on my phone due to it being too close to take-off, I guess. I waited in a long line at the check-in and told the agent that my inbound flight had been delayed and I missed my connection. She rebooked me for the next morning, no questions asked! I just had to wait the night in the JFK terminal.

I have done many self-transfers including a few on Norwegian where I couldn't get the boarding pass in advance. I just asked for one at the gate when the agents finally arrive and never had a problem, even close to departure.

Once i bought 2 tickets mrs-fco, one with az the other one with fr, before a long haul from fco. Thankgod i did not have to fly fr, even if i've lost €15 ...

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Some of us book 2 onward flights at the same time when the gap between flights is less than about 2 hours... one being if all goes well... and another one many hours later or the next day (ideally refundable / changeable or at a very cheap price) as a backup.

I thought about that. In my case, the time I was booking the self-transfer connection, there was a flight the following day for 10€.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

With all the money I've saved so far by self-transferring, I could buy that new onward flight and in the long term come out about equally expensive.

That's a point

davidjohnson6 wrote:

most FAs will usually let you change seats to the front of the aircraft before landing so you can be first off and able to run.

Ok. Or booking a seat beforehand in one of the front rows.

eastafspot wrote:

Once i bought 2 tickets mrs-fco, one with az the other one with fr, before a long haul from fco. Thankgod i did not have to fly fr, even if i've lost €15 ...

lol

In my stated self-transfer I booked it with the kiwi.com guarantee. To check it out in case of missing the onward flight.

Have you all ever booked a self-transfer flight on kiwi.com? It covers missed onward flights in a limited way.

Their contribution for a new flight depends on the price you payed for the unused flight. So the contribution may not be high if the unused flight was 30€ and the new onward flight is 250€

This is the legal text from the T&Cs:

In case We are unable to find (a) reasonable alternate Flight(s) or other means of transportation due to a disproportionate price difference between the potential alternate transportation and the original price for the unused Flights, We may agree with You on Our proportional contribution to the costs associated with the mutually agreed alternate transportation. This option will be determined and agreed upon on a case-by-case basis.

Please note that You are always obliged to contact Us and obtain Our confirmation before purchasing ticket(s) for the alternate transportation on Your own, otherwise You will not be entitled to the refund of its price hereunder.

airlinenavigato wrote:

Have you all ever booked a self-transfer flight on kiwi.com? It covers missed onward flights in a limited way.

No, I haven't and likely I never will. Kiwi.com is a great site to find possible self-transfer options, but when booking them I look up the individual flights and book them separately. This saves a significant amount of money, Kiwi.com just adds way too much to the price. So much that a self-transfer, which otherwise would be the cheapest option, now suddenly comes out more expensive than a through-ticket because of Kiwi.com.

For example I found these prices for a flight on September 14th this year:

Wizzair Eindhoven - Belgrade € 24.99
Wizzair Belgrade - Abu Dhabi € 27.74
Total € 52.73

Kiwi.com charges € 76 for this option, that's € 23.27 just to be protected. For a 5 hour 45 minutes transfer, I don't find that necessary. I'll make that connection anyway, Kiwi.com does not have to protect me.

By the way, isn't it amazing that you can fly from Eindhoven to Abu Dhabi for as little as € 52.73 one-way? No way you can get that on a through-ticket or even on a direct flight, it's self-transfer that makes these low prices possible.

Self-transfer connections are nice.

In my stated case the kiwi.com guarantee was around 5€ I remember. But the onward flight of the self-transfer connection was around 15€. So kiwi may would only have participated up to 15€ for a new onward flight

In this example I find the kiwi.com guarantee meaningful:

First from Vienna to Frankfurt. There around 2 hours layover and a 1.000€ onward flight to Australia. In this example this is the only connection that fits and the kiwi.com guarantee costs around 50€. So in case of missing the flight to Australia, kiwi.com would participate for a new onward flight with around 1.000€ as far as I see it.