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Wondered if anyone could give any insight / has any direct experience with the below itinerary or something similar. Appreciate different people will have had different experiences, and there’s a lot of info out there already.
Itinerary:
LHR > Rome FCO (BA, Avios)
FCO > Phuket HKT (Qatar, cash)Return itinerary
HKT > AMS (Qatar, cash)
AMS > LHR (BA, Avios)Some questions…
1. Assuming BA at LHR won’t check baggage through onto Qatar & final destination, then I’ve got 2.5 hours in Rome based on current plans. Delays aside, does that feel enough for a self transfer specifically at FCO? Anyone done that there?
2. As above, but AMS on the return, a 3 hour self transfer. Again, any experiences of self transfer in AMS?
3. And has anyone had any experience on whether my assumption on not checking through is correct? I’ve read various different reports of varying ages. Some suggest Qatar more willing than BA (so more likely on the return leg).
Thanking you! FYI doing this given a significant £2k saving as opposed to flying London > HKT on a single stop route in J.
BA won’t interline even if the separate ticket is on BA.
At AMS it can take an age for bags to come out. I’ve waited 30 mins but also an hour for bags from a SH flight so who knows how long it could be for a long haul.
Check in / bag drop at AMS for BA closes an hour before departure which catches some out. So those 3 hours you think you have are actually 2 (similar to FCO check the check in / bag drop deadline and subtract that from the time between landing and scheduled departure)
Qatar should check through to BA which is good as AMS you have big distances to cover and often queues.
Rome on paper will be fine, not a huge airport but consider what you’ll do if BA is delayed/ cancelled especially at the last minute. At that point your Qatar ticket will likely be very costly to change and you’ve no chance of finding another way there in time. I’d always go the night before personally (especially as a night in Rome is no major hardship!)
Great advice @SamG
The only time I have travelled with a connection on separate tickets, I had a contingency reward flight booked for a couple of days later in case I missed the connection. I made the connection comfortably, but having the backup flights gave me peace of mind and was well worth the £70 cancellation fee.
Thanks everyone – solid advice as always!
You have to look at what you’re risking – on the way back, buying a one way from AMS with either cash or avios won’t bankrupt you. That, allied to QR’s through checking policy means I’d be pretty happy with it.
On the way out, if your flight misses it’s slot and is delayed an hour you are immediately stuffed – you’ve lost your entire long haul itinerary. As other’s have said, I would recommend going the day before, and making sure there are at least a couple of backup options you could take.
There’s no way of avoiding risk with separate tickets, but spending some of the £2k saving on a hotel and a nice day in Rome will go a long way to reducing it.
As an added point, for the way back if you’ve not already booked your positioning flight back from AMS you could think about booking for cash and potentially using Same Day Change once you are a bit more sure of when you’re going to get there.
Something I’d add (from a self-transfer easyjet to QR in MXP earlier this year) is, depending on your passport, beware of the queues at to enter/exit the Schengen area.
Some airports are better than others, I’ve always found Germany to be slowest as they seemingly quiz every passenger about the why/where/when of their trip.
Enjoy the trip!
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