John Bingham wrote: ↑Tue Jan 30, 2024 5:52 pm

jaynewcastle wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 4:59 am Airports have MCT (minimum connection times), and airlines won't sell tickets that don't meet the MCT, but at least your connection is protected

Obviously there are many shoddy 3rd party agents who will however, including the ones that cobble single tickets together with unprotected connections

Dubai & Doha are well known for having short MCT's, and there is a city in Europe (think its Vienna off the top of my head), which also has a very short MCT

I've transited through Dubai with Emirates many times on short connections, only once came close to missing the flight, but Emirates delayed the departing flight to allow passengers to connect, as they often do

The shorter the connection, the more chance there is of missing the next flight of course if there are any delays, which is why I now book slightly longer transits through Dubai

I made the mistake of using one of those shoddy services in 2022. It was fine on the way from PP to Bangkok and then London Heathrow and on to Dublin. Except they lost my luggage somewhere. I got it back a few days later. Dublin Airport was a shambles just post COVID.

On the way back a couple of weeks later it was a disaster. Aer Lingus flight was late, missed LHR connection. Got put up in a hotel, flown back to Dublin the next morning. Took over a week of phone calls to almost uncontactable Trip.com and visits to airport before we finally flew back to LHR. Again the Aer Lingus flight was delayed and missed connection. Put up in a hotel again, arranged the replacement flight the next morning. Went into London for the first time in 20 years and met a few old friends. That was okay. Luggage got lost again but BKK were very helpful so got it delivered in Phnom Penh next day. The other part was that they couldn't organise the BKK to PNH so had to buy that separately.

Last year I did the same trip but made sure it was all through Qatar Airways, and all went smoothly.