Missed connection flight options?

I booked a flight from L.A. to Brazil for my wife, DIL & SIL with American Airlines. It was the shortest travel time (14 hours) and the cheapest flight. The one stop connecting flight is in Miami.

From what I've been seeing on the Internet, they are having a pilots/airline problem with some kind of slowdown by the pilots.

Here's my question, there's only 50 minutes between the landing of the first leg and switching planes for the second leg. I've been watching the flights for the last several days with the first leg being delayed almost every day making it impossible for them to switch planes in time.

What does the airline do to take care of the passengers if they miss the second leg? Both flights are with AA.

 

You will be in the computer system as connecting from one flight to the next.

If the delay isn't long the second flight will usually wait extra time for passengers from connecting flights that might be running late.


And with this part here: "with the first leg being delayed almost every day making it impossible for them to switch planes in time"

Is that just a guess on your part? When it comes to connecting flights a lot of people seem to think that they need an hour or two at the airport before the second flight leaves...

Because you are already past security and your bags will be moved for you, all you have to do is get off the first plane and go to the second plane. Yes, it can be a bit of a walk with how big some of these airports are, but usually its a walk most people can do in 10-15 or 20 minutes.

And the last thing: you are looking at the arrival times of when your flight leaves and checking the scheduled time of when your connection departs. You should be looking at the actual time the connection departs, which in just doing a quick peek looks like the connecting flight to Brazil tends to leave about 45 minutes late...

 

Thanks Auggie

I'm using Flight Aware to check the flights. I watch it from take off to landing for both legs. On three occasions, I've seen plane 2 take off before the first plane has landed.

My main problem is, if they have to wait for the next day, her relatives in Brazil won't know and I don't speak Portuguese. I'll just have her niece stay by her computer and she can use Google translate. They live about 3 hours away from the airport.

 

Don,
I've had that happen to me flying overseas where we acutally missed our connecting flight. We were stuck in Italy for an extra 12 hours so we had to get a hold of our family in the US and in the final destination to let them know we were stuck there. Best bet is to pickup a calling card for a couple bucks from a gas station and take that with her. At least if she misses her connecting flight she can use her cell phone or even find a pay phone and call them in Brazil to let them know not to go to the airport and to tell them when she actually will arrive.

If she misses the flight they'll probably try to put her on the next flight out. It might not even be with American Airlines. I don't know if they still put you up in a hotel if they can't get you on a flight till the next day.
If the flights have consistantly been late I would tell her to make sure she packs at least an extra day's worth of clothes in her carry on just to be on the safe side.

 

Sounds reasonable. And if your wife is delayed and finds out the new flight information, you can send that down as well. Another option - if your wife or other (US) family members have smartphones with Skype, they might be able to contact the Brazilian family that way. Though thinking on it (I've only used skype on my phone once) I think I need wifi access; it won't skype over 3g - but different networks might have different requirements.

Also, I've made tight connections like that in Altanta, DTW, MSP - other large & potentially confusing airports. So I agree that missing the flight isn't a given, even with a history of delays. We'll keep our fingers crossed for them!

 

you still allowed in the great state of Florida??



and yes the airline will normally get you on a flight if they booked you all the way through. happened to me a few times. be nice if things screw up and they may even upgrade you...

its the contacting the family the other end that'll be the problem.. can you just arrange to email them if you miss the connection - that way if they don;t hear from you they'll know its ok..

 

No they don't Mike, that's why I'm not going.

The problem with the next available flight is that they are ALL 23+ hour flights to her final destination of Recife. American Airlines is my unlucky airline, problems every time I've used them. Maybe the pilots slowdown will be over by February.