51 min enough to change plane?
 

I'm going LAX to London with change at Houston. The arrival at Houston is 5:54pm and departure is 6:45pm giving only 51 min to change plane. Both planes are Continental.

Is this enouth time to change plane? Should I be concerned?

if you have a ticket that shows this as a connection you will be fine because then continental has the responsibility. if you bought 2 seperate tickets for the connection; good luck.

You should have enough time. Since both flights are Continental, your luggage should be checked all the way through. I had a 35 minute connection for a Continental international flight. No problem (my luggage made it too!).

That is pretty scary on the trip over. Since the gate is closed before the actual take off, if you are not there on time, you cannot get on the plane even if it is sitting there. This happened to my group returning from Madrid on Continental in April. Our plane was 15 minutes late, but the gate for our connecting flight was closed. The plane was still on the ground, but we could not get on. Thank goodness we were on our way home, and the next flight was in an hour. In your case, if you miss that flight, unless there are several a day, you will probably not get another flight to London until the next day. If you can get an earlier flight from LAX, I would strongly recommend it.

You might ask Continental if the original flight arrives in the same terminal as the one to London. If they are both in terminal E as I expect, you have ample time.

You should be okay LAX-IAH-LGW with that connection time. The LAX flight will come in at C or E, and the LGW flight will leave from E. Study the airport map as it may make sense to take the train between C & E.

Since there are likely to be quite a few people making the same connection, CO will hold the LGW flight if the LAX flight is delayed only somewhat.

Like others have said, bags will be checked through and no security checks at IAH. Simply walk (or take train) from one gate to the other.

I am having the same problem on an AA flight , Mco to LGW. I have 45 minutes! They say that is a legal connection time..and as I have FF business class tickets and that's what was available , I took it!

I called to see if I could get an earlier flight..and was told that I would have to pay a change fee or go standby...but to keep checking and if any of my flight times were changed by even 1 minute, they would have to change my flights at no charge!

And if I got to the airport earlier , and there were seats on an earlier flight, I could change there at no charge. fortunately there is a flight from MCO to MIA about every 2 hours. I don't know your situation but you might call and see what eolse is available or do what the agent told me...check every day or so for a change of time1

I disagree that Continental "has the responsibility". Maybe they do to eventually get you on another flight. But I can't imagine they'll hold a plane full of people...

should your first flight get in late. That's where I see this could be a problem. If your LA to Houston flight takes off late, encounters any problems in the air, lands late, has to wait to de-plane, etc. 51 mins can go by very quickly under those kind of situations.

<d>Jody,

Here is the official AA list for legal connections. You are flying MCO-DFW-LGW, so your legal connection is 40 minutes:

BOS DD- .30( 1) DI- .40(1b) ID-1.30 II-1.30
ORD DD- .29( 2) DI- .35( 3) ID-1.10( 4) II-1.30( 4)
DFW DD- .35( 5) <b>DI- .40</b> ID-1.00 II-1.00
LAX DD- .30( 8) DI- .40( 9) ID-1.30 II-2.00
MIA DD- .40(9b) DI- .45(9b) ID-1.20(10) II-1.20(11)
JFK DD- .35 DI- .40(12) ID-1.15(13) II-1.15(14)
EWR DD-1.00 DI- .40 ID-1.30 II-1.30
RDU DD- .25 DI- .35 ID- .55 II-1.00
STL DD- .30(15) DI- .35(16) ID- .55 II-1.00
SJC DD- .20(16b DI- .30 ID-1.00 II-1.00
SJU DD- .30(17) DI- .40(18) ID-1.00 II-1.00


<b>theilian</b>,

don't have the table for CO, but you should be fine. With US based airlines, the domestic to international connection is really no different than just a straight d to d connection. As you could see above it's only 5 minutes difference id DFW between d to d and d to i connections. With few exceptions you just walk from gate to gate, you are already checked in and your luggage is fine(99% of the time :-)).

Most international flights will be held if it's the same airlie connecting and there are number of passengers arriving within minutes. International flight times are padded so it's very easy for the airline to &quot;make up&quot; some lost time. The gate agents know where all the connecting passengers are coming from and on which flights. If it means holding a plane for 20 minutes for 5, 10 passengers, knowing that they are just around the corner, they will hold it. It's cheaper for an airline to do that then to pay vouchers or re-accomodate on different airlines. I'm not saying that this is a regular practice but it happens often.

<b>Jody</b>,

I don't know how I missed it before, but if you still want to change the award ticket to an earler MCO-DFW flight and there is award inventory available on the earlier flight then there is no change fee. If there is no award inventory then it wouldn't matter how much you offer to pay. One has nothing to do with the other. As long as you keep the same routing, award ticket does not require a change fee for time/date changes. Either you did not explain to the agent that this was an award ticket or the agent was wrong (it does happen).

If you still want to change it call AAdvantage number, not the regular res number and inquire about award inventory on the earlier flight.

Personally I wouldn't bother, but I do know that for some casual traveler the connection times are worrisome, so if it makes you feel better, call again.

I looked up the government's statistics for CO494 LAX-IAH from Jan to April of this year.

Good news: only 11 out of 131 flights were late, for on-time arrival of 91%, which is great.

Bad news: on the 11 days that CO494 was late during that period, average arrival delay is 91 minutes. Well, that's an average, so a few very late flight will really increase that delay time. In other words, of the 11 flights that were delayed, you probably could have made the connection in several of those.

So, this is a pretty good connection. But CO394 leaves just an hour ahead. Can you try getting that flight instead?

And delays do happen. If you have an million-dollar contract to sign in London the next morning, or have a honeymoon cruise leaving Southampton the same day, I'll probably rebook...

And finally, BA's later of two flights leave IAH at 7:25, about 30 minutes after the later of two CO flights. If you're flying business or a high-fare, you may get CO to endorse you over if you're late.

FYI, CO4 usually leaves from Gate E18 at IAH, which is as far as it can go. If your LAX flight arrives at C14-27, please take the Terminalink train.

Terminal plan at continental.com

---

BTW, about airlines holding planes for late arrival flights. They do it sometimes if the incoming is not too late, and there are enough connecting customers. A LAX-IAH-LGW connection will have plenty of passengers. And CO's planes do sit in LGW for a little while before coming back to the US, so the incentive is definitely there for CO to hold the outbound.

t

51 minutes SHOULD be enough time, according to the stats and what the airline will tell you. But, I hope Continental will be responsible if you miss your connection.

Your biggest worry probably will be whether or not your plane departs LAX on time. If it does, and it arrives on time, you should be fine. We barely made our connection in D.C. last June, when we had an hour between flights because our flight left Denver 2 hours late! It was hair-raising. We got to the gate as they were closing it, but the Austrian Air crew let us on. Needless to say, the Austrians were ticked off, as though it was our personal fault we were late. Then we were split between four of the worst seats on the plane, as they'd given away our four seats together that I'd so meticulously planned in advance. The best laid plans...

Good luck!

Continental will bring you to London. That's what they are responsible for. If you miss the connection, they'll try to put you on the next flight - that could be the IAH-LGW the next afternoon, or they'll route you via EWR. Or via Amsterdam or Paris. Or if you have a high fare and can still make it, then the BA to LGW the same day as I mentioned. You'll get there, but you don't know when, or how.

If the delay of LAX-IAH is CO's fault - mainly mechanical, then they will pay for you hotel in Houston. If it's just weather or air traffic problem, you'll pay for your own hotel, though CO may have some discount deal with hotels near IAH.