Dumb Questions About Flying

[6th Nephilim 0]

Back when I was, oh, around 4 years old and my mama dropped me off at the bus station with 50 bucks and a raincoat, she told me three things.

1. Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get.

2. Life's a garden, dig it.

And the most important one, I found:

3. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask.

So, in that spirit, here goes.

Elisa is on her way to see me in two weeks, and while she has done plenty of flying, this is her first time on a flight this long. She will be changing planes twice, once in London and again in Washington, DC. What we're wondering is if she'll need to get a seperate boarding pass for each plane, or will one pass be issued for all three planes?

TIA, and expect more dumb questions in the future from me, and please feel free to post your own about flying here.

[pri 0]

the airline will issue as reqd i always got seperate boarding passes for my connecting flights

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Same airline throughout?

If so, they usually issue boarding passes for all legs when you embark at your original location. Sometimes they don't (I've had BA do that to me) because there are "problems" with the system. In that case I picked up my boarding pass when I landed at Heathrow.

Edit: Turns out I misunderstood the question. Separate passes, not just one. Sorry.

Edited March 3, 2006 by Agent Smith

[pax 0]

They will usually issue all your boarding passes at once, if you're staying with the same airline or with "airline partners" for your entire trip. But if your sweetie should miss a connection, for example, she'd need to check in again with a transfers agent to get a new boarding pass for the next connection.

This happened to me when I was going to Scotland in October: I was flying KLM from New York to Amsterdam, and then Amsterdam to Edinburgh. I missed my original connection to Edinburgh, so I had to get a new boarding pass for the next connection.

[6th Nephilim 0]

Excellent info, all! Thanks for the fast responses.

And Smith, though you may have misunderstood the question, I found your original answer quite useful, too.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

She's not changing airports in London is she? It's a possibility, say, if you are flying BA where a lot of European flights go out of Gatwick and North American ones all out of Heathrow - I'm flying BA to Nice next month from LA via London and I have to change airports.

If she's not and only going to Heathrow, she's likely to have to change terminals -- allow lots of time because that is one big airport.

Edited March 3, 2006 by robinklake