Indirect Flights

[Miffy2003]

Hello,

Please would someone be able to clarify for me what happens with customs and immigration when flying indirect to Orlando?

I have always thought that you leave the plane, collect baggage, clear immigration & customs on your first point of entry into the US. You then caught your next flight to Orlando and did not have to repeat the process at your final destination (Orlando).

I have been assured by Virgin Holidays this is not the case and that my airline will check baggage from my departure airport right through to Orlando and that I will clear immigation and customs there. So, when we get off in Newark to get our connecting flight (with the same airline) I won't collect bags there, but will get them back in Orlando.

I am concerned as the connection time is quite a narrow window in my opinion. She told me it would be fine as we would not have to wait to claim the case and clear customs & immigration.

Who is right? I don't often hope to be wrong, but in this instance I hope I am

Thanks

Karen

 

[mungo]

Hi Karen

Who are you flying with? I am a bit confused as you have said virgin.

When we have flown indirect, we have cleared immigration and customs in the first point of entry, whether it be Philadelphia or Atlanta etc then rechecked our bags in and just collected them at Orlando.

 

[highlander447]

Hi you will need to collect luggage and clear customs at first point of entry, on way back it will be checked through

 

[wayneg]

Hi Karen
Also confused with your Airline. Virgin do do London to Newark but then it will be a different carrier down to MCO. Never used Virgin to Newark but I have been thru the airport with other carriers all have to go through Immmigration and luggage re-checkin. Personally I prefer to do this and then when you land at MCO you have already been cleared and its a lot quicker out to your hotel in Orlando, I hate MCO's immigration.

 

[Miffy2003]

I have been assured by Virgin Holidays

Sorry for any confusion - I have booked with Virgin Holidays (due to being able to redeem Tesco Clubcard Deals with them) but I am not flying with Virgin Atlantic.

The flight is with Continental: Bristol - Newark - Orlando.

Thanks for confirming what I thought, that we would have to clear customs etc in Newark.

Wayneg - I agree it will be nice to not have to do this part in Orlando, but I am nervous of the 1 hour 36 minute connection time!

Thanks again all!

 

[wayneg]

I am nervous of the 1 hour 36 minute connection time!

Thanks again all!

It is a bit tight 1:36 but hopefully you will get off on time and pick up a little time over the pond, giving you more time in newark. You should be fine.

 

[AliceGardner]

Sorry for any confusion - I have booked with Virgin Holidays (due to being able to redeem Tesco Clubcard Deals with them) but I am not flying with Virgin Atlantic.

The flight is with Continental: Bristol - Newark - Orlando.

Thanks for confirming what I thought, that we would have to clear customs etc in Newark.

Wayneg - I agree it will be nice to not have to do this part in Orlando, but I am nervous of the 1 hour 36 minute connection time!

Thanks again all!

1.36 should be possible (I prefer 2 hours to be on the safe side).

The woman from Virgin Holidays doesn;t have a clue... You will have to clear immigration, reclaim your bags, then go through customs and recheck your bags at Newark. There is normally a baggage recheck desk immediately after you clear customs.

If you don't get held up at customs and you departure gate isn't too far from your arrival gate, then you should be ok.

If not, then since your flights will all be ticketed together, they are obligated to put you on the next available flight down to MCO with space available. Personally, to be prepared, I would make a note of the flight times to flights down to MCO after yours.

Food/snacks on domestic US flights can be rather rubbish (no free meals etc). So, if you have time (and think that you might be hungry - it is a reasonable length of flight from Newark to MCO), then grab some snacks and bottles of drink to take on the plane with you.

I think you should be ok

Alice

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Its been a while since I have done BHX-NWK with Continental, but yes, you collect your baggage, go through security at NWK then re check your baggage.
AFAIR you also have to get to the other part of the terminal for internal flights. Terminal B??

 

[AliceGardner]

Its been a while since I have done BHX-NWK with Continental, but yes, you collect your baggage, go through security at NWK then re check your baggage.

Sorry it is EWR, not NWK

Alice

 

[highlander447]

Hi you will leave from same terminal, we've done that connection time twice now in last year and it can be tight due to waiting for cases coming off, but we have made it, the tip about juice is a good one thats we have done as well, you will leave from same hub but its a big hub, plus you need to go through security again at EWR and its pretty cattle driven, I'm amazed that our cases have made the flights

 

[TinkTatoo]

........ but I am nervous of the 1 hour 36 minute connection time!!......

If you have to do a stopover then Newark is a great airport, it's bright, clean, easy to get around and has some nice places to eat (usual food court stuff but clean)

1 Hour 36 minutes is a bit tight though - as other's have said you'll have to go through immigration, bearing in mind that most people on your flight will be doing the same you could get delayed there. Customs is straight forward and the bag drop is immediately the other side of customs. Sometimes we have been able to walk straight to our next gate but once we had to go back through security again and that added to our transfer time.

I wouldn't rely on them putting you on the next available flight when you are there as the afternoon flights are always busy and often full. I'd speak to Virgin and ask for the next flight down which should give you 2 - 2.5 hours at Newark.

We were ticketed through with Continental on a 1 hour 10 minute connection this summer and even though we would have already cleared immigration in Dublin we thought it was too tight and switched to the next flight which gives us a connection time of 2 hours. We'll grab something to eat and arrive at our gate chilled rather than rushing and being really stressed with any delays.

 

[Obi Wan Kenobi]

Sorry it is EWR, not NWK

Alice

No Alice, you are totally correct.
Too many glasses of white wine at a party is my excuse!!

 

[astrodrummergirl]

Meep, if you're worried and you have 1 hour and 36 minutes I better prepare myself. 1 hour and 15 minutes with American Airlines in Dallas

And i don't even know what happens about the luggage

 

[fizz13]

Does anybody have experience going through Washington Dulles? Would bag checkin be close by like at Newark?

 

[richard_andmel]

Having done the whole Newark thing more times than I can count, I can confirm what people have told you already that you will need to clear customs in Newark. (My family all live in Portland, Maine and flying from Birmingham it is the only logical way to get there. Thank goodness this isn't the case with Orlando.) Now what I will also tell you is that I would never allow someone to book me a window of less than 2 hours. I HATE sitting around the airport waiting for my flight, no matter how nice Newark is. And customs is fairly efficient there as well. But the airlines aren't always efficient, and neither is getting your luggage sometimes. Once I missed my connecting flight and it was a terrible terrible experience. The desk that you have to go to for missed flights has a mile long line and is staffed by the most unsympathetic lot of people I have ever met. Remember that they see one person after another who has missed their connecting flight so it means little to them. The whole process was both difficult and dehumanizing.... So now when I go through Newark I make sure it's never going to happen to me again if I have anything to say about it.

I would see if you could get the following flight to Orlando so it won't make you crazy with stress. Good luck whatever you decide, and I'll be thinking about you no doubt on the 15th when I am in Newark on my way to visit my family.

 

[Pootle]

Meep, if you're worried and you have 1 hour and 36 minutes I better prepare myself. 1 hour and 15 minutes with American Airlines in Dallas

And i don't even know what happens about the luggage

Now YOU really do have my sympathy - I have missed 2 out of 3 connections at DFW in the last few years (but not from the UK) and my son also missed one earlier this year. I think this hub is a bit notorious (Flyertalk suggests our experience is far from unusual).

It may not happen to you, but if you can't change it, at least go mentally prepared that it just might go wrong. As a previous poster said, it happens all the time. They put you on the next available flight - they are pretty frequent to MCO from DFW in my experience.

Good luck with it

 

[AliceGardner]

No Alice, you are totally correct.
Too many glasses of white wine at a party is my excuse!!

Sounds like a good excuse to me

Alice

 

[highlander447]

Just a point but I suspect your flight is classed as direct therefore if you are late then so will the onward connection be late, I know our flight from EDI is classed as direct therefore a 90 min connection but last time it was late so was the onward connection and they even used the same plane, same entertainment as well, also for some reason I've noticed Continental say a flight is actually longer than it is giving u an extra 30 mins on most flights to and from Orlando

 

[astrodrummergirl]

Now YOU really do have my sympathy - I have missed 2 out of 3 connections at DFW in the last few years (but not from the UK) and my son also missed one earlier this year. I think this hub is a bit notorious (Flyertalk suggests our experience is far from unusual).

It may not happen to you, but if you can't change it, at least go mentally prepared that it just might go wrong. As a previous poster said, it happens all the time. They put you on the next available flight - they are pretty frequent to MCO from DFW in my experience.

Good luck with it

Hmmm....I don't know if I'll be able to change it because basically my mum is incharge of making sure the transport bit is sorted and I just figure out what we do when we get there (sorting out transport may be bit too much of a responsibility for a teenager and its on her credit card). Annoyingly, at the moment we only get into orlando at 7pm and if we miss the connection then it will probably be much later than that. I'll see what I can do but I have from now until august to mentally prepare myself. At least I have 2 hours on the way back

Thanks for the help

 

[AliceGardner]

Just a point but I suspect your flight is classed as direct therefore if you are late then so will the onward connection be late, I know our flight from EDI is classed as direct therefore a 90 min connection but last time it was late so was the onward connection and they even used the same plane, same entertainment as well, also for some reason I've noticed Continental say a flight is actually longer than it is giving u an extra 30 mins on most flights to and from Orlando

I could be wrong, but I doubt that the OP's flights are classed as "direct". They will be on the same ticket/itinerary, but it is very unlikely that it will be the same plane. I do not believe that Continental market any "direct" Bristol-Orlando flights.

ALice