Minimum connection time between flights

[NauticalDan]

The TravelSafe Vacation Plan insurance has a missed connection benefit:

 

"If You miss Your cruise or tour departure because Your arrival at Your Trip destination is delayed for 3 or more hours, benefits will be paid, on a one-time basis, up to the Maximum Benefit Amount, for a) the Additional Transportation Cost to join the Trip and b) the unused portion of the prepaid expenses for land or water Travel Arrangements, due to: a) any delay of a Common Carrier (the delay must be certified by the Common Carrier); b) a documented weather condition preventing You from getting to the point of departure; c) quarantine, hijacking, Strike, natural disaster, terrorism or riot. These benefits will not duplicate any benefits payable under the policy or any coverage(s) attached to the policy."

 

I'm scheduled to arrive the night before a cruise. What isn't clear to me is if all the connecting flights have to be 3 hours apart to be covered by insurance? When searching for flights on the airline's website, most connections are only 1-2 hours or so.

[galipemi]

Well, your best bet is to clarify with the insurer directly. Having said that, I would interpret that language to read that your flight must be delayed a minimum of 3hrs to qualify, regardless of connection time.

 

Example:

 

Toronto - Chicago 0800 - 1000

Chicago - San Diego 1200 - 1700

 

If your flight from Toronto to Chicago is delayed due to one of the covered reasons for at least 3 hours then you would have the benefit. So, your flight could leave Toronto any time after 11am or land in Chicago any time after 1pm. Either way, minimum delay of 3 hours. You should also always make sure that your travel agent is following an airport's minimum connecting times. They have access to that info and generally, the ticketing system won't allow them to book lesser connections. Having said that, some airports have a very low minimum connecting time, especially if you have to change carriers or airports.

 

Anyways, just my two cents:)

[NauticalDan]

They said it didn't matter what the connection times were, just that you were more than 3 hours late to where the cruise was leaving from.

 

Not sure I believe that. There has to be some minimum time you have to leave between connecting flights. Hopefully nothing goes wrong and I don't have to deal with it!

[cruiseco]

They said it didn't matter what the connection times were, just that you were more than 3 hours late to where the cruise was leaving from.

 

Not sure I believe that. There has to be some minimum time you have to leave between connecting flights. Hopefully nothing goes wrong and I don't have to deal with it!

 

The minimum "legal" connecting times are published for each airport and vary depending on the circumstances of the connection. For example, if you're connecting from a domestic flight and have to make your way to a remote international terminal to catch an overseas flight the "legal" time will be more than a simple domestic to domestic connection. As previously noted, the various computerized reservations systems won't even show you a flight combination that does not meet these times.

 

Where people can get in trouble is if they book the two flights separately from one another so the res system can't check if they're meeting the minimum times. Say you booked one roundtrip to JFK and then a separate round trip from JFK to Heathrow only leaving yourself 1.5 hours for your connection. Maybe in the reservations systems that sequence of flights would not show up as the connection time at JFK domestic to international had to be 3 hours. If you have a problem that causes you to miss your flight the insurer could deny your claim.

 

Here's one place to find these times:

 

http://airtravel.about.com/od/airports/a/mincnxworld.htm

 

That the info the insurer will use to decide if you cut your connecting times too short.

[NauticalDan]

That makes a lot of sense. The insurer told me that it didn't matter what the connecting times between flights was, but that didn't make a lot of sense to me. I figured of course it would matter. Maybe she was referring it to be all one ticket bought with the same airline.