Vaibhav_Dixit

I will be travelling from india to Columbia,South Carolina this summer,

My connecting flight is from India-->frankfurt-->IAD(dulles airport,Washington)-->Columbia (CAE).

and i will be back by same route.
As u can see,I will be connecting from my international(Lufthansa) flight to domestic (Continental Airlines )flight.My connection time for onward journey (India-->USA) is 3 hours at IAD and for return journey (USA-->India) is 1.5 hours at IAD.

My questions are:

Are these connection times enough or should i be worried(especially for return flight)?
While returning,will be baggage be checked in all the way to India or i'll have to claim and recheck in my baggage at IAD?

J62

For a return flight out of IAD (Domestic US to international departure) there are no special exit formalities - you will simply walk from one gate to another as if it were a domestic flight. 1.5hrs is plenty of time, barring incoming flight delays.

Incoming, I also think 3hrs is plenty of time. You will have to go through immigration (which can take some time), baggage claim (bags should already be there by the time you get through immigration, and customs, which is a simple procedure of just handing off the customs form to the inspector. Unless they decide to pull you aside for a secondary inspection.

Right after customs, you'll drop off your bags - they should already be tagged through to CAE, then find your way to the departure gate. You'll need to go through security with all the other passengers.

So unless there is significant delay on your LH flight, or some problem with immigration or customs, I think 3hrs is plenty of time.

simpsonc510

In my experience, I'd be very happy to have 3 hours at Dulles when coming into the USA. I would not be comfortable if I only had, say, 2 hours instead. The lines at immigration and security can be long and slow!!!

rkkwan

Just want to point out that even though your ticket may say Continental, your IAD-CAE flight is operated by United Express. After customs exit, just recheck your bags with United. By that time of the year, there may be very few things/places still with the "Continental" name, and definitely not at IAD, which has few to start with.

Vaibhav_Dixit

Thanks for the replies

My all booking are on a same ticket.

So how will i get my boarding passes?will Lufthansa issue my all boarding passes for my INDIA-->CAE,SC journey (that includes my continental flight too)?

tatersalad

Lufthansa may or may not be able to issue all the boarding passes in India and the reverse for United in South Carolina.

Even though Lufthansa and United are both Star Alliance partners and sell each others tickets, they may not be able to issue each others boarding passes in some locations.

Last March we had flights using United to Munich where we connected to Lufthansa and had to get boarding passes for the outbound Lufthansa flight in Munich. On our return we flew Turkish airlines to Frankfort where again we had to get boarding passes for an outbound Lufthansa flight to Denver but at Frankfort, Lufthansa also issued passes for the onward United flight from Denver. Turkish is also a Star Alliance partner and all our flights were on the same itinerary.

Your luggage can be checked all the way, you do have to claim and re-check it upon your first entry into the USA. I advise you pay close attention to the routing that the agent places on your baggage so it is the same as your actual routing, do this before you walk away from the counter while your bags are still there. We have had problems with this.

Happy travels.