The Risk of Illegal Connections

Allow me to

pour myself a beverage for a moment, climb into my La-Z-boy chair, light a

pipe, don my fedora, and tell you punk kids how it “used to be in the old days!”  Business travelers under 30 will be sad to

learn just how great it was!  Gather ‘round

children; you won’t hear me tell you that I used to walk a mile, uphill, in the

snow, to board my airplane, no sir.  The

fact is, airlines used to enjoy having you on board!  If you bought a ticket, they didn’t much care

if you used it or not, or where you might have got on, or gotten off the plane,

no sir.  They were just happy to collect

your money!  Seems the older I get, the

harder they make it to fly.  Yes sir,

they even served meals, and free coffee and snacks, and your bags were free

too, and…

OK, that’s

probably enough of that.  I do want to

carry one point a little bit further, however. 

“Back in the day,” it was simple for travelers to make some creative

connections.  For example, say you want

to fly from Orlando, Florida to Minneapolis, MN.  You look and you find a fare for $480.  If you dig a little more, you might find a

ticket from Orlando to Duluth, MN for $400 that has a layover in Minneapolis.  It sure seems like a good idea to buy the

cheaper ticket and then to simply get off the plane in Minneapolis, doesn’t it?  That might not be a good idea…

Here’s

another example.  Suppose you’re flying

from Boston to San Francisco and your itinerary leaves you with a three hour

layover in Phoenix.  It wouldn’t take

much digging to find two separate round trip tickets (perhaps even on two

different airlines), that allow you to minimize that layover time.  Heck, the combined cost of the round trips

might even be cheaper than the original flight! 

Doesn’t it seem like a better deal to match your round trip from Boston

to Phoenix with another round trip ticket from Phoenix to San Francisco?  It might, but…

Each of

these examples offers some attractive benefits and the truth is, it used to be

easy to do each of them.  You didn’t even

feel like you were “getting away with something!”  The airlines offered the option, you bought

it, and everybody won.  Well, not

anymore.  There are several truths

working against these options today. 

Consider the following:

• Airlines

  have significantly cut back the number of flights they offer and as a result,

  their timetables have become much tighter. 

  That flight from Boston to San Francisco probably only has a scheduled

  layover of 45 minutes today.

• Airlines

  have invested in much smarter computerized scheduling systems and most of the “cheaper

  ways around the country” have been discovered and eliminated.  There are still a few out there, but you (or

  your travel agent) would have to spend a significant amount of time finding

  them.  Is it worth it?  I say no.

• Since

  9/11/01, FAA security measures have forced airlines to be much more conscious of

  their passenger manifest.  If you exited

  the plane in Minneapolis before it were to continue on to Duluth, your name

  would be flagged and you’d have a devil of a time boarding the plane when it

  came back around to head back to Des Moines. 

  Planes aren’t allowed to leave the ground unless their passenger

  manifest (those who actually boarded) matches the list of bags they are

  carrying.  International flights are even

  more persnickety, they will cancel your entire reservation if you fail to

  board, in some cases.  So, it’s best to

  appear and board when you originally told them you would.

Yes

children, there was even a time when the upstairs cabin in a Boeing 747 had a

piano bar with a small dance floor.  I’m

not making that up!  It’s unfortunate

that the more technologically advanced we get, the more cumbersome and

difficult the airlines make it for us.

EXTRA: If you have questions for Ken regarding business travel,

hotels, airplanes, etc, please call 1-877-49-EXPERT.  Your questions will

be recorded and sent to him.  You can also follow Ken on Twitter

@foodbreeze!