Low cost/No frills airlines--cancellation issues?

[nycruise1]

I would only fly in the day before a cruise to have a buffer, but in the event of a cancellation, I have read it is much more difficult to get rebooked.  These airlines do not have agreements with other airlines nor extra planes and crews, so if your flight is cancelled it could be days before getting on another flight.  Or having to grab a last minute flight on another airline whatever the cost.  I guess insurance could help with this, but it still could be a scramble.  Does anyone know if this is true, that with a cancellation, the budget airlines are not very flexible?

[CruiserBruce]

Which ones are you talking about...there is no blanket statement that fits all. Southwest has as many planes per their needs as anyone, and is known for their flexibility. But some other low cost carriers, like Frontier and Spirit, for example, don't. 

 

Yes, most don't have agreements with other carriers for backup.

[Budget Queen]

Any time there is a cancellation-    There are only so many empty seats left on alternative flights.   There are countless variables but everything you speculate, can and does happen.    

[iancal]

It is not just an issue with interlines.  

 

You also need to be aware of your ticket fare code on the airline.  If there is a delay or flight cancellation that requires a change or flight or re-route the airlines have a priority system for who gets re-routed first.  It starts with first class and business.  Then full fare economy.  After that, in economy there may be multiple fare codes depending on what you paid for your fare. 

 

The other wrinkle is if you have checked bags and where they are.   We were fortunate enough to avoid an overnight in Dulles (weather issue)  because we were travelling with carry on and could board a different connecting flight immediately.  The first thing we are ever asked in these circumstances is 'do you have checked bags'.  When we have connecting snow zone flights in the winter we pay attention to the connection city and to our fare code.

Edited November 30, 2019 by iancal

[waterbug123]

On 11/29/2019 at 3:21 PM, nycruise1 said:

I would only fly in the day before a cruise to have a buffer, but in the event of a cancellation, I have read it is much more difficult to get rebooked.  These airlines do not have agreements with other airlines nor extra planes and crews, so if your flight is cancelled it could be days before getting on another flight.  Or having to grab a last minute flight on another airline whatever the cost.  I guess insurance could help with this, but it still could be a scramble.  Does anyone know if this is true, that with a cancellation, the budget airlines are not very flexible?

 

It's not that they TRY to be inflexible.  But sometimes an airline like Spirit will only fly a particular route a couple of times per week.  So the next flight could be 2-3 days later.  And yes, it's true that budget airlines like Spirit (Frontier, Allegiant) don't interline with anyone so you have zero chance of them rebooking you on another airline. 

As for insurance....insurance won't help you rebook.  Insurance is there to reimburse you, but it isn't a magic pill to help you get rebooked.  Also, the terms of insurance policies vary greatly so read ALL the fine print.  Sometimes insurance will only cover you if the delay/cancellation is for certain reasons.  Or it might cover you if delayed but only if the delay is beyond a certain length of time...and your delay might be enough to cause you to miss a cruise but not enough to meet the threshold for an insurance claim.

[iancal]

When we buy consolidator class tickets, either from the cruise line or on the web, we are very careful about two things.  First-we want a major carrier who has multiple flights daily.  We do not want the last flight of the day.  I take note of those flights and times just in case one of our flights is delayed.

 

Second, if there is a connection, we want to be on the same airline for the second flight AND we want to ensure that the airline has multiple flights to our final destination.   We only do carry on now so checked bags are never an issue for us.

 

We picked up a one way consolidator class ticket on BA from Toronto to Istanbul.  We had a few choices.  We selected BA because they had, at that time, three flights a day to LHR.  We took the earliest. Plus, they had the same for LHR to Istanbul.    Had the same on BA coming back from Barcelona to Calgary.  Coming home we did not care about the limited sched with only one flight daily from BCN to Calgary.