An overwhelming majority of travelers don’t take nonstop flights.

Most of us have to connect, and that’s where the trouble starts.

If your first flight is late, you’ll miss your connection. Chances are good that the next available flight is already full.

If you’re flying on a domestic flight, it almost always means your bags will connect on that next flight—even if you don’t.

Part of the blame for this problem can be attributed to the method airlines use to book you in the first place.

For reasons that no sensible human being understands, airlines routinely, arbitrarily put passengers on connecting flights with ridiculously short—some might even say impossible—connection times.

Even if the flights are on time, the walking distance between gates or even terminals almost guarantees you won’t make your connection.

Consider a recent booking from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. It offered only a 40-minute layover in Chicago.

A Delta flight offered a 35-minute connection in Detroit—to a United flight.

If you miss that connection—and I bet you will—there’s no guarantee you’ll get on the next flight, which could be full.

Never book connections that short, even if they are listed as legal on the web.

In real life, they are to be avoided at all costs.

For more tips about flying, check out:

• Not All Driver’s Licenses May Be Accepted at Airports
• Factors That Can Make Flying Better—Or Worse
• How International Airfare is Becoming More Affordable

Keep reading for more travel tips.