sshin

I am going to Costa Rica in May with my family via Dallas departing from Seoul. It is my understanding that I need to clear immigration as non-US citizen>pickup my baggage>customs clearance>ticketing>re-check my baggage. I only have 2 hour layover at Dallas and can I do all these within 2 hours and get into the connected flight? Is Biz class helpful to my transit? (btw, there are two tickets that I purchased as I purchased these seperately, so no ITI service provided for my bags.) If I cannot make this, I would change my flight, please help! thx.

Dukey1

I assume you are using two different carriers, is that correct?

If so, are you absolutely certain your initial carrier does not have a luggage agreement with carrier number 2?

Generally speaking the maximum amount of time to move from two terminals which are the farthest apart form one another using the airport's rail system is 9 minutes.

sshin

Yeah - there are two different carriers and they said I need to pickup my luggage and re-check it to the AA counter. FYI, I am transit within D terminal in DFW and I am calculating all the time I will need to on board to the 2nd flight.

DebbieDoesDulles

Change it, that's too risky. With two different airlines on two different tickets, you could lose the 2nd flight if you arrive late and they would probably make you purchase a new ticket, at last-minute fare price.

We had a flight that was 5 hours late once, so with two different airlines, even 5 hours is not safe I guess....but two hours is very very risky considering you have to wait for your bags, get through immigration, re-check, etc. And Dallas to Costa Rica is an international flight so they'd want you all checked in 90 minutes before departure.

Nope.

No.

Impossible.

doug_stallings

I don't think "impossible" is very accurate, but it's going to be incredibly tight. You have two things going for you in Dallas. Short connections are quite possible there; I've made a 45-minute connection, changing terminals with long walks in between, as have my bags. And DFW baggage is delivered fairly quickly because the airport has so many transit passengers. But I've never experienced immigration and customs there.

I'd also add that check-in at DFW can be very fast, as can security. But you will be facing a 60-minute (not 90-minute) cut-off to be checked in for your international flight (you really MUST check-in online for your AA flight in order to have a prayer of this working for you).

Being in business class will help because you will get off your flight faster and will be able to check in and drop your bags for your AA flight faster. Also, many nonstop international flights are actually early rather than late. But any single thing, no matter how small, will derail you. If this is your first trip into the US, however, I have grave doubts about this working, and the airline will simply not accommodate you on a later flight if you are on two separate tickets.

I'd strongly recommend changing your flight to be safe. I'd allow no less than 3 hours between flights at DFW.

Dukey1

Given the OP's response about a non-luggage agreement I think the best thing to do would be changing the second flight to a later departure.

J62

Who are the 2 different carriers? The only non-stop flights I see from ICN to DFW are all operated by AA, including an Korean Air flight # which is operated by AA.

If all your flights are on AA, then 2hrs while still tight,

Dukey1

The OP's EXACT response: "Yeah - there are two different carriers and they said I need to pickup my luggage and re-check it to the AA counter."

Now, could that ACTUALLY MEAN that the OP has to claim the luggage at the carousel, take it THROUGH Customs, and then RE-DEPOSIT it immediately AFTER Customs as is usual and NOT go all the way to an American check-in counter?

OP, you NEED to respond because IMO J62 is probably correct.

sshin

Okay, most of you think int'l transit in 2 hours in DFW is risky. There is only 1 available flight to Costa Rica on the arrival date in DFW, I might need to change my flight from ICN to DFW.... Thanks guys for your advice!

BigRuss

>

If AA operates both flights (regardless of who took the booking), then this is probably not a problem - OP can check in ahead of time for the DFW-SJO leg and even if s/he gets bumped, will be set on the next AA flight to San Jose.

The flight times going east from Seoul are likely calculated based on a subnormal tailwind so the carriers can boost their ontime records by showing how early they arrived. OP is likely to arrive a touch early. And all flights in the same terminal helps with the transfer and recheck - won't have to go through security again.

Dukey1

Korean and American are not in the same alliance. Any codeshare from ICN to DFW is probably operated by JAL, not Korean.

Anyone arriving from Korea is going to arrive at Terminal D.

I do not think this is RISKY IF you only need to re-check your bag in Terminal D rather than exiting Security and going all the way to an American ticket counter.

RoamsAround

BigRuss is usually spot on but this time his response isn't 100% accurate. OP will be arriving DFW from Korea so will have to clear US Immigration & Customs then EXIT THE SECURE AREA and thus will have to go back through security to catch the connecting flight.

J62

I did some further digging on flightaware and now see that both KAL and AA fly the route non-stop.

doug_stallings

I believe I said this before, but the good news at DFW is that security is almost always fast and efficient. I have been through DFW many times with my dog and have never had an issue taking her outside and then coming back in through security in less than 10 minutes at almost all times of the day. Even at Christmas, the lines for security were very manageable because the airport is a big transit hub more than an airport of origination.

I have never been through immigration and customs there, but the baggage delivery for domestic flights is very fast. All this gives me some confidence, but anything less than 2 hours for an international to domestic connection is always going to be tight, even if everything goes perfectly and you stay in the same terminal.