Hello Everyone,

My boyfriend and I are leaving for London on August 1st. I ordered our plane tickets on cheaptickets.com. Our flight to London (Heathrow) leaves from Sacramento and there is a 30 minute layover in Houston (George Bush International). I'm really beginning to freak out because I'm thinking 30 minutes isn't nearly enough time to get to our connecting flight. I realize I should have thought of this before, but it's just now hitting me (needless to say, I'm not an experienced traveler). I went to the Continental Airlines website to see if I could change our flight (so we would have a longer layover), and it looks like it was going to cost us upwards of $1,000!

So my questions are:

1.) Is a 30 minute layover in Houston doable?
2.) If not, is there anything I can do? There must be a cheaper way to change my flight... right?

ANY help would be *MUCH* appreciated.

Short layovers make me very nervous too, that's why I always check the flight schedules for all "what if" situations.

If all runs on schedule this s/b OK. Hopefully you won't have to change terminals but if you do, IAH has a speedy train system that keeps you airside, thus avoiding the need to go thru security when changing terminals.

If you do miss your flight to LHR there is another flight leaving for LHR at 10:25. CO will rebook you at no charge if you miss your scheduled flight due to a delay from Sacramento.

I checked CO's web page and I assume you are on the 12:01 flight from Sacramento. There is a flight leaving Sacarmento at 6:05am, so you could just show up at the airport and ask if you can take that flight. If seating is available they are not likely to say no. If you do go this route this will mean a 6+ hour layover at IAH, so I would spend that time in Terminal E, as it's the nicest terminal at IAH.

I'm pretty sure you are flying on CO1893 that arrives IAH at 5:54p and then out on CO4 that departs 6:25p with a 31 minute connection.

Three points:

1. It's a "legal" connection, so CO won't let you change for free/cheap right now. If the first flight is on-time, it's not impossible to make the connection, but your chance of misconnect is certainly high.

2. There are one more flight to LHR on CO that day (the LGW flight already departs): CO32 at 10:25p. If you miss your connection, CO will put you on that flight. With under 2 weeks to go, that later flight still have plenty of seats left and, in my opinion, not even close to selling out. So, you'll get to London no problem that day, just 4.5 hours later.

3. The alternative is to get a same day change for your SMF to depart earlier. However, CO only has 3 SMF-IAH flights a day, and the earlier one departs 6:05a. And you still need to pay $50 each for the same-day confirmed change. You can start making the request at 6:05p on 7/31.

I don't want to worry tarantism anymore than he is...but what about the luggage?

is there any way luggage really can make it to its second fight in 30 mins?

I think tarantism is more likely to make the connecting flight than his luggage is.

rkkwan,
My first thought was that this not a legal connection. You say it is - what is the definition of a legal connection on a domestic/international flight?

Continental does not publish minimum connection time to the public, but 30 minutes should be minimum for mainline-to-mainline flights at IAH. No difference between domestic-to-domestic and domestic-to-international. As all mainline departs from terminals C and E, and no need to reclear security or anything.

As for luggage, well, it's just like humans. With 30 minutes and if the incoming flight is on-time, then it can be done. But chance of bags mis-connecting is fairly high.

I agree with P_M and rkkwan.

Just to add a little to their comments.

Althought it may not seem like it, Terminals C and E are next to each other and connected via walkway so its not that difficult to transfer between the 2 - although it can be a hike. CO's website has map of IAH so you may want to look at it.

As noted above, CO lets you change flights to an earlier flight (if there's room) beginning 12 hrs before the flight you want to take. So if you want to take the 6:05 am flight you can call beginning at 6:05 pm the previous day and for a $50 fee each, you can get reserved seats (NOT standby).

As to the luggage, if you stick with your current flight and you make the connection but your luggage doesn't, they'll likely put in on the 10:25 flight so you'll get it a few hours after your flight lands. At least you wouldn't have to wait until CO4 arrives the next day.

In my experience is that baggage has a better chance of making a tight connection than do passengers.

Think of it. Both the baggage and the passenger have to get from point A to point B. The baggage is driven by someone who knows where they are going (Continental at one time had a designated member of the loading crew who would special deliver any baggage that faced a tight connection; I don't know if that is still the case), and who doesn't have to wait in any lines.

The passenger, by contrast, walks (often delayed to get instructions) and waits in lines.

So my money in this race would be on the baggage. We have had lost luggage once, but on at least two occasions that I remember we weren't quick enough to make a connection ourselves, but when we got to our destination, our luggage was waiting for us, having made a connection that was too short for us.

I personally would have had reservations about buying a routing with such a short connection, but since you have bought it, and the ramifications of the missed connection are so little, I would not pay additional for the privilege of getting up earlier and spending hours in a connecting terminal, no matter how pleasant (a relative term) IAH can be.

I find this all very interesting...my question at this point would be, aren't all passengers who are traveling internationally supposed to be on board 30 minutes before departure? I realize that this isn't a hard and fast rule, but if that's what airlines claim to require, then how can a 30 minute layover in this particular instance be considered legal?

<aren't all passengers who are traveling internationally supposed to be on board 30 before departure>

No. Some don't even start boarding until 30 min before departure. Most have time limits as to when you have to check-in, but that wouldn't apply to OP since they would already have checked in at SMF and CO would have that in their system.

If it were me, I'd

a) Call Continental and see if flights can be changed for a lower change fee. Some Continental reps are much more helpful/efficient than others, so if things do not seem favorable, hang up and call back (and again, if necessary). (I've had great luck doing that.)

b) Pack enough in a carry-on for several days, as all carry-on will slow you down, and if you miss the connection, you'll have to drag it around the airport until the next flight

c) The night before, check availability for the later flight. If there seem to be plenty of seats, figure on being on that flight if you miss the connecting flight.

I'd rather arrive in London a few hours later than get up in the middle of the night to catch a 6AM flight, then spend six hours in the airport.

Of course, all sorts of things could go wrong. And, even with plenty of apparent availability, there's no guarantee you'll get on the next flight.

But, your first flight could actually land early. We've landed 15 minutes or more early many times.

And, for sure, if you are stuck with your original flights, request seats near the front, alert the attendants. We've always found fellow passengers very considerate of those who need to get off to make connections.

Thanks so much for all of your help!

Update:
My boyfriend called Continental on Monday. The guy understood our concern, so he said he would change our flight to the one leaving at 6 a.m. However their "computer system was down," so we would have to call back later. Unfortunately, my boyfriend didn't take the guy's name down. He called back yesterday, and he talked to another person who wasn't as understanding as the first guy. He said that our flight arrives and departs from the same terminal, so we will have PLENTY of time… (Does anyone know where it shows which terminal we arrive in/depart from?) Then he said if we wanted to get on the 6 a.m. flight, we would have to wait standby. *Sigh*

For terminal info, go to CO's web site and plug in your flight #s in "Flight Status". It will tell you arriving and departing terminals/gates. You can check for today, yesterday and tomorrow. It's no guarantee that those are the gates you'll have on 8/1, but the terminals shouldn't change - at least they usually don't IME.

For ex., today #1893 arrives in C-33 and #4 leaves from E-4, so they're not in the same terminal.

Otherwise, look at answers above about rescheduling 12 hr in advance to avoid standby.

Well, C and E are connected, so I usually consider them as one single humongous terminal.

Yes they're connected BUT after that walk, my legs usually tell me they're not one terminal!

Tarantism - actually the walk from C33 to E4 isn't bad.

I would call again and if you don't get someone on the line who will change your flight, ask for a supervisor.

From what I understand how CO works, you'll have to make a lot of calls to find another sympathetic agent who'll change it for you for free.

I completely forgot to update everyone on this! Our flight from Sacramento to Houston landed 10 minutes early, and it only took us 5-10 minutes to get to terminal E (we took the train in the airport from terminal C to E) . So we had about 25 minutes to spare! All of that worrying for nothing! We had good laugh about it. However, I don't think I'll ever book a flight like that again! Thanks everyone for your help and support!

Great news, thanks for the update.