parisian

Hello,

My brother and his family will arrive at the beginning of August at Newark around noon on a Monday and have a plane to Montreal around 4pm.

They will be flying on 1 ticket and I already checked there are later planes to Montreal in case they miss the connection, but I would like to know if you think that 4 hours will be enough ? For me it seems a little short and I would have preferred one more hour.

doug_stallings

The question really is whether they are arriving on an international flight or not. If it's an international flight, then they will likely not have enough time; if it's a domestic flight, they will have a better chance, but it's still awfully lose. Non-U.S. citizens may spend in excess of an hour in immigration at peak hours, and then they are going to hit very busy midday traffic coming into the city.

This is going to be a really expensive and time-consuming transfer regardless, so the best option is probably to take a car service directly from EWR to LGA. They should arrange this in advance, and then they call once they have claimed their bags and are actually ready to leave. The car (I use Dial 7) is usually there in about 5 or 10 minutes. Then they will have to pay several tolls to get across or around Manhattan to LGA. I'm guess this will cost around $150 with tolls. They'll probably cross Staten Island and go through Brooklyn over to LGA. The time is hard to estimate because that depends on traffic, but it's definitely over an hour, probably more like 90 minutes.

Basically, if they get really lucky (only 1 hour in immigration), pick up luggage and into a car within 20 minutes. Say an hour and 15 minutes in transit, they may have time to check in and drop their luggage and get through security (30 minutes minimum) and get on the plane before it departs. But all this depends on luck.

I have to say that this is really an almost insane connection under any circumstances, and I have to wonder why you don't simply try to get them a flight out of EWR to Montreal. Or at least see if they can fly into JFK instead of EWR. The transfer to LGA from JFK is considerably easier.

The fact that there are later flights doesn't take into consideration that most flights these days are full, particularly during the busy vacation season in August.

parisian

Thanks Doug. I will try to make them change. This was what came from their flight search (Paris - EWR / LGA - Montreal). At least, I will tell them to try to switch immediately to the later Montreal flight

sf7307

<<<I'm guess this will cost around $150 with tolls.>>>

Not sure if it would be more to LGA (looks to be about the same distance), but we have a reservation for a car service from Newark to JFK and estimate that all in, including tip and tolls, it will be under $120. (Our reservation is with Carmel)

doug_stallings

The transfer will be more to LGA. It's farther and (depending on the route) has more tolls.

MrNuke

parisian,

What airline/s are involved here?

parisian

It is United (Paris - EWR) and Air Canada (LGA - Montreal). My brother told me it was the best deal he got for this day. The tickets are already bought. As written above, I will ask him to change the second flight by contacting Air Canada (take either the 17h35 out of LGA or even better the 15h55 from EWR)

jywilmot

Hello,

I have booked the same trip.
It it possible to change in 4h ? Or did you succeed in changing the flight ?

Thanks !

janisj

Welcome to Fodors jywilmot.

My guess is you will miss this connection. Is it all on one booking or two?

parisian

For your information, the immigration line in Newark was very long. They took a taxi to La Guardia, jumped the line to the check-in counter. The flight closed just behind them. They had thus a 30s margin between getting on the flight and waiting for the next one (with the seat availability potential problem)

doug_stallings

@jywilmot As you no doubt realize by now this is a horrible idea, and you have as much chance not making the flight as making it. I hope you can and will reconsider or change your flight.