Way to avoid two bookings for a flight?

score:6

Accepted answer

The largest risk is that you'll miss your connection. In this case you'll be considered a "no show" and lose your ticket. If it happens on the outbound flight, your return ticket will also be canceled.

This can be entirely out of your control, for example the first flight may be delayed. Still, you'll get no compensation from the company that ran late (possibly a small compensation for the delay, certainly not for the consequences).

In your case, the return flight is at very high risk. A slight delay, and these happen all the time, and you miss the connection.

In many cases there's no way to make one booking, or it will be a different price.

You can try kiwi.com - if you book with them they insure you against this problem. I don't know how useful is this coverage, and there's no guarantee they'll offer the price you want.

Another option is to spend a day at your intermediate destination. Have a short vacation in Madrid, and you'll surely catch your flight in spite of almost almost all delays.

Upvote:-2

There probably isn't a direct flight between Santiago and Dublin, so you will have to change planes somewhere. It is not really 2 bookings; it is a change of planes in Madrid onto a partner airline. The same happened to me when I flew London to Santiago - had to change planes in Buenos Aires from a BA flight to a LAN flight. And like on my trip, you will probably find yourself checked through to Dublin. You won't have to collect your baggage in Madrid and check in again, just follow the transfer signs, check the screens and show up at the right gate.

For the return however, 2:25 sounds quite short to transfer - there's little scope for problems. If you have the possibility to get an earlier flight from Dublin - perhaps an hour earlier - then take that. If not make sure you tell the checking staff about your short transfer time and maybe they will prioritise your disembarkation in Madrid.

Incidentally, LAN, BA and Iberia are all part of the same airline partnership, One World I think it is called. As such, they might well operate from the same terminal. You can use the airline's own websites, or the website for Madrid airport to check this kind of thing.

Upvote:6

Why two bookings? Because that is how the website works, it pairs up cheap seperate routes to create a bigger round trip.

Two bookings often means no checked through bags.

It also means no protection for delayed flights, so if the first is late and you miss the second you likely have to buy another ticket for the rescheduled second leg.

These cobbed together flights appear cheap initially, but get very expensive if things go south.

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