Maire

Is 1.5 hours enough of a connection time from domestic to international flights?

My daughter's school recommends 3 hours. They've had a alot of problems with lost luggage on short connections. Thanks.

suze

What airport? What exactly are the connections? I don't think you can answer your question without knowing more details.

I agree with the 3 hour rule. It's so much more relaxing, besides the fact that you likely do want your suitcase to make the next plane along with you!

Underhill

Three hours is what you need for comfort when going through customs and catching an ongoing flight on your return.

nytraveler

Really - how can you think anyone can answer this?

What airport? Same airline or different? Same terminal or different? Checked luggage? What day of the week and time of day? Is this the last flight of the day? What happens if the person misses the flight - a disaster or a small problem?

And if you're talking about a school is there a child involved here? And what travel experience does he/she have?

Maire

Thank you everyone. Sorry I was vague. But Suze did answer my question, actually, here and on the other thread. I think 3 hours is the minimum I will feel comfortable with. I was just trying to rule out certain flights in our price range.

J62

Maire,
I'll have to disagree with Suze here. I think 1.5hrs is plenty of time. You clearly specify domestic to international, so there is no baggage claim, no customs, no immigration. From Des Moines, that'll mean Chicago or perhaps Newark. You will check-in at Des Moines with a boarding pass for both flights and bags checked all the way through.

In Chicago, you'll land, walk to your departure gate, and sit there. Three hr layover in Chicago or Newark isn't required to get from one plane to the next. There is really nothing special about boarding an international flight, other than you'll need to show passport before you board, and they will start the boarding about 45min before departure since it's a large plane to fill. Otherwise it's no different than a domestic connection, really.

I would not consider Des Moines to Chicago to be a taxing flight, requiring a long layover to recover.

If the 1.5hr layover is a better price, then by all means book it.

Maire

Thank you, J62. This is complicated because I'm trying to get daughter and me on same plane going out, although we'll be flying back different months.

Does anyone have opinion about Rome to Chicaco with a 2.5 hour layover at Heathrow?

Neopolitan

Of course the fallacy of the question is some sort of strange assumption that your domestic flight will arrive on time. A half hour to an hour late (gee, how common is that?) and your 1.5 hour connection is shot. I would worry constantly with that little time until my plane landed and I was in the airport.

AAFrequentFlyer

I totally agree with <b>J62</b>,

(except for one little minor detail)

Connecting from domestic to international in most US airports is nothing more than connecting from domestic to domestic flights, especially if you are flying the same airline all the way through.

The OP should post the airline(s) and the airport if she wants a real answer.

(one minor detail J62 got wrong - there is no more ID/passport check at the boarding gates).

Maire

Yes Neo, it was a dumb question. I believe nytraveler already made that clear. I'm under the gun here and submitted it without thinking.

Maire

Thanks AAFFlyer.

MaureenB

Personally, I don't feel comfortable with less than two hours between flights, any flights, domestic or international. Because we inevitably leave late out of Denver, so we sweat it out till we know the pilot has been able to make up some time in the air. With 1.5 hours to catch Austrian Air in Dulles one May, we arrived at the gate and they'd already closed the door. The Austrian Air people weren't too happy to see us, but they did let us board. It was not a fun flight, as we ended up in four seats spread in the worst places throughout the plane. And, of course, I'd made sure we had really nice seat assignments to begin with. The best laid plans...

janisj

for some reason you still aren't giving us any details -- but in general:

Midwest -- summertime -- thunder storms. How likely are there to be delays -- pretty common I should think. 3 hours seems sensible to me.

But if you let us know more we can give you usable advice.

AAFrequentFlyer

Hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of passengers connect <b>every day</b> of the year with 45 minutes connections plus.....

95% of the connections work as advertised.

If airlines had a regular problem with 1 hour connections, don't you think they would adjust accordingly? it does cost them money, one way or another, when connections are not made.

So, the moral of the story.....

sure, take the 3 plus hour connection and sit at the airport restaurant/bar/gate for 2.5 hours. I'm sure the business owners of the airport establishments love your approach,

or take a little (a tiny percentage) chance. Most of the time you will make your connection, with no problems. If you don't you will be re-accomodated as long as the trip is on one ticket.

This advice comes from a very frequent flyer that has learned over the years not to waste too much time at the connecting airports, unless it's either of the CX lounges in HKG...

WillTravel

I'm not a frequent flyer, but in the past two years, I've managed to be on two intercontinental flights where practically everyone on board missed their connections (if they had them). Maybe it's just an Air Canada problem, but I doubt it.

janisj

Nope, you are not alone - I was on an UA domestic/international connection where almost all of the connecting passengers missed their flight.

And just in March on an AA direct flight through DFW (though granted, it was international to domestic which does take longer) I was the ONLY one of 15 through passengers to made an 80+ minute connection

Maire

Thanks everyone for your replies. Again, I apologize for vagueness. At first, I was in panic mode to get these reservations made, as the fares had already gone up twice today. Then, as I mentioned at 8:38, I had pretty much ruled out layovers less than 3 hours, so I did not elaborate on the details of the flights with 1.5 hours layover.

I did get reservations made - hooray. Ended up spending $660 more for DD’s ticket than mine, and about $300 of that was for the privilege of being able to fly together to Rome.

We’re going together, but coming back different months. For whatever reasons the airlines have, the best fares for each of us were on different airlines, and even then, hers were more expensive. But it’s done; I’m glad! I appreciate all your input. Thank you.

jabez

I do a lot of business travel and generally go for 1 to 1.5 hrs connection time at most airports. This,however, can make it tight at some airports.
I'd go to Flyertalk.com and to the appropriate airline's forum. Ask the question there and be specific.

suze

I need to change my vote too, I didn't read the question correctly. The 3 hour thing is what I do say arriving Heathrow needing to transfer to go on to somewhere else within Europe.

Maire

Thanks Jabez and Suze. Ultimately, our best combination of fares resulted in flights with decent layovers, anyway.

Iowa/Chicago/Rome: 3 hour layover ORD(could have chosen 5,6,7 hour layovers--no thanks)

Rome/Chicago/Iowa: 2 hour layover ORD

Rome/London/Chicago/Iowa: 2.75 hrs. layover Heathrow - 2 hr layover ORD