Article: Airlines, Please Stop Selling Ridiculously Tight Connections

[AFF Editor]

Canonical URL

https://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/airlines-selling-ridiculously-tight-connections/

Airlines, Please Stop Selling Ridiculously Tight Connections is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Airlines, Please Stop Selling Ridiculously Tight Connections

Too many airlines are selling tickets with unrealistic connection times. These look good on paper, but can easily become inconvenient for passengers and costly for the airline... as I found out this week.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[kpc]

I agree but sometimes there is no choice....eg only 1 flight a day and no later flight or points ticket with no later option.

I have sucessfully done 45 mins at Vie, 50 mins at Sin and 45 mins (late inbound) at Cph....all small airports but then you worry if your checked bag will make it!

At some airports eg Lax, Fra and Lhr even 2 hours transit may not be enough!

 

[CaptJCool]

I laughed at your MAD connection

Got this 1 hr 5 min connection time at Sydney in November heading to South Africa so that’ll be entertaining arrive 8.25 depart 9.30

 

[DAC1]

Got this 1 hr 5 min connection time at Sydney in November heading to South Africa so that’ll be entertaining arrive 8.25 depart 9.30

Isn’t SYD MCT now 1.30?

 

[AFF Editor]

Isn’t SYD MCT now 1.30?

There seems to be an exception for connections off QF730, the 6am departure from ADL to SYD. This specific connection still has a 60-minute MCT because otherwise a bunch of connections from ADL to Qantas international destinations out of Sydney would not be possible on the same day.




I can understand why Qantas does this, but good luck to anyone trying to connect from QF730 to an international flight departing at 09:30 today!

 

[FlyingKangaroo]

I laughed at your MAD connection

Got this 1 hr 5 min connection time at Sydney in November heading to South Africa so that’ll be entertaining arrive 8.25 depart 9.30

If it's any consolation, QF 63 is routinely and chronically late too, so that may work to your advantage.

 

[offshore171]

YES! Very good idea for a column.

The stupidest example is where there’s an AU domestic flight connecting to a long international sector with a tiny layover in say Sydney.

The domestic flight runs about 20 times a day, whereas the International flight runs once, yet they put you on the tightest possible domestic service.

I can only imagine it is for people using search engines like Google flights, and sorting by fastest trip.

 

[gaz0303]

The MAD example in the article is a reason why I have no problems with short connection times. If booked on a single ticket, you get looked after if things go wrong. If all works out well, you have minimum travel time. I have to connect most flights, and personality type doesn’t get stressed by the changes. Also hope my destination is better than any airport lounge.

I would be annoyed if MCTs increased based on my success rate of making connections.

QF have cancelled an upcoming connection and rebooked me on an earlier flight that departs 5 minutes prior to arrival of the inbound flight. I’ll be making some changes to that booking.

 

[justinbrett]

There seems to be an exception for connections off QF730, the 6am departure from ADL to SYD. This specific connection still has a 60-minute MCT because otherwise a bunch of connections from ADL to Qantas international destinations out of Sydney would not be possible on the same day.

View attachment 432344


I can understand why Qantas does this, but good luck to anyone trying to connect from QF730 to an international flight departing at 09:30 today!

There is a very specific exception of QF's BNE MCT, that applies only to QF2382 (CBR-BNE) connecting to QF57 (BNE-POM) for 1:10, instead of the normal 1:15.

Also didn't you just write an article saying that seats.aero has replaced ExpertFlyer, and here you are screenshotting ExpertFlyer!

 

[eastwest101]

Good article Matt and yes your Madrid connection ended up costing the airline much more than the value of the ticket.

As for domestic connections in Australia, you just need a shower of rain/windy day or one ATC controller calling in sick in either BNE MEL or SYD and the entire network and fleet schedule of all the domestic airlines goes out the window for the entire day.

I don't mind that they offer such short connections as I can decide as to whether the 'risk' is worth it. Still, with some domestic destinations with only one flight per day and what seems like decreased frequency post-Covid, you essentially have to book a tight connection sometimes or make what should be a one-day trip into an overnighter, all airline schedules seem to have fewer aircraft overnighting in non-domestic hubs (that's probably a cost and crewing shortage issue) so that also seems to have limited the choices for flights to non-BNE MEL SYD places later on in the evening, which then also exacerbates the problem. Maybe the airlines should only offer tight connections if they have a viable backup plan (i.e. a later flight to the same destination on the booked itinerary that isn't full or overbooked already).

 

[Flyerwin]

After falling for tight connections recommended by Qantas twice and missing flights, I manually change it to add an extra hour or so now.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

But the other thing to consider is airline schedule padding.

Our recent DXB-SIN is blocked at 7hrs15. Actual was 6hrs40, and it’s been that way for the last 10 days. Our internal flights in Europe were also padded by 15 to 20 mins. SYD-MEL is now blocked at 1hr35, but rarely is the flight time more than 1hr5 mins to 1hr15.

When flights run according to schedule MCT is pretty workable. It’s really only the occasions when there are delays that it becomes an issue, or when airlines have unrealistic turn-around times.

Is it worth penalising pax on the flights that run to schedule?

 

[CaptJCool]

On my last trip in Europe I transited through MAD Around 6 times.

What doesn’t help is the airport is long and narrow and for international flights they’re out on the satellite terminal serviced by the. Underground driverless train

While the connection time was short, I got connected each time albeit the second flight was late on some occasions so that helped

 

[SYD]

Yeah, I would want a decent buffer connecting at MAD. It can be hard enough just departing from there and getting beyond the DF maze!

But WCMO is when you book a trip and then there’s schedule changes - invariably, your inbound is now scheduled to arrive later and outbound scheduled to depart earlier… (but still meets MCT).

SYD+1 had that with QR and DOH recently. Fortunately, it was a rare instance of air bridge arrival AND air bridge departure - no buses transfer but a brisk walk between gates. I was texting arrival and departure gate info because the onboard connecting gate info hasn’t worked for years…. PAX and luggage arrived safely - coincidently to MAD.

 

[stm1sydney]

The MAD example in the article is a reason why I have no problems with short connection times. If booked on a single ticket, you get looked after if things go wrong.

But you get squeezed onto the next flight with a really poor seat (if in whY), compared to my carefully selected seat on the original flight. Could end up being very uncomfortable.

 

[elanshin]

There seems to be an exception for connections off QF730, the 6am departure from ADL to SYD. This specific connection still has a 60-minute MCT because otherwise a bunch of connections from ADL to Qantas international destinations out of Sydney would not be possible on the same day.

View attachment 432344


I can understand why Qantas does this, but good luck to anyone trying to connect from QF730 to an international flight departing at 09:30 today!

View attachment 432345

The only silver lining is QFi are often delayed these days that you'll probably still be fine


Overall though, i agree with the sentiments. And this is for well travelled people that often know what they're doing and are reasonably familiar or well researched about their transfers.

Turn that into a family of 4 with 2 small kids, unfamiliar environment, its easy to turn what would be a 30 min transfer into a 1.5h slog.

 

[Gold Member]

I appreciate and agree entirely with the intent of the article, but sometimes there’s a silver lining for those who have flexibility and plan for outcomes in their favour. I’m definitely in the minority here, but sometimes I deliberately go out of my way to book the tightest and most unrealistic connection in places like SYD and specific European cities. Why? Given the high likelihood of misconnection and the fact that the Airline is responsible for looking after your accommodation and meals, why not? For most leisure travellers without imminent tour/cruise or fixed non-refundable bookings at the other end, it’s an option worth considering. Besides, most of us take out travel insurance which covers these sort of delays anyway (minus the excess) if it did impact you negatively.

I plan for the misconnections by leaving a little flexibility in my trip itinerary and by making a flexible hotel booking at the destination for one night. I then cancel that night if the connection is unsuccessful. This gives me more time in my current destination (assuming I actually want to spend more time there), and it’s free. In Europe I even get paid a bucket load via EU261 for the pleasure. I prioritise Airlines with whom I have status and/or partner status if possible to increase my chances of a nicer hotel and meal allowance etc.

What makes it even sweeter is knowing that the Airline is paying. In a very small way, it’s some sort of karma for all the excessive devaluations and mistreatment of their loyal customers.

 

[wandering_fred]

Connection times at DFW are "interesting"
In a more general case, the airlines need to permit more reasonable connections when "disability assistance" is requested. Being last off the plane is not "helpful".
Fortunately I have not needed to use that option when I am solo wandering
FRed

 

[justinbrett]

Connection times at DFW are "interesting"
In a more general case, the airlines need to permit more reasonable connections when "disability assistance" is requested. Being last off the plane is not "helpful".
Fortunately I have not needed to use that option when I am solo wandering
FRed

DFW is one airport I’m happy to have a short connection time.

It’s so quick to navigate the airport even to other terminals thanks to the sky train. Many short connections I thought were crazy worked out just fine.

 

[Balad2005]

Airlines, Please Stop Selling Ridiculously Tight Connections is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Airlines, Please Stop Selling Ridiculously Tight Connections

Too many airlines are selling tickets with unrealistic connection times. These look good on paper, but can easily become inconvenient for passengers and costly for the airline... as I found out this week.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

I agree , outbound a month ago on Emirates through DBX and had one hour and 20 minutes to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1. Our inbound flight was a little late .Doable but tight as the security lane was a little slow. And there was a large Japanese tour group on the same line. Followed the red lines to catch the lifts and the train.Got to the gate 5 minutes before the boarding call. I watched a you tube walk through of DXB before I left which was useful as I haven't been through DBX in over a decade.