Buying Orbitz and changing airlines at layover

I had this problem when booking our flights for this coming May. We're on American to London then switching to BA to Prague. Buying on one website through the AA website (and all other websites) was 300 more per person than booking the second portion through the BA website. It was an agonizing decision for me because since I am not ticketed the whole way through I was worried we might miss the earlier flight to Prague that AA would have booked us on (2.5 hr layover) so to be safe I booked us on a later flight, but I figure for $900 (for the 3 of us) it was worth the hassle.

Greetings

It can work, but you have to be careful to leave A LOT of time to connect between flights. If your flight are not ticket through to your final destination, you will have to go through immigrations, get your luggage, pass through customs, then recheck in for your next flight, and go through security. You might be able to skip a step or two depending on the layout of the airport and the airlines involved, but it can be a very time consuming process.

Also, given the record of airlines these days with luggage, the fewer connections and changes of airlines, the better. Every connection and airline change is another opportunity for luggage to choose a more exotic destination - especially if you have a tight connection.

I would balance savings with the hassle of re-checking in and possible missed flights/lost luggage. It depends on your budget/thoughts, but I'd spend a $100-150 more to cut down on connections & changes.

Kate

If you book all legs with one airline and you miss a connecting flight, I think they take care of you, that is, they book you on another flight. But if your US Air first leg is late and causes you to miss your Lufthansa connection, is there a problem that could result in Lufthansa charging you additional money because it wasn't their fault that you missed your connecting flight? I don't know the answer but that is the question I would want to have answered. I've got a feeling that, at a minimum, you'd want to have extra layover time to minimize the chances of missing a connecting flight, when you're on two different airlines.

Michael -

There is a key factor here that is in your favor. US Airways and United are codeshare partners. Which means they have an excellent relationship with each other and regularly share flights. Additionally, Lufthansa and United are Star Alliance partners and also share flights.

How this helps you is that these carriers have baggage agreements and will check you all the way through from one destination to the next.

Sorry - I have 15 years in the travel industry and specialized with the airline carriers. I hope I made it understandable.

Hope that helps !!

Thanks everyone. I had thought those airlines partnered up some.
We are actually not planning on checking any luggage going and I believe the 2 layovers we'd have are 2 1/2 - 3 hours. Just a choice we'll have to make. As I said, i'd prefer to to buy direct from the airline as I normally do, but i'd also like to spend that money saved in Europe as opposed to the flight.

I would have absolutely no qualms about buying such flights through one of the many travel services. You will have all of the flights on the same itinerary making it easier for the airline counter personnel to get your boarding passes and check through any luggage you have. You also have the support of the travel service to get you rebooked in case of any problems.

I agree with Jeff, I've purchased many of these type of tickets via Orbitz without any problems. In my experience, even if the two airlines aren't partners you should still be able to check baggage through. Thus, you shouldn't have to exit the terminal and recollect your luggage, and if you need a boarding pass all you have to do head to a transfer desk.

We went SEA to Paris CDG this summer. We chose Air India (adventurous)and Continental through Newark. Orbitz notified us via email (when we were in the air, not terribly helpful) that our Air India flight had been cancelled. Air India was decent and got us rebooked on Continental to Paris only an hour after we were supposed to depart.
This was our second European adventure booked through Orbitz and I think it's our last. With all the delay difficulties that can happen. I think direct booking will be my preference in the future.

Darby- In all fairness you can't automatically blame Orbitz for the notification of the Air India cancellation. How would you have been better off if you had booked the flight directly with Air India?