Short connection time for international flight
 

This is our first international trip. We are flying Air France from the U.S. to Paris and connecting through Atlanta. If our flight gets to Atlanta on time, we have less than an hour (about 50 minutes) to make our Paris flight. Is that sufficient time? I assume we have to go through some type of screening process in Atlanta, and I am a little concerned about a flight delay to Atlanta. Delta and Air France were not helpful, and they both informed me that we could not fly stand-by to get on an earlier flight to Atlanta. (Neither permit stand-by on international flights.) We bought our tickets through Expedia, but they are not willing to put us on an earlier flight without a substantial change fee. Any thoughts?

sounds awfully tight. most airports have a minimum connecting time. don't know what it is with atlanta. i'd check with expedia. **theoretically**, they shouldn't have arranged a connection time shorter than this minimum.<BR><BR>from experience, it's not just the concern about physically making the flight. if you're checking in luggage, i'd be worried about whether your luggage will make it!<BR>

The 'legal' connect time for domestic to international in Atlanta is one hour. No less. You may not be protected if your domestic flight is late. Expedia should change you to an earlier flight at no charge. This is their mistake.

We had over 1 hour in Atlanta to catch our international flight to Paris and we did not make it. What a mess! We had to stay overnight as there was no plane to CDG that evening and then we had to call our agent to call our hotel in Paris but she wasn't at her office that late. When we got to Paris our room was given away as we did not inform them of being delayed one day.Next time we will make sure that we have at least two hours. Good luck

As a rule, I have always insisted on at least 90 minutes and often 2 hrs. connection time through Atlanta, DC, Chicago, or Newark, or any international connection. This has become far more important since 9/11.<BR><BR>Since the computer programs used by most airlines, agents, and ticket services always pull up the _very next_ flight to your final destination, that's what you are automatically booked unless you make a point of asking for a later flight.<BR><BR>I strongly recommend that people get in the habit of doing that -- not accepting the automatic connection provided by the booking program (Sabre, Apollo or whatever) and asking for a longer connection.

I cannot believe Expedia Programs Illegal Connections. This is totally irresponsible. A good agent would have known 50 minutes is not enough connecting time even for Domestic in Atlanta (where I live and know this is too short). I usually book nothing less than 1 1/2 hour connections in Atlanta or other Big Airports.

This sounds real tight to me. When we flew Boston-JFK-Egypt last year they tried to give us a 55 minute transfer at JFK. We asked, insisted and then yelled to get them to change it and eventually did, but had to pay a reticketing fee. We even checked on the on-time status of the proporsed flight for the weeks before. As it turns out, if we had kept the first reservation, we would have missed the once-daily flight JFK to Cairo. Call again, ask to talk to a supervisor, and be insistent. If you can, go on-line and get on-time history of the flight to Atlanta - it might be added leverage. In the end, you may have to decide if a fee is better than the aggravation of missing your flight. Atlanta can be very busy with substantial delays.

Thanks for all of the responses. I am happy to report that the Delta agent who checked us in put us on an earlier flight to Atlanta. We made it to Altanta with time to spare, and we even made it to Paris on time. I simply asked the agent if we could get on an earlier Atlanta flight, and his response was "no problem." This was quite a relief after being told earlier by Delta, Air France, and Expedia that we could not fly stand-by and our only option was paying a $100+ change fee per ticket. Of course, I've learned my lesson now, and I won't book a ticket with less than two hours to make an international connection!

wow, that last note is quite a compliment for travel agents!

How do you figger? It was Delta employee ("agent" in this case means employee) who untangled things. Not an independent agent.