Indirect flights how long for layover?

[ChrisS]

Originally Posted by Gryff

ChrisS
The 90 min wait due to an unseasonably thunder storm on a 2 hour transfer at Atlanta resulting in me being bumped off the flight for 3 days and my ever decreasing speed on my feet. It’s a long lay over and a spare couple of nights at home in Florida if need be.
Not the first time I’ve ditched the shoes and run like heck to catch a flight and the rest of the luggage didn’t make it even when I picked it up and transferred it to onward flight, not only luggage but a dog in a sky kennel as big as a fiat 500 and a very expensive set of golf clubs didn’t get put on the connection.
Dog had a site seeing trip in New York, DH golf clubs not so lucky heck knows where they went for 4 days to be chucked out on the drive at the villa as you know him ChrisS
You can imagine the performance when I text oh are you in, your clubs are on the drive. I could see them on our cameras they had just come back on line after Irma
No I’m ****** not, I’m in the mall only place with AC and WiFi the rest you can guess
P

See more...

If our Virgin flight gans tappy lappy ower the Atlantic I won't push our luck on the earlier flight connection Helen [not this time anyway], too many unknowns following C-19, it might be too risky, might not and, if Delta desk are accommodating, they may put us on the earlier flight if we're through in time.

Luckily we travel fairly light but remember your beggar of a time with the dog. He was lucky Helen, United had an incident when a Frenchie died due to crew negligence. As for Ian's golf clubs, oh vey

[7SeasSailor]

I would risk two hours depending if there are more flights going that day but I much prefer three hours.

[123]

Depends on the time of year as well.

Chicago and New York frequently have snow delays from Nov-Feb but run pretty smoothly the rest of the time

[jdouds]

If you can go via Dublin and do your immigration there make the remainder of the journey much easier.

[Bozza]

For an outbound connection in the US, I always check the airline's schedule to see what later flights they have from the connection airport to Orlando (presumably).

If you're flight has a relatively early departure from the UK, you may well find there are 3 or 4 flights after your connection down to Orlando, meaning if your first flight is delayed and you miss that intended connection, there are later options to get you down to Orlando that same day.

There's no guarantee you'd get on those flights, if fully booked, but the chances are you would be able to get on one of them.

We've one indirect a fair few times and never missed a connection and we often take shorter ones than many on here are comfortable with.

[SamH88]

Originally Posted by jdouds

If you can go via Dublin and do your immigration there make the remainder of the journey much easier.

See more...

Agree with this. I'm from Dublin and having US pre clearance is amazing because you just bypass immigration when you land.

I would still make sure it's a decent layover time though because the queue for pre clearance can be looooooong! The self scanners that US citizens can use broke once so there was about an hour and a half queue.

[sprocket]

It really depends on your stop over airport.

We have flown in to some airports and you can be at your next gate within minutes, but airports like Newark took ages and terminal changes.

Our departure airport is Dublin with a stop over in the US so we have cleared immigration already when we land, but if you are stopping at a US airport from anywhere else, you will need to factor in and research that airports immigration time.

If you go via Dublin, you will clear immigration there, but that can take anywhere between a few minutes and over an hour. We have gone though times with nobody around, and once it took almost an hour, and another time we were running to the gate after clearing immigration. The problem is its hard to predict when it will be quiet or busy as we have discovered. Its like the reverse of MCO, if flights are called close together, then immigration gets busy very quick.

We usually aim around 3 hours stop over when stopping in a US airport. Enough time to walk around, eat, stretch and relax. Anything near the 2 hours, makes me panic for weeks leading up to the flight, where I am checking the average flight delays.

If you miss your connecting flight, you will be put on the next available flight. Peak season that could possibly be a few days wait, or at least several hours. Not worth the stress of just having a longer layover.

[nicbev]

Originally Posted by jdouds

If you can go via Dublin and do your immigration there make the remainder of the journey much easier.

See more...

If you do pre clearance in Dublin, as you are still in transit, with the traffic light travel system from the uk, I assume I will have to follow their rules rather than any from Ireland? Thanks

[nicbev]

Thanks all for your replies, Dublin sounds the easiest due to pre clearance

[sprocket]

That is a really interesting question in relation to passing through Dublin. Answer would be it depends on your UK flight operator. If you have to transfer between terminal 1 and terminal 2, then you have to exit the terminals and walk. This means your technically are in Ireland and not in transit, as you are free to go anywhere without restrictions, which many people do do when they have a long layover.

Originally Posted by nicbev

If you do pre clearance in Dublin, as you are still in transit, with the traffic light travel system from the uk, I assume I will have to follow their rules rather than any from Ireland? Thanks

See more...