Last Q about flights i promise!!

[missnic07]

The cheapest direct flights I'm now finding are £933 pp. There's indirect flights (1 stop in Philadelphia), for £734, but the layover time is only 1hr and 35 minutes.
My mum who will also be travelling said that might not be enough time to get through immigration etc to catch the second plane. Surely they wouldn't let us miss the flight though?
I would prefer direct but I'd also rather save the extra £200pp!

 

[Kath2003]

The cheapest direct flights I'm now finding are £933 pp. There's indirect flights (1 stop in Philadelphia), for £734, but the layover time is only 1hr and 35 minutes.
My mum who will also be travelling said that might not be enough time to get through immigration etc to catch the second plane. Surely they wouldn't let us miss the flight though?
I would prefer direct but I'd also rather save the extra £200pp!

They'll let you miss the flight. The 200 other people on that flight don't have to wait for you if you're delayed. If you're delayed, they'll put you n the next available flight.
That said, that connection time would be too short for me to book. 2 hours minimum.

 

[missnic07]

They'll let you miss the flight. The 200 other people on that flight don't have to wait for you if you're delayed. If you're delayed, they'll put you n the next available flight.
That said, that connection time would be too short for me to book. 2 hours minimum.

Ah i thought she was worrying over nothing! Thanks for letting me know before I booked

 

[sandshal]

There's no need to worry, if there's s flight later in the day they'll get you on it provided you have a through ticket ..... Times will more than likely change before you go anyhow

 

[chmurf]

Ah i thought she was worrying over nothing! Thanks for letting me know before I booked

That's not a worry over nothing, there are legitimate concerns when you book a very short connection

so, just so you know what to expect, I will walk you through bad or even worst case scenarios.

- They will let you miss your flight.

- If you're booked on the same ticket, they will put you on the next available flight, which does not necessarily mean the *next* flight. Flights are often booked solid, so it may not be the next flight, not even the next after that flight.
- If no flight is available on your airline, they still might rebook you on a partner airline to get you to your destination

- If you manage the short connection, you have no guarantee that your luggage will make that connection (they might not be there at MCO and will need to be delivered to your hotel, usually 48 to 72 hours later)

- If you miss your connection, and/or are rebooked on the same company or a partner company, there is a fairly high chance that your luggage get temporarily lost (48 to 72 hours delay to retreive them)

As a rule of thumb (my rule, nothing official here), if you have checked luggage and if you are not a US Citizen (US Passport)
* any US connection less than 60 minutes is illegal
* Any US connection less than 1h30 is "suicide"
* any US connection less than 2 hours is doable but careless.
* any US connection over 2 hours *should* be ok

I've nearly missed my 1h50 mins connection in PHL last october.
I'm disabled and so I used the wheelchair line at immigration at PHL. If I had not done that, I would have missed my connection to MCO, since even by "cutting" the immigration line, we barely made it to the gate for the final boarding call.

 

[wayneg]

We have done numerous connections, I accept anything over 1hr 30mins and never had a problem. Saying that we don't stress or worry, if anyone in the family does stress or worry about these type of things then look at something with 2+ hours.

 

[juliebro]

We've flown indirect via Philly on about a dozen trips. Mostly we (and our luggage) have made our connection, despite massive queues sometimes through Immigration and Security.

Once we were delayed leaving the UK and missed our connection. We were put on the next flight out but that got cancelled. But US Airways were great. They put us up overnight in a hotel near the airport, gave us vouchers for a meal and gave us an amenity pack each (as we could not get back our bags). We were given tickets on the first flight our early next morning.

We had dinner, an early night, eight hours sleep, breakfast at the airport next morning, were in MCO picking up the car before 9:00 am and in the house not long after that.

In fact, if we had an option to do that every time, we probably would!

Occasionally one of our bags has missed the connection, but the luggage people at MCO are efficient and the bag is generally dropped off at the rental home within a few hours.

Like Wayne says, we don't stress about it, but if one of you does worry, it's worth having a longer connection.

Another point - this time about the return journey. The airline do tend to hold the transatlantic leg if there are a few people delayed on a connecting flight. We were delayed out of MCO earlier this year and thought we were going to miss the flight back to the UK. However the airline knew what flight we were on, the crew on the flight into Philly ensured those of us with connections got off the flight first and we just made it - just about the last to board.