If a flight delay causes you to miss your connecting flight, what happens?

I am trying to find the cheapest flight from Canada to India. It seems like I will likely end up booking through something like itravel2000, or some flight aggregating website.

My only concern is flight delays. Even if I'm flying with partnered airlines (like Air Canada & Lufthanza), I am concerned that if the first flight is delayed and causes me to miss the second one, will the partnered (or non-partnered) airlines take responsibility & get me to my destination, at no additional cost? Or will I have to fight with the third-party company (like itravel2000) from a foreign airport? Or will I have to pay for additional flights on my own?

Someone must have experience with this! The terms and conditions are a bit confusing.

In case of a flight delay/missed connection, the airline will re-book you on the next available flight if you bought your ticket from Canada all the way to India and the record/confirmation number reflects this. In fact, you may find that this is already done when the delayed flight lands.

If you buy two separate tickets -- say Canada to Bangkok; then a different ticket with a different record number, from Bangkok to Delhi, you will be on your own in case of a missed connection, and you will also have to deal with your luggage mid-trip.

There is a "legal connection time" in between flights, usually about an hour -- when you book your ticket ask for a little longer connection time - maybe 2 hours - just to give you peace of mind.

No: 1: Do not nickel-n-dime Make sure your ticket is on the same PNR, meaning that it us booked as one rather as two disjointed ones.

No:2: If you are flying same alliance, in this case StarA, it is most likely they will rebook you as pinkyparker mentioned above.

No:3. Don't always choose a itinerary that looks to close to each other during the winter, specially if there is only one flight from your intermediary airport to your final destination.

No: 1: When booking through aggregating websites, are all of the tickets for one flight (that have been booked at the same time, from my end) automatically booked "as one" on the same "PNR"? What is a PNR?

No:2: I know that Air Canada and Lufthanza are in an alliance. Is there a specific term used for these alliances, so that I can Google airlines & check this before booking?

If you use a reputable online web booking engine, you will get a ticket in the same PNR (Passenger Name Record) If you are not already one, become a member of Air Canada frequent flyer. Plug this number in to the website while booking. This will insure that both the airlines AC and LH are looking at the same record in case of any issues.

The term used is called airline alliances. There are three alliances and many bilaterals. The three alliances are One World, Star Alliance and Skyteam.

In addition to googling airlines, try www.mobissimo.com It does a good job searching out fares.

Also you might think of using a consolidator -- they sell air at heavily discounted prices, but be aware that there are hefty change/cancellation fees. You can ask your travel agent about them (some only sell to agents) or look at www.jaxfax.com to get an idea of bottom-line prices and the phone numbers of companies that sell to the public. Jaxfax archives past issues and the link to the Oct, 2012 issue is: http://www.jaxfaxmagazine.com/Editor...1012/view.html

Remember that its not necessary to fly in/out of the same city. You could fly into Delhi, but home from Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai,etc. so you don't have to backtrack.

I just booked Turkish Airlines departing 3rd week Nov/12, coming back Feb/13, Toronto to Mumbai $1195 all in, 4 hours layover in Istanbul with two free bags. One PNR and if any of the flights are delayed its the airlines responsibility to accommodate me till the final destination.

sthakur