titan284

Hi everybody,

I am going to the USA tomorrow and I am concerned that I may miss my flight in Washington. I will be arriving from Munich with UA 903 at 2:47 pm and taking off at 3:48 to Denver UA 903 again.

It means that I've got 1h between both flights but I am planning on bringing only carry on luggage.

Is 1h enough? Can I skip the line at the custom saying that I might miss my flight?

Thanks in advance!

EricH

You should be okay. Your arrival, immigration, customs, recheck and departure are all in the same terminal. You just go downstairs and go through immigration, then proceed directly to customs, then reclear security and go back upstairs to get to your gate. If there are long lines at any of these and you're short of time, just assert yourself a little and I'm sure they'll accommodate you.

obxgirl

If it were me I would be extremely uncomfortable with an hour.

Hopefully you land on time. Your arrival time coincides, not coincidentally, with a lot of other international flights. No one in immigration and customs is going to let you skip anything. You need to re-clear TSA security for your second flight and that is another potential choke point.

Technically you are supposed to be at your departure gate 30 minutes prior to leaving for Denver. Have you checked in and do you have a boarding pass?

Good luck. I do hope you make it.

MikeT

Fortunately, there are plenty of flights to Denver from IAD if you miss yours.

divineMissM

You never know....3 hours is not enough connecting time if your first flight ends up being 3 hours late.
However, airlines cannot put you onto a flight when they know you are going to miss your connection. In Munich, if you see at the gate that your first flight is going to be delayed 30 minutes, tell the agent that you will miss your connection and they will re-route you from the start. I'm not sure about the international rule but in the U.S. they must do this for you even if it means putting you onto another airline at their expense. It has happened to me several times. If the agent at the desk won't do it for you, get on the phone to United and tell them you want to be re-routed because you are on an illegal connection.

You could just get onto the plane in Munich and hope for the best, but if you don't want to spend your whole flight worrying...take care of it before you leave Munich. Your current one hour connection is considered legal however, or it wouldn't have been booked in the first place. The system locks out any illegal connections.

nytraveler

I don;t think you have nearly enough time. Immigration can take 20 minutes or can take an hour. And if yuo try to puch to the front they will not let you - and may well ask a lot of extra questions. I would try to rebook a flight now giving yourself at least 2 hours and 3 if possible - since international flights coming in after 2 pm get later and later as the day goes on.

And the system locks out legal connections only if they are on one ticket. If bought as separate tickets - the airline doesn't know you have an illegal connection.

yestravel

That's tight, but doable. To further cause delay u r arriving during prime thunderstorm hours which we have been having a lot of lately. Try to be seated in the front of the plane and walk quickly! If your flight lands on time and there isn't too long a line at immigrations, you could make it. At security sometimes they will move u forward if u have a connection. As already mentioned lots of flghts to Denver, so u should be able to get another flight if u miss your connection. Good luck!