Perils of a ‘self-transfer itinerary’

The Man Who Pays His Way: Beware ‘secret fares other sites cannot see’

A connection from Geneva to Liverpool was disrupted by a change of flight times (Getty)

Simon Calder, also known as The Man Who Pays His Way, has been writing about travel for The Independent since 1994. In his weekly opinion column, he explores a key travel issue – and what it means for you.

“I can only hope that adding your name to my complaint will lend some weight to it,” writes James. “And that easyJet will do the right thing by me and my situation.”

Many readers contact me when they feel unjustly treated by various parts of the travel industry, and I do what I can to advise. Here’s James’s story: he is taking his three children on their annual ski trip at Easter. Flights during the school holidays are expensive, as I demonstrated this week.

From Geneva to Liverpool, for example, the easyJet fare for an afternoon flight on Saturday 6 April is £228 – with baggage fees on top.

Through the online travel agent Kiwi, James found a cheaper deal, saving (at current prices) £90 per person. It involves flying from Geneva to Nice on easyJet, then changing to a Nice-Liverpool departure with the same airline.

Kiwi – based in the Czech Republic – claims to find “cheap flights other sites can’t see”. It assures prospective travellers: “Our self-transfer itineraries offer connections not covered by the carriers, so you can get to where you want to be.”

But its secret superpower needs to come with a large warning attached: you may not “get to where you want to be” without spending more cash.

Britain’s biggest budget airline is a point-to-point carrier. Each time you book an easyJet flight, the airline commits simply to getting you (and any baggage) from A to B. The impact of a modest delay on your onward plans is not easyJet’s concern. This places the airline in a very different position from “network” carriers.

If you book a connecting trip with British Airways, Air France or Lufthansa, and a delayed first leg means you miss the second part of the journey, staff must find a solution free of charge. The airline is also liable for meals, hotel costs and possibly cash compensation for a delay of three hours or more arriving at the your final destination. And any checked baggage will normally be automatically transferred at the hub, and you will see it only on arrival at your final airport.

In contrast, a self-transfer itinerary is not to be bought lightly. For each stage of the journey you must pick up your checked luggage and check it in again. And if the first part of your trip is delayed so badly that you miss the second flight, that is tough – although for an extra £27 per person, Kiwi sells what it calls a “guarantee” to find alternative flights if things go wrong.

In James’s case, easyJet moved the departure time of the first leg, from Geneva to Nice, 55 minutes later. That leaves a gap of only 70 minutes for getting off the plane, waiting for baggage, leaving the terminal through arrivals, walking around to bag-drop for the next leg, going through security, boarding the next aircraft and departing.

It might be just about doable – but a half-hour delay from Geneva to Nice, which would be nothing surprising with so much pressure on the skies, would scupper any chance of making the only plane of the day from Nice to Liverpool.

James continues: “Kiwi said my options were limited – pay for another set of flights or request a refund. I’ve requested a refund as I need the money to pay for the new flights. But easyJet says I’m not eligible for any refund on any part of the flights as the change is less than an hour. I’ve lost a staggering amount of money. Before I submit my complaint, is there anything you can recommend that I do?”

Unfortunately, I can only recommend that James does not waste time complaining to easyJet; minor changes to flight departure times happen frequently.

Throwing good money after bad is inevitable, with no great outcome that I can see. The least bad is buying seats (currently £39 each) on the early morning Geneva to Nice flight, with a long wait for the onward flight to Liverpool. But to make the 6.30am departure would require an outlandishly early start. Failing that, it may be a matter of discarding the first itinerary entirely, and booking the early (9.30am) Geneva-Liverpool flight, for which seats are “only” £173 each

I imagine James will avoid the innocent-sounding “self-transfer itinerary” in future, and I thank him for reminding others of the perils of booking “cheap flights other sites can’t see”.