Tell Me About AA And CLT Airport...

[kristenrice]

We have two trips planned this year (October and December) and for once, we are not tied to SWA. I am looking at some flights that connect through CLT on American and they have connection times of 30-40 minutes. That seems impossible when I look at the images of the airport on Google maps! That place is HUGE! On top of that, the "performance" of the first flight shows an on-time percentage of 30-60% which is not encouraging. The other option would be to take a flight with a 2.5-2.75 hour layover, which seems excessive. Does American really have itineraries that go out regularly with 30-40 minute connections and still make the connecting flight? I see several flights through ORD, DCA and CLT with connection times of 30 and 40 minutes. Are these itineraries for real?? I would be terrified of missing my connection, but as long as there is still another flight that day, I would not be too upset, as long as they get me there. Do they compensate you at all if you miss the connection do to THEIR delay? I know, they always SAY it's "weather"...

The flights I am looking at are in the timeframe and price point that I am comfortable with, but there are other options with Delta and United that have layovers that are around 1 hour which is a little more comfortable. The flight times and prices are not as appealing so this is going to be a tough decision. I am not at all familiar with the Charlotte airport. United and Delta fly through O'Hare and Detroit which are airports that I have used in the past. On the way home, we would not be "stuck" if we missed a connection at either of those airports because they are both about 2.5 hours from our house and we could just drive home if needed.

(Oh, and it is just 2 adults flying...planning to book fares that include seats near the front of the plane, in front of the wings/exits)

 

[PrincesCJM]

During my last connection thought CLT, we can into terminal E on a CRJ and had to run to terminal A or B. Our original flights had been canceled so I took what I could to get us to our destination the same day. We ran only to find out that our flight wasn't actually boarding yet, despite the app telling us that it was.