Earlier this year, I traveled from my home in Scotland to Sicily for a work trip.
When booking my travel back home, I realized there were no direct flights.
I bought a cheap self-transfer ticket, but the trip ended badly when my first flight got delayed.
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I can’t stand long waits in airports, but sometimes direct flights aren’t an option.
This was the case when I was booking my travel home from a work trip in Catania in Sicily, Italy, to Edinburgh in Scotland back in April.
My main objective was to find a connecting flight that would get me home quickly and that was affordable. After searching Skyscanner, I realized my best option was to book two separate flights with the budget European airline Ryanair.
The first flight from Catania, Sicily, to London, UK, on April 19 cost £89.77, or around $113, and the second flight from London to Edinburgh cost £14.76, or around $18.80.
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The only problem? Ryanair only offers non-protected, self-transfer flights. Unlike connecting flights, which fall under the same booking reference, non-protected transfers have to be booked separately and aren’t protected by the airline if there are any delays or cancellations during your journey, according to Skyscanner.
I had never booked a self-transfer flight before, so I was a little hesitant.
But there was an hour and 40 minutes between the two flights, which I thought would be more than enough time to get through airport security and to my next gate. Not to mention, it was far cheaper and had a much shorter connection time compared to options offered by other airlines.
Avoid booking self-transfer flights if your layover is less than 2.5 hours
My first flight from Catania to London ended up getting delayed by around an hour, which meant I missed the next flight to Edinburgh.
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Given what I’d read about self-transfer flights, I wasn’t sure what my options were when it came to getting booked on another flight.
I spoke to Ryanair’s customer service desk in London, and a member of staff told me I wasn’t eligible to get put on another flight for free because there were less than two-and-a-half hours between the intended arrival and departure times of the two flights I booked.
My Huge Travel Mistake Involved Booking Own Transfer Flight
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