I live near Sacramento, CA (SMF). My parents live in La Crosse, WI (LSE). I’m likely going to want to book a flight between these two cities for the holidays. However, it’s proving to be rather difficult.
LSE is a tiny airport, currently only served by American Airlines from Chicago O’Hare. AA no longer offers a non-stop flight from SMF to ORD that time of year (apparently it’s a summer only seasonal flight now). But United does, and it arrives with plenty of time to connect to AA’s flight to LSE. So the most convenient way to get there is to fly to ORD on UA and then connect to LSE on AA. Now I know I could just book these flights as separate tickets, but then I would have no recourse if UA’s flight was late or canceled and I missed my connection to AA’s flight. There should be some way to book this itinerary as one ticket, an “interline” itinerary in airline parlance. But I cannot figure out how.
Searching on united.com – their search engine doesn’t even recognize LSE as a valid destination and tells me no flights exist.
Searching on aa.com – their search engine only returns 2-stop itineraries involving only their own flights.
Searching on some online travel agencies (Orbitz, AAA) – I thought this would be my best bet, because many years ago these travel sites would frequently offer these sorts of interline itineraries. But no luck this time, they only show me the same 2-stop itineraries on AA.
Is there some sort of advanced travel site where I can literally say “I want to fly SMF-ORD on UA flight 123 and connect onward to LSE on AA flight 456 and book this as a single ticket”? Or is this the sort of thing I need an old fashioned travel agent for?
I’m waving to your parents across the river here in La Crescent.
Rochester, MN (RST) is an hour drive and may be an option.
Groome transportation shuttles between LSE and RST and/or MSP
Amtrak does have the Borealis train that goes from Minneapolis and Chicago and does stop in La Crosse.
I did see that. I don’t think I want to do the drive from MSP in a shuttle van, though. If it was a motorcoach bus with a bathroom I would consider it – Landline announced such a service, but then canceled it before it even started.
Unfortunately both the Empire Builder and Borealis trains depart too early to be useful to me. Both trains depart in the morning. Coming from the West Coast, with the distance and time zone change, even the earliest flights don’t arrive in MSP until after noon (unless I took a redeye flight, which I’d prefer not to do).
The OP might consider taking Amtrak from Chicago to La Crosse. It’s five hours but pretty cheap for coach (up to $41) and $191 for a private room. (Empire Builder or Borealis)
ETA: I see a train that leaves at 3:05p and arrives at 8:04p
I do like a challenge. Spent 20 years as an emergency travel agent.
A few clarification questions:
Define ‘holidays” (date range is good)
Is there a price range - a good travel agent can force a ticket on multiple carriers who don’t interline, but you might have to schlep your own bags at a connection point.
I can do some digging (not a TA any longer), and when I’m back at work on Monday when I can snip and post screenshots will do so.
I don’t know the exact dates yet. Currently I’m just trying to figure out exactly how to go about booking this once I do have firm plans. But for purposes of this exercise I was using Dec 22 and return Dec 29. But that is subject to change.
I know flying into a small airport like LSE can be expensive, but I don’t mind paying a premium to fly to the more convenient airport. If possible less than $1000, but it’s not a deal breaker if it’s a little more than that (I have paid more than that to fly there in the past).
ETA: As an AAA member, I get the use of their full service travel agents. I may have to actually use that perk for this trip.
I’m curious what the problem is in booking these tickets? Just book a ticket to La Crosse then book a ticket that gets you to Chicago in plenty of time to make your connection to La Crosse. Seems simple enough as long as you allow enough time to make the connection (allow for delays and possibly hiking a long way through the airport…O’Hare is quite big and some walks can be very long). If carry-on only not so bad. If luggage is checked than allow even more time to get the luggage.
I don’t think there’s a way to achieve your overall goal, which is to ensure that the airlines will take care of you making a connection should the schedules change or are delayed. United and American have little incentive to take on that responsibility, and probably don’t have a way for their systems to communicate the information needed to do that.
30 years ago I used to go to La Crosse a few times a year from Kansas City to visit a big client. It was a flight to MSP and rental car from there. I didn’t even know you could fly to La Crosse on a scheduled commercial flight.
It looks like it’s “yes, you can, but barely.” It appears that the only scheduled service is by American, and only with two arrivals and two departures a day, all to/from Chicago O’Hare.
Up until about two years ago they actually had flights from MSP on Delta, and previously on Northwest. It was much easier to get there back when I could connect throuhgh MSP.
I don’t think there is necessarily a guaranteed way to achieve that. If the two airlines involved don’t codeshare and are in competing alliances (which is the case here - American is in oneworld, United in Star Alliance), then I doubt you’ll find anyone who’s willing to sell you a ticket including both of these flights as a package. Ultimately, what you’re looking for is someone who takes the risk of a missed connection off you, and who would have a reason to do that? This is exactly the kind of thing airline alliances are for, but as I mentioned above, the two airlines involved are in competing alliances.
I once had a complex itinerary that led me from Tokyo to Qingdao with a layover in Seoul, and a flight from Qingdao to Frankfurt the next day. All different airlines, so I had to book the things separately. My flight from Tokyo to Seoul was late (plus they wouldn’t route through the luggage, so in Seoul I had to pass immigration, get my luggage, check it back in and go through security again ), so I was gettig seriously worried that Iäd end up in a major mess. In the end it all worked out fine, but the risk was mine.
Back in Ye Olden Dayes of the 1960s/70s, what the OP is talking about was routine. Pure interlining between almost every major airline was routinely done. Exactly how that settled out when an interline connection was missed varied, but through handling of checked baggage was the big advantage to an interline itinerary versus multiple separate per-carrier itineraries a la @Schnitte just above.
Checked baggage handling was far more important back when carry-ons were ladies’ purses and men’s hats, while substantially all luggage was checked. None of which was light in tare weight or had wheels.
One of Southwest’s innovations in their original streamlined form was they refused to sign up to do any of that bother. Formerly any small start-up would routinely sign up to the whole interline machinery as an essential way to boost their connection possibilities.
My bet is the machinery to do traditional interlining still exists, and a phone call directly to the reservations center of the origin airline would put this together easily. Or else you’ll be told that service doesn’t exist any more. But IMO the OP can’t be sure until they try, and try directly.
Further, if you do find that AA or UA can write you that interline itinerary, I’d be asking very explicitly about how fouled interline connections are handled. A lot of the hand-holding for misconnected passengers that was routine when traveling on a single carrier 50 years ago has been eliminated in the name of efficiency (read “lower fares”).
You might be able to buy a full-fare ticket on both with lots of handholding, but I’ll wager that the cheapest of the no-frills fares on both won’t get you more hand-holding than the same no-frills fares would get you were the itinerary on just one carrier or the other. IOW you’ll get zero.
Good luck, and please do update the thread once you learn whatever you learn.
Is there a particular way to reach a competent human to make such an arrangement…? It seems like most of the phone trees are automated, and it takes forever to get to an agent who can barely speak English (if you’re lucky). How would you even begin to explain “an interline ticket like they used to have in the 60s” to such a person, I wonder?
Plus it’s hard enough to get United, especially, to help you when you miss a connection on its own flights… I shudder to think what you’d have to do (at the connecting airport) to get them to rebook you on a different airline’s flights, no matter what you previously discussed with another agent on the phone. Normally it’d take hours in line just to speak to an agent at the connecting airport.
When I had to travel interline, I’d usually just stay overnight before the connection. If you have to check out and back in and go through baggage and security and all that, might as well make a relaxing night out of it and at least enjoy a dinner and some rest… it takes longer, yes, but it’s soooo much less stressful.
An actual human being who specifically works on putting together and booking a travel itinerary for a client, based on where they need to go and when; a good one understands the ins and outs of the airlines, hotels, etc., and knows where to look to solve an issue like the OP is facing, which may be challenging to do using the self-service systems.
And, yes, as travel professionals, they have access to reservation systems and planning software, which you or I wouldn’t.