Connecting flight snafus

[epcotobsessed]

I know it's impossible to say for sure but if you regularly connect for your flight to MCO, do things usually go smoothly for you? I am irrationally nervous about our next trip - we always fly direct but wanted to use miles for these flights so we could splurge more on the hotel, which means we are connecting through ATL. 2 hour connection time each way and I don't even care about the flight home (famous last words) but I am anxious that our July mid-day flight through ATL will be a problem. I am being ridiculous, right?

 

[JimMIA]

No, you're not being ridiculous. You're being thoughtful and realizing there could be a problem.

Two hours turnaround in ATL should be fine. Mid-day is way better than late afternoon when the thunderstorms roar through -- and not only in ATL, but in Orlando as well.

If you hit a snag, you'll get on a later flight and arrive in WDW a little later than anticipated.

Have a great trip!

 

[Fangorn]

Yes.Yes you are.

Since I'm coming from the PNW and almost always fly Southwest, the only time I don't make connections is on those (very) rare instances where my plane stops somewhere and but then goes on to my final destination. In 25 years of flying for business, only once have I ever had lost luggage (and that was on an AA non-stop from PDX to Sacramento -what?), and I've only had 2 instances where connections weren't able to be made - once for a weather delayed first flight, and the other was a second-leg flight that was more complicated, but ultimately weather related as well. Now, I have run through my share of airports in order to make really close connections.

The airlines make thousands of connecting flights daily, nearly all of which go off without issue. Obviously, any time you have to change planes, you're adding another layer where something can go wrong. But statistically, it doesn't happen that often.

The stress and/or probability of a connection going sideways is inversely proportional to the length of the layover. Meaning, the longer the layover, the less worry. With a 2 hour layover, it's hardly worth thinking about, let alone worrying about, IMO.

Steve

 

[jec6613]

I agree, with a 2 hour layover that's a good amount of time to relax before your next flight. There are also many more flights from ATL to MCO if things go pear shaped, so the worst case scenario is you get in a few hours late. And statistically, your luggage is (very) slightly less likely to go missing for an extended period than on a direct flight, since the airline gets more tries to get it right. You said it yourself - you're being irrationally nervous. But as long as you don't let that interfere with your life, it's all good.

The only time connections make me think twice about making it on time is during the winter and connecting through places like ORD or MSP. Now, I prefer direct flights for timing and convenience reasons, but that's really it for me.

 

[Darklord77]

I agree, with a 2 hour layover that's a good amount of time to relax before your next flight.

That's what I thought last month on a flight out of BUF, with a connection in MCO, and a final destination of ATL on SW. I had a scheduled 2.5 hour layover in MCO. I ended up having to run to my gate at MCO to make the connecting flight. The SW plane was having issues from BWI to BUF and it was delayed 2+ hours first thing in the morning. My situation was similar to yours, I wanted to use my SW points so I opted for a multi-leg flight with SW. SW doesn't fly non-stop BUF to ATL.

 

[rwdavis2]

2 hours is plenty under normal circumstance. We won't even consider connections of less than an hour. But if something goes wrong on the first leg then there's no guarantees. 5 hours might not even be enough.

 

[writerguyfl]

The key to feeling secure about a connecting flight is knowing how/if an airline might recover if your initial flight is late. The greater the number of options to get you to your destination, the better.

Sounds like you might be flying on Delta Airlines. I picked a random Saturday in July (7/13/19) to check their schedule. On that day, they have 15 nonstop flights between Atlanta (ATL) and Orlando (MCO). You mention that you will be connecting midday. I'm not sure how you define midday, but 9 of those 15 flights leave at 2pm or later. They basically have a flight leaving every hour.

Additionally, it looks like all the flights between ATL and MCO are on larger single-aisle aircraft. Delta operates a large number of different planes. The smallest planes have as few as 69 seats. But, the planes Delta is using on your route are the Boeing 737 and Boeing 757. Depending upon sub-type, those planes have between 100 and 180 seats.

I agree with Fangorn. Given the opportunity for recovery (assuming you are flying Delta), there's little reason to stress out about your connecting flight. There are many options for Delta to still get you to Orlando later in the day if you initial flight is running late.

Edited to Add:
One thing that Delta does well is handling misconnects at their hubs. They have a software program that automatically rebooks customers on the next available flight. If you have their app, your new boarding pass will show up on your phone. If you're like me and want something on paper, you can print out the new boarding pass at one of ATL's many electronic kiosks.

Given the basic quality of your connecting flight (ATL to MCO nonstop), you should be fine with the auto rebooking. But, if for some reason it's not the best option, you can go to one of the Customer Service desks and ask if there are other available flights.

The only time connections make me think twice about making it on time is during the winter and connecting through places like ORD or MSP.

The belief that winter is bad for connecting is not supported by data. By far, summer weather causes more delays.

The FAA says summers storms are worse than winter ones, and here's the money quote from one of its fact sheets: "Unlike winter storms, which take time to develop and move slowly, summer storms can form quickly, stretch for hundreds of miles and travel rapidly over large portions of the country."
Source: https://www.farecompare.com/travel-advice/5-surprising-things-bad-weather-flights/

As someone who used to live in Minnesota, I can attest to the fact that MSP is AWESOME in terms of staying fully functional over the winter months. Severe thunderstorms can easily cause massive delays during the summer months in hubs like Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston. Personally, if I had to choose between connecting in MSP in January and ATL in August, I'd choose Minneapolis 100% of the time.

 

[jec6613]

The belief that winter is bad for connecting is not supported by data. By far, summer weather causes more delays.

Delays, yes, but I've still gotten there within 4 hours of the original schedule every time. Going through ORD, I've ended up leaving 2 days later and driving and getting there before a companion who ended up flying on the original tickets. But you're right that 30-90-ish minute delays during summer for weather are very common.

So it's not so much the quantity of delays as it is how disruptive they can be to me. Airlines have gotten better, but with major storms shutting down airports for 24+ hours there's only so much you can do. And flying out of NYC, if I'm connecting through ORD that means that the storm that shut down those airports today usually shuts down my local airports tomorrow, leading to a 48+ hour delay.

 

[cmarsh31]

Sigh. I am the most cursed with connecting flights. Every.single.one that I've flown in the past year has been 4-6 hours delayed, or worse. Usually my first flight is canceled or delayed before I even get to the airport (whether that's Upstate NY, MCO, or on the West Coast - twice out of Seattle). At this point, I'm taking a third flight in July on SW vouchers from 2 years ago, because I keep getting issued new ones. I've vowed to stop flying Southwest when I run out of vouchers... Even on JetBlue we spent over an hour driving around the MCO airport in the plane. To this day, don't know why. They could have driven us to our resort faster.

So, 2 hours is more than sufficient in general. Unless it's me. My family will only fly direct flights with me. My sister-in-law will only fly direct flights with me. It has happened more than once when I was alone (dating back to the early 90s - my plane from Europe was supposed to land at JFK when this happened. We were detoured to BWI. I was 13 and traveling alone). So, you'll be fine. I won't be there.

 

[Fangorn]

Sigh. I am the most cursed with connecting flights. Every.single.one that I've flown in the past year has been 4-6 hours delayed, or worse. Usually my first flight is canceled or delayed before I even get to the airport (whether that's Upstate NY, MCO, or on the West Coast - twice out of Seattle). At this point, I'm taking a third flight in July on SW vouchers from 2 years ago, because I keep getting issued new ones. I've vowed to stop flying Southwest when I run out of vouchers... Even on JetBlue we spent over an hour driving around the MCO airport in the plane. To this day, don't know why. They could have driven us to our resort faster.

So, 2 hours is more than sufficient in general. Unless it's me. My family will only fly direct flights with me. My sister-in-law will only fly direct flights with me. It has happened more than once when I was alone (dating back to the early 90s - my plane from Europe was supposed to land at JFK when this happened. We were detoured to BWI. I was 13 and traveling alone). So, you'll be fine. I won't be there.

Sorry for all the misfortune.

Perhaps, as a public service, we should create a sticky in this board where you can post all your upcoming travel. Then the rest of us will know what to avoid.

Steve

 

[Darcy03231]

We missed our connecting flight on our last trip (not WDW). We had two hours between flights and still didn't make it. First flight was delayed due to weather (not where we were) and didn't get in until late. We ended up spending the night in Miami and flying home the next day.

 

[AngiTN]

We connect most every trip, 5 or 6 times a year. We prefer to fly out of our home airport and there are no direct flights to MCO from here
My preferred flights have a 60 min connection in either ATL or CLT. I normally book the first flight out each morning when we depart and the last flight in when coming home. We've been doing this for 3 years now, ever since I randomly looked and realized how cheaply I could fly from here vs driving to Atlanta
In our total of 30 or so flights we've had problems only 2 or 3 times. Granted, we have little to no problems with snow here, so that's rarely something we have to worry about.
The interesting thing about our flights from here is they a lot an hour flight time from here but it's not that long so there's cushion in the schedule. That helps when we have delays taking off. We can delay 20, 30 min take off and still land on time. It's just a quirk about the way our flight schedule is.
The few issues we've had the airline has taken care of us, getting us rescheduled.
So I watch the connecting schedules and keep an eye on the flights for the day and try to be on top of anything that may cause a delay like a weather system here or in our connecting city. I also watch where our flight originates from, if it wasn't overnight here.

 

[MrKnight]

Just out of curiosity, which city are you flying out of? I ask because there are direct non-stop flights to MCO from practically every major (and even mid-sized) city in the US.