Hi
I am flying from London into Boston in May. I am en route to Cleveland. My flight lands at 4.20pm and there is a direct flight to Cleveland leaving at 6.05pm. Do you think that is cutting it a bit fine? The alternative is a flight at 7.20pm, but this goes via DC and arrives about midnight. Friends are picking me up at Cleveland and we then have an hour's drive to Richland County so it will make it very late.
At JFK on 2 recent occasions it took me around two hours to get thru Immigration/Customs, whilst at Philly I was on the train into the city within thirty minutes, hence my dilemma and enquiry?
Any advice please would be much appreciated.
Cheers from Nottingham England

I'm American, so obviously don't have a lot of experience with the foreign lines, but will say that immigration is relatively quick at Boston and the lines never seem overly long. Certainly, it is not nearly as bad as JFK. Customs is usually a non-event, but there can be the occasional line to hand over your form as you exit.

One thing to note is that (assuming you are flying Continental from Boston to Cleveland) you will have to change terminals from E to A. There are a couple of options. You can take one of the shuttle buses in the front of the terminal, or you can walk through the parking garage.

It sounds like you will be on two separate tickets -- the LHR-BOS flight is on Delta, BOS-CLE is on CO -- so you'll be screwed if you miss the BOS-CLE flight.

CO requires that your baggage is checked 30 minutes before your flight. There is no baggage re-check at the Logan Int'l terminal, so you'll have to get yourself and your luggage to Term A, and then check your luggage, by 5.35.

That is certainly doable <u>if</u> your flight is on time, and <u>if</u> you do not have a delay at immigration. (You could have a delay at immigration if, for example, two other overseas flight arrive a few minutes before your flight.)

I'd estimate that you'd make the 6.05 flight about 85% of the time.

I'd think making your flight is about a 70/30 proposition. Those aren't odds I'd like when missing the flight would be so expensive.

Instead of booking the later flight and having a long drive so late at night -- I'd might consider pricelining a hotel at Logan for the night and taking an early morning flight. Just an option.

The real question, actually, is why the OP isn't taking taking any one of several earlier flights from LHR to BOS, which would have made the whole issue moot.

that's true -- but that part seems to be water under the bridge at this point . . .

Thanks for all your helpful comments. I would mention that I live some 200 miles from LHR - 4 hours drive/3.5 hours by train - and getting the early flight would involve its own set of problems.
I forgot to mention that I am traveling First Class, so that should maybe give me time advantage. I think I will probably get the later flight to be on the safe side. I am quite at home in airports, but I have never used Boston before, so Terminal change will be added stress.
Thank you again for all your advices. Much obliged.

Bear in mind that there is no equivalent to FastTrack for US immigration. However, there should be an elite/first class security line at Terminal A.

One other possibility... From your arrival time into BOS, I'm thinking you are on the Delta flight from LHR, no? Well, DL doesn't fly to Cleveland, BUT, they do have a 7:47 pm non-stop flight into Columbus from Boston. Not sure where in Richland County your friends are, but Google says Mansfield (county seat) is 1:20 from CLE and 1:21 from CMH, so it could be just as convenient for them and puts you on a non-stop and gets you into Columbus at 9:55 pm, which is a heck of a lot better than midnight. It also puts you on a single carrier, which would be preferable, in case something goes wrong with one of the flights.

Downside, however, is that the BOS-CMH flight is on a jungle jet (so is BOS-CLE).

Thank you travelgourmet - now THAT'S something I hadn't checked out. That would be the answer and kill several birds with one flight - if you get my ramblings lol
Many thanks - you poeple are really helpful and I am MUCH obliged.

One option that may suit some people from Europe is to route themselves thru Dublin or Shannon Airports in Ireland. One gets through American immigration and customs there and arrives in USA as a domestic passenger. Passengers from UK pay a high travel tax to America while the tax to Ireland is very small and the subsequent flight to America has a very small tax too.

the usual answer includes "if your flight is on time" - and other than the statistical info provided by airline, who knows about your specific flight on your day of travel. That to me means more than how fast Boston Logan is.

Since Logan has fewer internationally arriving flights than some other east coast US cities, I have found that time thru customs/immigration can vary enormously. If yours is the only flight arriving at that time, it is great. But if more than an average number of international flights arrive in rapid succession, it can take longer than seems reasonable, due to staffing levels.