Gosh, I'm so lost here. The OP is going from San Francisco to Madrid. How in the world will transfering in London much better than somewhere in the US?

Each has its advantage and disadvantage, but changing at LHR is not a clearly winner.

My only issue is transferring at JFK or ORD in January. None of the options are ideal - but angy400's main problem originally was that BA won't assign seats until 24 hours ahead and she is afraid of being seated apart from her son.

Me personally - I just try to avoid connections in the upper midwest or NY/New England in winter. been delayed and "weathered in" just too many times.

Thanks, janisj. Sometimes with all these separate threads, I lose the big picture.

Yes, the BA no seat assignment thing is a disadvantage, but if they have been happy with BA/LHR before and is familiar with that routing, no advance seat assignment shouldn't be a deal breaker.

Hi angy400 (sorry - was out watching a movie)

I actually usually fly Virgin to London (LOVE IT!), but I managed to get an upgrade to first class on AA, so that clinched it.

I have flown BA before, btw, and didn't care for it, though they treated my ailing father beautifully on his last flight back from London. But Virgin is my all-time favorite. :-)

slangevar hope you enjoyed the movie!

Lucky you getting an upgrade to first class! I would definately go that route too....

Pros and cons, risks and chances...

Based on my most recent winter trips, Heathrow is a higher risk of weather arrival and departure delays then either JFK or ORD. I'm not sure of the statistics, but the last 3 or 4 times I've gone through LHR in the December/January period they were <i>terrible</i> at getting de-icing done, having planes at the right gates at the right time, and especially getting bags transferred. In January British Airways will be getting ready to open Terminal 5 at LHR, which reputedly will make things better there (can hardly be worse) but it won't be open for you and you'll still be playing gate roulette at LHR and subject to BA's abysmal ground operations.

On board, you'd be in a 747 with coach seating set up 3-4-3, i.e. with 4 center seats per row, vs 2 outboard pairs on either the Iberia or AA planes. And you won't be able to select seats before 24 hrs pre-departure and on January 5 planes will be <i>full.</i>

You'll need to catch a 7:00 AM BA flight from Madrid to connect to the first BA plane to SFO; you can only connect to the second BA flight of the day from LHR by taking an Iberia flight to LHR and changing terminals - no fun AT ALL in January and a huge risk of misconnecting. By comparison the direct JFK or ORD flights leave later in the day and if you arrive late in either JFK or Chicago there are later flights to SFO you can take.

I'll be flying through MAD 4 times in the next three weeks and I'm here to tell you it's an easier and much more pleasant airport than Heathrow, any time of year.

Just my opinion and I'll now retire from this thread. Good luck with your choice.

Thanks, angy400 - it's my first time in first class, so I'm feeling a bit nerdy in my excitement. :-)

Glad you've gotten so much great advice on this forum - I really hope your connections all work out! San Francisco can be so lovely in the winter.

Gardyloo,

Thanks for the advice..what you say makes sense..I looked into the weather at JFK for the last 5 years for that time of year, and it was just their normal weather..no major blizzards or storms...so weatherwise I think will probably be OK..of course one can never tell and to be honest as long as I get to my destination on time, I dont really care how long it takes me to get back. I do love that AA has the 2 seats by the window..that would be so nice to just have my son to sit with. Hve you ever flown out of Chicago that time of year? If so, how was it?

Thanks again,
Angela

Thanks slangevars,

I too would be very excited flying first class..that in itself would be an adventure!

I accidentally posted this on the wrong thread and of course this antiquated bulletin board does not allow you to erase messages which makes people look like fools osmetimes but anyway...

There is a myth about JFK that it is frequently subject to weather problems in the winter. In pure blunt fact, New York City is just far enough south and close enough to the water that it is very very rare the city per se is hit by a blizzard that JFK can't handle...I think in the last five or six years, there have been perhaps one or two...there was an ice storm this past February and another one a couple of weeks later but that was it. For the most part, flying into JFK should not be a problem because of weather even in January (there are more likely to be delays in the summer because of thunder storms); besides which they usually prioriterize the international flights....it is far more likely a connection at JFK will go far smoother than the horror stories I have read about and been involved with at LHR (as a side note, if you go through LHR you are stuck with that idiotic one carry on through security requirement...that is not the case at Madrid and at JFK.

I wouldn't sweat it....weather is something you can't control anyway and in almost all likelihood you'll be fine and again, in my opinion, 2 hours and 20 minutes is enough time to make a connection at JFK.

xyz123,

What do you think of Chicago that time of year...there I would have over 4 hours to connect?

Thanks,
Angela

Chicago is much more likely to have weather problems......but again you never never know.

Facts are:

- Weather at JFK usually isn't that bad in Jan. And chances of snow storms are less than ORD.

- 2:20 is adequate for the transfer

- Since the OP is on the same ticket, there's another AA flight just over 2 hours later they can put the OP on.

If one's still uncomfortable with those facts, then there's nothing more to be said. Go somewhere else with a longer connection. I believe there's another IB/AA via MIA with a 4-hour connection.