What if I miss a connection and don't have money to book next flight?

Missing a connection is a real risk of travelling by air.

Let’s look at some of the possible scenarios:

• You’re delayed in arriving at the airport: It shouldn’t happen and you should most certainly have scheduled your arrival at the airport a minimum of an hour beforehand for a national flight and preferably two hours, for an international flight at least three hours. Your immediate course of action is to explain the situation to an airline representative at their desk at the airport and though they’ve no obligation to help you, they’ll very often, especially if the reason is convincing, do their best to put you on a later flight on which they’ve plenty of space.

• You catch your first flight but it arrives late and you miss your connection for another flight which is not on the same ticket: It shouldn’t happen — if you’re on a multi-leg journey you should always leave plenty of time between different legs of the journey and especially so if the flights are not on the same ticket. It’s exceedingly unwise not to have all the legs on the same ticket. If they’re not, then all you can do, realistically, is again explain the situation really nicely to a representative of the airline on which you were booked to fly the next leg. If you’re there, present at their desk, there’s a reasonable chance that if a later flight has plenty of space they may book you on that at no extra charge. You have no rights in that instance, but representatives at the desk are often very good at helping when they can. Much better than an airline representative working from an office and speaking to you on the end of a phone. Remember that a good travel agent can often get a multi-leg journey using several different airlines on the same ticket when you yourself can’t. Remember too, never accept tight connections. For major international and especially intercontinental connections, aim to leave at least three hours between scheduled arrival and scheduled departure of the next flight. More if the interconnection is in the USA which has no transfer lounges.

• The first leg of your flight results in a late arrival at the transfer point and you miss your connection for the next leg of your flight, both legs being on the same ticket and the minimum specified connection time has been allowed when booking the flights: In this instance you’re in a totally different situation and the airline responsible for the second leg of your journey has a duty to get you to your destination either by booking you on one of their own later flights or by rerouting you by a flight or flights on another airline so that you reach your ultimate destination without undue delay. Don’t stand on your dignity, but you’ll probably find the representatives of the second airline more than keen to help you out. Irrespective of that duty on their part, it is exceedingly unwise to accept a transfer which allows only the minimum amount of time between flights.

Airports can be very big, very confusing places.

• Check in online where that’s practicable
• Leave plenty of time to find your way to the check-in desk if you have no realistic option but to check in in person
• Get through security to airside at the earliest possible opportunity — security lines can be horrendous
• Locate the gate for your flight as soon as possible and get a seat where you see both the gate and a departures board
• Keep monitoring the departures board at least every five minutes
• Don’t assume that your flight will be called — quite often that doesn’t happen. Even when it does, if you’re in a foreign airport you may not make out what’s said. Even in your own country you may not understand what’s said. I’ve had occasion plenty of times to say, even in my own country, to the staff on duty at the departure gate “I didn’t understand a word of that announcement” — and that’s from someone who speaks three languages fluently and has a working knowledge of a lot more: I’ve heard plenty of announcements in Chinese which are a lot more intelligible than some announcements in London Heathrow.
• Don’t assume that a flight call necessarily specifies the correct gate — sometimes a flight may simply be wrong.
• Don’t assume that the departures board is correct. Late gate changes don’t always make it to the departures board.
• Gate changes may be very last minutes. I’ve seen a last minute sprint at Houston for a gate change going on to the departures board and announced only five minutes before actual gate closing time — and that plane left without a lot of its intended passengers.
• If nothing is happening at the gate 15 minutes before scheduled departure it’s past time to start asking what’s going on. Often it’s just airline gate staff incompetence, but if you’re at the right place there are going to be other passengers there and it does no harm to check that they’re heading for the same flight. Ask, ask and ask again.
• Remember that in some airports each gate may have several different doors. Schiphol (AMS) is a large airport which is a prime example of this. It’s very confusing because in fact although it’s described as a “door” and there may be several “doors” under each gate number, each “door” is in practical terms a gate. No use simply assuming that because you’re in the right gate area that you’re actually at the correct point for catching your plane which may be boarding via a door some distance from the one you’re sitting near.

I’m not sure how it’s different for connecting flights, but this actually happened to me on a single leg.

I missed an easyJet flight from Venice to Paris after arriving late at the airport due to delays with public transport. In reality, you are possibly stuck, unless, like some other people mentioned, the airline bails you out. In my case, easyJet had no mercy on me for alternative arrangements, but they did give me a partial refund for the flight a few weeks later.

I arrived at Marco Polo airport about 5 minutes after the gate closed, so I immediately reported to the airline desk to explain my situation. They had no solution for me, except that I could either book a seat on an Air France flight for 12,800 euros and I had to be at the gate in 8 minutes or forfeit the money. My other option was to take a flight 2 days later and pay 3,400 euros.

I only had around 3,000 euros of credit available to me, which I think many of us will agree should have been sufficient “emergency funds.” In the end, I got a night train to Paris for around 890 euros. I had to take a taxi to Santa Lucia station and wait 5 hours for the train, which arrived in Paris around 20 hours later due to more delays.

So, at least for me, the solution was to find cheaper transport. My initial flight cost 80 euros, plus 30 euros for a pre-booked taxi to pick me up in Paris, a total of 110 euros. Even with the budget option, I lost 980 euros. (I got a 20 euro refund)

The moral of the story – don’t miss your flights, have enough emergency funds, and travel insurance. Leave a long enough connection time between your land transport and your plane, otherwise, you won’t be able to claim from travel insurance either.

Airlines often overbook flights so they won’t have empty seats if someone doesn’t show up.
Occasionally, they’ll actually ‘bump’ people off a flight that have a reservation because they overbooked and everybody showed up.

So just because you miss your flight doesn’t mean that the airline took off with an empty seat. They may have filled it with someone who would otherwise have gone on the next flight but was waiting in case someone didn’t show up to go on the earlier flight.

Since that guy took your seat and paid for it, they can give you the seat he would have had without losing money.
I think in that case they would be more likely to allow you out on a later flight without charge.

The only way to know for sure is to read the fine print of every carriers policies because those are the legally binding policies and thus the ones they’re most likely to follow.

Still, to be safe, I would assume it’s going to cost you if you miss one and, if at all possible, have the money to purchase another ticket.
If you don’t, then at that point, you’re homeless in an airport and it becomes security’s job to remove you if you have no legal business there.
The world is cruel.

People become homeless not because they were able to deal with the unexpected.
People become homeless because they weren’t able to deal with the unexpected.

You can panhandle but that’s probably illegal in an airport and often illegal in most places. So the next place alot of people end up is in jail. It’s called a string of cascading negative events and it can ruin lives if you don’t have anyone to help you or the money to help yourself.

Get some money. Try and find the cheapest trip home.

If you have an ID with you, ask family/friends for a Western Union remittance.

If you have no ID, the remittance with them might be possible, but the amounts allowed are limited.

Sell something you have with you. Try a pawn shop. They won’t offer you a fair price, but solve your liquidity problem.

The issue here, though, is to have backup plans upfront.

While this is a real fear of everyone with a connecting flight, it’s actually not something that is very likely to hurt you. First, precisely because you worry about this, you’re not likely to get so distracted that you forget why you are at the airport. Second, the airline pages people who are in danger of missing their flights. Hearing your own name should snap you out of your daydream pretty quickly. I’ve even seen airline staff wandering around other gates asking people if they are the missing passenger.

On top of that, airlines have some leeway to help you out. You’re right there, you’re upset, and you have some sort of story to explain what happened. They will probably just take care of you for little or no charge. I’ve missed two planes in my life — both in Atlanta as it happens — and one was not my fault (taxi arrived very late then broke down on the way to airport and limped me there after a partial roadside repair) and the other was totally my fault (spaced and thought my 14:30 flight was at 4:30). In both cases I was put on the next flight no fuss no muss even though it was clearly my fault in the second case. I understand it wasn’t a connection, but leeway is leeway and I am quite sure there’s no “only if you had trouble actually reaching the airport” rule.

Then finally, few people who can fly cannot come up with the funds for a ticket home. Yes, putting hundreds of dollars on your credit card would hurt, and might leave you with a bunch of issues when you get home about how to pay rent or buy groceries, but you could at least get home and show up for work so you keep getting a paycheque.

However, let’s pretend all these incredibly unlikely things materialize: you are on your way home with no cash, nothing in your bank account, no room on your credit card, no line of credit, nothing, and you zone out and semi-deliberately miss your flight and the airline takes no pity on you and says “$400 or sit here for the rest of your life, we don’t care.” You can call your family or friends. Some will be alert for a “Grandma scam” but you can probably convince someone that you’re really you and you need them to go to the website of a rival airline and buy you a ticket home. (You’re not going to give money to the people who wouldn’t take pity on you, are you?) If you are an orphan or all your other family members are as tapped out as you, then I suppose a GoFundMe and a social media campaign are your next step, though that might take a few days.

You’re far more likely to get a bad sunburn, a jellyfish sting, or food poisoning, not to mention the dreaded “caught a cold on a plane” than you are to find yourself stranded because you missed a connecting flight. If this truly worries and concerns you and you can’t talk yourself out of it, spend your connection time at the outgoing gate, and check every 15 minutes that the gate hasn’t changed, while never ignoring a single overhead announcement. That’s what most of us do anyway, and it will protect you from this highly unlikely scenario. (At least, better than sitting in a restaurant 20 minutes from the gate drinking, ignoring announcements, etc.)

Your options not necessarily in order of preference are:

1. Call Family and ask

2. Call Friends and mooch off them

3. Setup a Gofundme and compose a tearjerker

4. Ask random strangers at the airport

5. Camp out at the airport until the airline or airport authorities have mercy on you (Scroll to 32:30 mark of video)

6. If you’re a citizen of another country and missed your flight home in a foreign airport, your embassy might lend you funds to get back to your home country. You will likely have to pay them back. Emergency Financial Assistance for U.S. Citizens Abroad

7. I would have said call the airline frequent flyer/customer service number however you’ve already indicated the airline refuses to help.

Note

Because this is a connection flight you can’t rely on the flat tire rule to help you out.