Flight connection concerns..

[16lis]

Hi - I'm looking for some advice as I've never flown indirect before and I'm a little confused about information I'm being given.

On our inbound flight we're flying Orlando to JFK airport and then connecting to Manchester with Virgin.

I've booked through Ocean Florida who have advised that our flights have changed meaning that our connection time is only 58 minutes for the JFK to Manchester flight.

They've advised it is enough time as luggage will be checked through etc but when I've logged on to Virgin Atlantic its saying we may miss our connecting flight - so I'm confused!

Can anyone advise what will happen if we miss flight please? I've tried contacting Virgin customer care but they're not there until Monday..

[RM2016]

You will be put on the next flight that has available seats. As long as it’s booked on one ticket it’s the airlines responsibility to get you back to Manchester.

[16lis]

That's great thank you. If there isn't another flight until following day would I need to book a hotel?

[RM2016]

No it would be upto the airline to do that until the flight. It may be worth both checking to see if there is a later flight the same day and also ringing to see if they would put you on it.

[16lis]

Thank you.. There is another flight out later but it connects again via Glasgow so its making it a very long journey home!

Ive checked and there seems to be a lot of seats spare on both direct flights from Orlando to Manchester that day so I wonder if they'd consider putting us on one of those flights instead.

[RM2016]

They might, they might not but know your options and what you want to achieve before the phone call, sometimes it’s down to how sympathetic the advisor is!

[Mary A]

What is the minimum connection time at JFK for domestic to international? If more than 58 minutes I would contact ocean Florida and insist they book you an earlier Orlando-jfk flight.

If you miss the connection, they will get you back to Manchester but may not be that day or may be via circuitous route, you've already mentioned Glasgow but could be London, Paris, Amsterdam etc.

I've done many connections in the USA, I'm happy with <1 hour for domestic but that is too short a connection for me for transatlantic flight to get home. All it needs is first flight to be delayed.

I wouldn't rely on airline putting you up in a hotel either, recent experience from Dibber found they had to book their own accommodation, but I think that was on inbound flight.

[mouli1]

If your mco flight is on time and your next flight is the same terminal it should be fine.
We have done NYC to mco a couple of times and the flight time is always less than that scheduled sometimes by up to an hour .you should be fine coming the other way

[16lis]

Thanks all for your advice its really appreciated.

Ocean Florida have been great so far so will see what their thoughts are now we've recieved notification from Virgin that we may miss the connection..

Fingers crossed we can get it sorted..

[Peko]

This is an interesting one. Minimum Connection Time (MCT) for Delta>Virgin Atlantic domestic to international at JFK is 45 mins in the same terminal (T4), but 60 mins if the domestic arrives into T2.

On the basis that there is no guarantee the domestic will arrive into T4 (no matter what the booking says now, Delta moves domestic flights between the terminals regularly), you have a case to request a rebooking onto a different flight combination. If the flight ended up coming into T2, the airline would be at fault for selling a connection below MCT, so it should cooperate.

Since you’ve booked via an agent, Ocean Florida will have to do this for you, but do a bit of research into your preferred alternatives (stick to Delta or Virgin flights to make it easier), and let them know.