Travel Question of the Day: Simon Calder on making flight connections

Have a travel question that needs answering? Ask our travel expert Simon Calder.

Brindisi: Ryanair flies non-stop from Stansted

Q We booked flights to Brindisi back at the end of last year. There has recently been a flight change and there is now only 1 hour connection between Heathrow-Rome and Rome-Brindisi. This leaves very little time to make the connection. We are also on the last flight of day out of Rome, which doesn’t help either - since if we end up stranded we would end up having to write off a day of hire car and hotel.

Kelly Woodhead

A I urge you to relax - not least because there is nothing you can do about it. An hour is a “legal” connection. That means Alitalia expects you (and your luggage) to make the onward flight, even allowing for a certain amount of queuing. Given the strife and expense of failing to connect, if the airline believed there was a significant chance of you being stuck in Rome then it would allow longer.

The most likely cause of a misconnect issue is if your flight to Rome arrives late. The airline’s staff are keenly aware of the number of connecting passengers, and therefore will be focused on an on-time (or even early) arrival.

If an event such as an air-traffic control delay causes you to miss the connection, then the airline must provide meals and accommodation, and put you on the next available flight - and possibly pay you €400 in compensation for an arrival delay of three hours or more, if it is something within the airline’s control, such as a technical issue.

If you booked a package holiday through Expedia - i.e. with a hotel and/or car rental as well as your flight - and things do go wrong, you may be able to claim some compensation based on the proportion of your trip that was lost.

All other things being roughly equal, I always try to fly direct rather than connect - especially at a big hub such as Alitalia’s home base of Rome Fiumicino. Besides the annoyance of a misconnect, many cases of lost or delayed baggage are triggered by a failure to transfer bags at the hub. Ryanair flies non-stop from Stansted to Brindisi.

Every day, our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles readers' questions. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder