Flight time change

[abbiev]

Hi, we have just got an email from British airways saying our flights from manchester to Philadelphia then onto Orlando have changed times, we now will only have 1hr 30 min to make our next flight from Philadelphia to Orlando which I don't think is enough time, has anyone else done this route and know if it is enough time thanks

[choccyface]

Ours was reduced to 2hrs this year (we got delayed and the flight was cancelled but that’s a different story!)

At the time of booking we had 2.5hrs between connections and was amended to 2hrs like yourselves - I contacted BA who said 2hrs is fine. I’d ring them, some dibbers last year got their flights changed to a diff route - it is quite a tight connection and doesn’t allow for much delay - good luck

[Peko]

Well, 1h30 is right on the limit for Minimum Connection Time (MCT) on this flight combination, so in theory this is a legitimate connection. However, MCTs at US gateways often fail to take into account the time for non-US citizens or resident to pass immigration.

PHL is one of the more efficient airports for connections, but this one is tight, I’d be happier with at least 2 hours, and probably 2.5-3 with checked bags, to allow for minor delays. Worth a call to the airline, to see if it will change you to a more makeable connection.

When are the flights? If a fair time away, there is a good chance the domestic flight will change time again. If it makes the connection longer, you have a better chance of making it. If the connection gets any shorter than 90 mins, the airline has to rebook you.

[LCS2008]

I think it could be close. I wouldn’t be happy about it in honesty, unless the holiday was a long one, 3+ weeks, and I could afford to ‘lose’ a day in the airport.

The time before last we had went via Houston and had a 2.5 hour connection out, and a tight connection of 1.15 back. We missed both, due to slow immigration and a small delay in leaving on the way out and not enough time allowed on the way back. It wasn’t really an issue as we were going for 3.5 weeks so a day missed didn’t matter much.

We are going via jfk this time and as the holiday is only 15 nights I’ve bought tickets with longer connections so we are more likely to make it.

Make sure you know what the airline is obliged to do for you if you miss the connection. Lots of the people in the queue before us at customer service were fobbed off with just reduced rate hotel rooms subsidised by the airline, plus being moved to another flight. The two families in front of us, who we struck up a conversation with, opted to be put on standby for the remaining flights that evening and as a result spent all evening in the airport waiting. One of the families was still there the following afternoon, I don’t know when they managed to fly. We opted to forgo standby and accept seats on the first flight leaving the next day, so we didn’t have to hang about the airport, and were guaranteed to leave on that flight rather than have the uncertainty of standby. We were put up in a nice hotel and given $240 of food vouchers for evening meal and breakfast, plus upgraded to first as those were the only remaining seats on the plane.

I’d be interested if anyone know definitively what an airline is obliged to provide when a traveller misses a connection, particularly where the two flights aren’t operated by the same airline (my Houston flight was a British airways codeshare with the second leg operated by a US airline) and the coming one is virgin/delta. Are they obliged to provide hotel/meals at no cost to the traveller even when the missed connection is out of their hands, ie immigration or bad weather?

[abbiev]

Thanks everyone, rang British airways and told them we where not happy with such a short connection time and they agreed to change us to the man-dublin-orlando flight which we are really pleased about, our booking this time has been a bit of a nightmare as every flight has had a time change, we have already had to change our flight home as the time for our connecting flight was changed but have to say British airways have been very good and changed the flights to ones which we are very happy with, just finding out all we can about aer lingus now lol

[LCS2008]

We flew aer lingus/ba via Dublin and it was the best flight ever. Second only to flying direct, it was effortless

[abbiev]

Originally Posted by LCS2008

We flew aer lingus/ba via Dublin and it was the best flight ever. Second only to flying direct, it was effortless

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Brilliant news thanks for posting