I will second Silent Bob's observation that flying on two separate tickets, especially domestic connecting to international or vice-versa, is a bad idea. I realize that you found a good deal on the internet for a JFK-Germany trip on Lufthansa which you probably couldn't get out of AUS or DFW. You probably should have booked your AUS-JFK the evening before your international flight and paid for a hotel near JFK. I can't tell you the number of times I've flown out of LAX where I've encountered people who fly into LAX on Southwest to connect to international or Hawaii flights out of LAX on another airline. Southwest doesn't have interline baggage agreements so they have to claim their bags from Southwest and check-in with the other airline. If their Southwest flight is delayed or the bags don't come out right away they sometimes miss the cutoff for their flight to Australia, Japan or Honolulu. In the end, they bought a ticket from LAX to wherever and the fact that Southwest had a delay isn't the airline's problem. They might as well have been delayed on the freeway and missed the flight. No hotel, no meal vouchers, and sorry the next open seat is three days from now.
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