CO Birmingham planes & Connection in Miami

[Princess Clayre]

So we've narrowed down the flights to two options and we just can't decide

Choices are the Continental flights from Birmingham via Newark vs American from Heathrow via Miami.

Plus point of Birmingham is that it's an hour closer to us than Heathrow. My main concern with these are just the leg room and service. Has anyone flow this route? It the 757-200 series plane, so certainly a smaller plane. Not worried about the change in Newark.

We are all familiar with American Airlines so no issues here. The only slight downside is the connection in Miami is 1.50hrs on the outbound. Any experience of whether this connection will be ok on the outbound?

Any feedback would be very useful.
Thanks

 

[disneyholic family]

what is it with all these major companies flying 757s??????????
american has a lot of 757s in their fleet too....
i wonder how old those planes are....they can't be new..

anyway....

it's been centuries since i've been to miami airport, and i've never changed planes there so i have no clue what it's like for a plane change..

DS was just there 3 weeks ago, but he changed planes in reverse (flew from orlando to miami, then miami to paris)...
he mentioned that there's more than one terminal, but i don't know if that makes a difference if you're going from american to american...

as it happened, he was on american from orlando to miami and miami to paris...he said the miami to paris flight was the worst he's ever been on in his life (and he's been on lots of flights)......
he was on an american 767 and he said it was the worst legroom he's had in years...
and he also said the 767 was a very old 767....he was not happy about it (he'd just had a semester on metal fatigue with the main focus on aircraft)...

 

[Princess Clayre]

I'm sure the replacement of planes come down to money. It not cheap to keep replacing planes. As lovely as it would be I bet it would result in airfares going up and then we still wouldn't be happy

I've flown on American Airlines lots of times so not worried space/service etc.. and they're using the 777 plane on this route. It's more the getting through immigration, collecting bags, security and reboarding at Miami that concerns me on that flight.

 

[Carrie_Cat]

Hello

We went through Miami with AA and had no pbs. It was really quick, 45 mins from start to finish - have a look at the post below

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=41003507#post41003507

-We did CDG to MIA and found it a great flight with enough space so it really does depend on people I guess

 

[wayneg]

what is it with all these major companies flying 757s??????????
american has a lot of 757s in their fleet too....
i wonder how old those planes are....they can't be new..

Been reading about them Introduced January 1, 1983 they ended production October 28, 2004, built 1050, upto last year still 945 in service, Delta airlines own more than any other carrier with 180, American Airlines (124), United Airlines (96), Continental Airlines (41), US Airways (25), Thomson Airways (27), China Southern Airlines (17), and other airlines with fewer aircraft.

 

[disneyholic family]

Been reading about them Introduced January 1, 1983 they ended production October 28, 2004, built 1050, upto last year still 945 in service, Delta airlines own more than any other carrier with 180, American Airlines (124), United Airlines (96), Continental Airlines (41), US Airways (25), Thomson Airways (27), China Southern Airlines (17), and other airlines with fewer aircraft.

so the 'newest' they could be is about 8 years old...probably a lot older....
i don't mind flying them domestically inside the US...in fact, i prefer them to the small airbus that is also used a lot inside the US....
inside the US, the 757 makes sense.....but transatlantic?....not for me...

 

[Princess Clayre]

Hello

We went through Miami with AA and had no pbs. It was really quick, 45 mins from start to finish - have a look at the post below

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=41003507#post41003507

-We did CDG to MIA and found it a great flight with enough space so it really does depend on people I guess

Hello again Carrie, Usually bump into you on the DLP section! Useful information as always thanks: thumbsup2

 

[wayneg]

so the 'newest' they could be is about 8 years old...probably a lot older....
i don't mind flying them domestically inside the US...in fact, i prefer them to the small airbus that is also used a lot inside the US....
inside the US, the 757 makes sense.....but transatlantic?....not for me...

Just booked for next summer, return with Delta JFK to Manchester with Delta guess which plane......... 757-200 Really don't care what I fly on for £3.20 it has cost me from TPA to MAN (plus £38 for Economy Comfort)

 

[disneyholic family]

Just booked for next summer, return with Delta JFK to Manchester with Delta guess which plane......... 757-200 Really don't care what I fly on for £3.20 it has cost me from TPA to MAN (plus £38 for Economy Comfort)

you're flying via JFK?

you have sooooooooooooo many options!!!

i'm pretty much stuck with the JFK hell on earth experience, but you're not..

i hope you're saving A BUNDLE to subject yourself to JFK!!!!!!!!!!!

are you going both ways via JFK, or just the return?

--------------

just editing this - i guess you're using mileage for the flight...so that is a big savings...

keep in mind, you need a lot of time for plane changes at JFK....are you flying both ways through JFK?
for inbound you HAVE to have 3 hours - immigration/customs/security..
for outbound you obviously can get by with less, but it still takes time for the infernal security...

 

[wayneg]

you're flying via JFK?

you have sooooooooooooo many options!!!

i'm pretty much stuck with the JFK hell on earth experience, but you're not..

i hope you're saving A BUNDLE to subject yourself to JFK!!!!!!!!!!!

are you going both ways via JFK, or just the return?

--------------

just editing this - i guess you're using mileage for the flight...so that is a big savings...

keep in mind, you need a lot of time for plane changes at JFK....are you flying both ways through JFK?
for inbound you HAVE to have 3 hours - immigration/customs/security..
for outbound you obviously can get by with less, but it still takes time for the infernal security...

Been thru JFK a couple of times no problems, only had 90 mins last time. Atlanta is the only airport we have had problems with less than 2 hours.
We are flying Direct outbound but relatives are flying out via JFK, they have over 2 hours, also hope their transatlantic flight gets in early they will be fine

 

[disneyholic family]

Been thru JFK a couple of times no problems, only had 90 mins last time. Atlanta is the only airport we have had problems with less than 2 hours.
We are flying Direct outbound but relatives are flying out via JFK, they have over 2 hours, also hope their transatlantic flight gets in early they will be fine

be advised that JFK terminal 4 immigration has fastpass.
i don't know about the other terminals, but there is one at terminal 4...

if your relatives' flight is late getting into JFK tell them to alert the flight crew that there are passengers on board with a tight connection.
our flight crew radioed ahead to let JFK know there was a problem.

someone from immigration will meet them at the end of the jetway from the plane and hand them a big orange card (fastpass) that they use to get into the quick service line at immigration.
it's a line that's just between the foreigners line and the citizens line.

if there is no one at your plane exit to give you a fast pass, then try to get into the line anyway - it's meant for anyone with less than 2 hours to change planes.

everyone goes into it, aliens and americans - at the head of the line there is someone who will direct you to the front of the appropriate line (alien or american)...

it works like a charm - we got through immigration in 2 minutes - and that was with an alien in our midst....

without the fastpass, you can get stuck for an hour in the foreigners line at JFK (depending how many 747s arrive when you do)

 

[disneyholic family]

Been thru JFK a couple of times no problems, only had 90 mins last time. Atlanta is the only airport we have had problems with less than 2 hours.
We are flying Direct outbound but relatives are flying out via JFK, they have over 2 hours, also hope their transatlantic flight gets in early they will be fine

by the way, how did you manage a 90 minute change on the inbound flights?

which terminal did you fly into from the UK and which did you fly out of on the way to orlando (for the domestic part of your trip)?

if you arrived from overseas to terminal 4 and switched to delta terminal 3 (or even more difficult, terminal 2) 90 minutes would be a near impossibility....
i've done that one numerous times....

and now that delta is in the process of switching all their international flights to terminal 4 (as of 2013) i'm envisioning a real nightmare also on the outbound..
maybe they'll improve the security situation for concourse B with the renovation....because if they leave it as is, it will be untenable.....
it took us a full hour to go through concourse B security in August...and if they add another 9 gates for Delta, i can't imagine what that will be like..
it was without question, the worst security set up of any airport we were at in august (and any i've been in over the past few years)....and another 9 gates doubles the number of gates on that concourse....

 

[wayneg]

by the way, how did you manage a 90 minute change on the inbound flights?

which terminal did you fly into from the UK and which did you fly out of on the way to orlando (for the domestic part of your trip)?

if you arrived from overseas to terminal 4 and switched to delta terminal 3 (or even more difficult, terminal 2) 90 minutes would be a near impossibility....
i've done that one numerous times....

and now that delta is in the process of switching all their international flights to terminal 4 (as of 2013) i'm envisioning a real nightmare also on the outbound..
maybe they'll improve the security situation for concourse B with the renovation....because if they leave it as is, it will be untenable.....
it took us a full hour to go through concourse B security in August...and if they add another 9 gates for Delta, i can't imagine what that will be like..
it was without question, the worst security set up of any airport we were at in august (and any i've been in over the past few years)....and another 9 gates doubles the number of gates on that concourse....

Just checked 10 years ago so I guess the airport has changed, where does time go? Into Terminal 7 but no record of what terminal we flew from.
There are later flights to either MCO or TPA they can change them to if they had to but hopefully they will get into JFK early and have time to spare.

 

[disneyholic family]

Just checked 10 years ago so I guess the airport has changed, where does time go? Into Terminal 7 but no record of what terminal we flew from.
There are later flights to either MCO or TPA they can change them to if they had to but hopefully they will get into JFK early and have time to spare.

if there are later flights then they're ok...
if the airline lets them book the connection then it's on the airline's head to get them to the next plane, if they miss the earlier one...

we even had an airline that shipped us over to la guardia to make the last flight out of there to orlando (when we missed the last flight out of JFK)...

as for terminal 7 - i think that's BA...

 

[scottishgirl87]

I've flown return with Continental 3 times now, all 3 times going through Newark and once onto Orlando. Never had a problem whatsoever, they're probably my favourite airline - inflight entertainment is excellent and no issues with legroom for us either.

 

[Princess Clayre]

I've flown return with Continental 3 times now, all 3 times going through Newark and once onto Orlando. Never had a problem whatsoever, they're probably my favourite airline - inflight entertainment is excellent and no issues with legroom for us either.

OK, good to know. Just need to decide now.