larriola

We are on a Continental flight from London to Orange County via a plane change in Houston. There is a 50 minute timeframe in Houston. Since there is no Customs facility in Orange County, where do you go through US Customs - Houston or London? And if it's Houston is 50 minutes enough time? Obviously since the airline has booked it this way, it must be..just curious. Thanks for the info.

P_M

You would go through customs in Houston. I'm very surprised that the airline is allowing this, it doesn't seem like enough time to me. However, the airlines calculate the "legal connection" time, so they must think it's doable. I wish you luck.

rkkwan

When are you traveling? Currently, there are two LGW-IAH flights a day, arriving at 1:40 or 4:10. Afternoon departures to SNA are at 2:40, 5:35 or 8:47.

Anyways, 50 minutes is really not enough to go through customs and change planes at IAH, unless you're a US citizen/resident and you're traveling without checked luggage. Otherwise, it can easily take 45 minutes to just get your bags and go through immigration/customs.

Also, Houston Intercontinental is undergoing major expansion right now, and international flights arrive at Terminal D. Your connecting flight to SNA may depart anywhere from a 2 minutes walk at an adjacent gate to a 20-minute walk through terminals D, C and E. So, 50 minutes really isn't realisitc at all for a non-US citizen/resident with checked luggage.

The good news is that if you can't make your connection, they can most likely put you on the next flight to SNA, unless all the flights are totally full.

nkd

This post made me also worry about our connection in Houston. However, we are connecting in Houston from domestic flight to Honolulu flight. We are arriving in Houston at 8:30 am and are scheduled to depart for HNL at 9:30 am. We don't have to go through immigartion or customs but we are traveling with one elderly person who is not disabled but needs a little more time if there is lots of walking involved. Are we going to have enough time?

P_M

I think you will be OK. I recommend phoning the airline to have a wheelchair waiting so your elderly companion can be transferred. Or if that person doesn't want a wheelchair, perhaps they can have one of those electric cars standing by to whisk you all to your other gate. I am not elderly or disabled, but I was in a huge hurry the last time I was there and the car got me to my gate in no time.

larriola

Thanks everyone for the info! We are arriving at 1:40 and scheduled to depart at 2:40. I guess we'll need luck (and hopefully room on a later flight). We booked direct from Continental. There aren't many choices going into SNA due to flight curfews at night.