Travel question: Should we fly earlier to avoid a tight connection?

Q My sister and her fiance have booked a honeymoon from Northern Ireland to Australia for a month. They booked it as a package holiday (a number of flights and hotels) with a local travel agent. They are due to fly from Belfast to Glasgow with Flybe then Glasgow to Dubai with Emirates for a few days’ stopover before they fly on to Australia. The connection time is quite short (90 minutes) and they are conscious Flybe flights are regularly delayed or cancelled from Belfast and they really don’t want to miss the flight from Glasgow to Dubai.

They have decided now they would prefer to fly to Glasgow the night before for peace of mind. They have been told by the travel agent the cost to change the Flybe flights to the day before would be £200 per person! If they book easyJet flights themselves online, the flights and luggage will only cost a total of £110. However, the travel agent has told them if they make their own arrangements and don’t board the Flybe flight from Belfast that all their other flights will be cancelled. Is this legally correct? Can they not just advise Emirates that they won’t be taking the Flybe flight from Belfast but still intend to board the Emirates flight in Glasgow and check in there?

Name withheld

A The policy of cancelling an entire itinerary if a passenger is a “no show” for the first flight is widespread. But I am glad to see that they booked the trip as a package through a travel agent with all the flights on one ticket. That means they can relax; there is certainly no need to travel to Scotland early.

The minimum connecting time at Glasgow between a domestic arrival and an international departure is 45 minutes, so they have twice as long between flights. In the unlikely event that there is any issue with the Flybe departure to Glasgow, it is likely to come to light at Belfast City well before departure. Airline staff will then need to work to get them an alternative route to Dubai – which might involve flying to Manchester or Birmingham and connecting with Emirates there, or switching to an entirely different airline – eg on British Airways via Heathrow.

At times of “irrops” – aviation jargon for “irregular operations” – there are many options, and staff are accustomed to finding appropriate solutions. This is, of course, at no charge to the passenger.

Even if a reroute is regarded as necessary, there are so many choices that I do not envisage a significantly late arrival at Dubai. But were there to be a long delay reaching Dubai for which Flybe or Emirates cannot claim “extraordinary circumstances”, then your sister and her fiance will be in line for compensation: €300 for arriving three to four hours late, or €600 for longer delays. And of course if an overnight stay becomes necessary, the airline must pay. I agree it would not be the ideal start to a honeymoon, but I think any disruption is most unlikely.

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