Hello everyone,
I am booking a ticket for my Dad from Moscow (Russia) to Chicago (USA). He doesn't speak English. There are no direct flights but I found a fairly priced ticket for a Delta flight with one stop at JFK. Below are some details:
Moscow - JFK - 4h55m layover - ORD
ORD - JFK - 58m layover - Moscow.
I am not worried about the first flight, 5 hours should be enough to go through immigration and find the flight to ORD. Now I am really worried about the 58-minute layover between the JFK to Moscow flight. Do you know if that is even realistic given that it will take him extra time to figure things out with no English? Also, I would think that one has to go through immigration when entering the US, not leaving but I am not sure.
Thanks in advance for any help
Minimum layover at JFK
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If he is flying all the way on Delta and does not have to change terminals, this is enough time as long as his flight from ORD is not overly delayed. I'd prefer to have 90 minutes, but this is quite doable. He just changes gates and doesn't have to go through security. No different from any other flight connection. His luggage will be checked all the way from ORD to Moscow.
If he has to change terminals, then it's probably not enough time, especially since he doesn't speak English. Having said that, it must be a legal connection or Delta could not have sold the ticket. But legal is not necessarily doable in all cases. And it's not as if there's an hourly flight to Moscow.
Here's the problem. If he misses his flight to Moscow - even if it is a legal connection and Delta puts him on the next flight - how does he cope with that? He will have to deal with ticket agents, organize where to stay (may not be another flight out that day, etc).
I would never risk it given the record of flights from ORD - and my English is just fine.
Why can't he get a much earlier flight from ORD to JFK - there must be a ton of them?
Thank you both for your help. Delta does have other flights with both earlier departure times from ORD and later departure time from JFK but this particular ticket is $300 less than the rest of them which is interesting. If I was buying a ticket for myself, I would have taken the risk but you are probably right legal is not always doable particularly with his lack of English and possible delays. Thanks again.