Pearson Connection Time?

[nflder]

Even though I'm 6 months and two days out from our vacation, I still have to ask this question...... it's driving me a bit crazy.

We are flying from St. John's to Toronto to Orlando. Our connection time to get our Orlando flight is 1 hour and 1 minute. Is this enough time to get our luggage get through customs and security and make it on our flight.

I booked our flights on Aeroplan and made sure that we had enough time to connect in Toronto (I learned a very important lesson from our last trip when it took two days to get to Orlando!) but aeroplan have changed our flights and now we only have an hour.

A bit long winded - but is an hour enough?

TIA

 

[disneymath]

I would say an hour is cutting it close ... very close if you are travelling at a busy time of the day, or, as the rough math indicates, during March Break Week.

An hour basically means you have no margin for error ... your first flight has to be on time, you can't afford a wrong turn as you move through the airport, your bags can't be delayed as you will have to quickly move them through security/customs, you have to hope you don't get held up at customs/security, and well, I would say you probably wouldn't want to chance a potty break either!

I'm getting stressed just thinking about it ... our layover was just about 1.5hrs this last trip. Pearson wasn't too busy, and we didn't waste any time, but it seemed a bit rushed.

I'm guessing that a 1-hr layover is a "legit connection", but that's on paper not reality. If it were me, I would try to get an earlier flight into TO or a later flight to MCO. (Is it possible you could connect in Montreal instead? There are direct Air Canada flights from Montreal to MCO. Maybe the timing there would allow for a bit more breathing room.)

 

[nflder]

Thanks for the advice. There are early morning flights leaving from St. John's which I would love to take. Where we booked with Aeroplan and online, I'm not sure if they will be accomodating. The website and call centre are run by two different groups (doesn't make sense). And the funny thing about all of this, is that I took the earliest flight out of NL in order to have enough time to make our connection - I had 3 hours in our original flights.

I guess my best bet will be to call and try to see if we can get seats in the early morning.

Again - thanks for your advice.

 

[disneymath]

Thanks for the advice. There are early morning flights leaving from St. John's which I would love to take. Where we booked with Aeroplan and online, I'm not sure if they will be accomodating. The website and call centre are run by two different groups (doesn't make sense). And the funny thing about all of this, is that I took the earliest flight out of NL in order to have enough time to make our connection - I had 3 hours in our original flights.

I guess my best bet will be to call and try to see if we can get seats in the early morning.

Again - thanks for your advice.

Definitely try to call and see what they can do ... and if the first person you connect iwth isn't too helpful, hang up and call back - hopefully you'll get someone else. Since it was the airline/aeroplan that changed your plans, they should be accommodating with your requests if they can.

Our last trip, AC changed the second leg of our flight - making what was supposed to be a 2.5hr layover into a 6 hr layover. I went online, realized we could then take a later flight out of MCO and still make the new connection, so I called and spoke to two AC agents (first was clueless, second was awesome) and got our MCO flight changed at no extra charge (b/c, as the AC agent said, they had been the ones to start changing our plans).

 

[Northern_Julie]

Call and ask for schedueling. I think it is too close to go through customs and get those bags on the flight. They dont always think changes through. Mine had me leaving home after my flight to Orlando!! Instead I have to leave a day before and overnight it (at there expense). They changed it free and I noticed later I got bonus miles. It never hurts to ask.

 

[nflder]

Call and ask for schedueling. I think it is too close to go through customs and get those bags on the flight. They dont always think changes through. Mine had me leaving home after my flight to Orlando!! Instead I have to leave a day before and overnight it (at there expense). They changed it free and I noticed later I got bonus miles. It never hurts to ask.

Were you booked on Aeroplan as well? I'm definately going to call, this will drive me insane if I don't get it taken care of. Thanks for your input.

rhonda

 

[Northern_Julie]

Were you booked on Aeroplan as well? I'm definately going to call, this will drive me insane if I don't get it taken care of. Thanks for your input.

rhonda

Yes my tickets are Aeroplan. They were very accomidating when they saw the changes were unreasonable. I think it is a common problem at the moment. Changes were made at no cost.

 

[roscoepc1]

1 hour is too short if you are changing terminals (which I believe you would be). It can take up to 20 minutes just to catch a terminal bus, let alone get your luggage, get through customs etc. And that was BEFORE 9-11 happened. I can't imagine trying to do it in an hour now....

I would want at least 2 hours in between, just to be safe...maybe more.

 

[nflder]

I double checked my ticket and I have 1 hour and 25 minutes. I still think this is too short. I'm going to call Aeroplan over the weekend and see if I can get an earlier flight out of St. John's. I just don't want to be rushed and a little over an hour is really rushing it.

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

[DonnaBoo]

I think I'd want more than an hour. Good luck with making changes.

 

[tamm]

Hi,

We are planning our trip in around 6 months plus . We also booked our flights with aeroplan and fly from st.john's -Toronto - Orlando . I think that we have about 1hour and 25 minutes to get through customs with 2 small kids.
I would also like to have a little more breathing room but my husband who is a frequent flyer figures that we can make it even with the kids in tow.

 

[nflder]

Hi,

We are planning our trip in around 6 months plus . We also booked our flights with aeroplan and fly from st.john's -Toronto - Orlando . I think that we have about 1hour and 25 minutes to get through customs with 2 small kids.
I would also like to have a little more breathing room but my husband who is a frequent flyer figures that we can make it even with the kids in tow.

I was thinking I would call Aeroplan and see if we could change our flight to one earlier in the morning. But I don't want to tempt fate. That time of the year the fog is brutal and I don't want to change my flight and end up being in a position that it gets cancelled because of the fog. And with my luck that would happen and the later flight that I switched from would get out fine!!

Our flight two years ago was cancelled and the earliest they could get us out of st. John's was four days later so we ended up driving to Deer Lake - this is something I'm hoping doesn't happen again.