The 16 short-term missionaries leaving Dallas were excited as they loaded onto an American Airlines flight to Miami. There they would connect to an Avianca Airlines flight to Colombia, South America where they planned to serve the next week. That excitement, however, soon turned to concern when a mechanical problem delayed their Dallas departure by 90 minutes.
Would they still make their connection?
Once the plane pulled into the Miami airport, the team made a mad dash from one end of the terminal to the Avianca gate at the opposite end—but they were too late. Their flight to Barranquilla, their Colombian destination, was gone and there were no more flights that day.
What now?
One of the team members had what is called a through ticket, and American Airlines put her on another flight that got her to Barranquilla. The other 15 team members, however, had what are called separate tickets. American wouldn’t do anything for them. Avianca couldn’t either at the time. The team would spend the night in Miami, with 12 getting out the next day on different flights, and the remaining three two days later.
It was unfortunate, but this team learned the hard way the difference between through tickets and separate tickets. A through ticket simply means that you are booked in one reservation on one ticket all the way through to your final destination, even if it means connecting to different airlines. On a through ticket, it means that there is one airline that has primary responsibility to get you where you are going.
Separate tickets mean you have a different reservation, and a different ticket, for two or more airlines to get you to your final destination. On a separate ticket, it is only the airline’s responsibility to get you to where you are flying on their airline, not necessarily to make your connection.
The team that was stuck in Miami had to pay for their own hotel and food during their delay. Had they been delayed on a through ticket, the carrier that made them late probably would have covered their hotel and meals. That carrier also would have worked with the connecting airline to find seats, or they would have put the team on a third airline to get them to their destination.
Sometimes separate tickets are unavoidable or even desirable. We’ll discuss that in our next blog as well as give tips to keep in mind when traveling on separate tickets.