bailey6325

My husband and I are going to Portugal in a couple of months. We currently have a flight from Baltimore to Lisbon, with a 5 hour layover in Newark. I have the opportunity now to change our first flight (free of charge) to a later flight, making our layover only an 1 hour and 7 minutes. I'm leaning towards making our layover shorter, but now I worry that we have a greater chance of missing our flight out of Newark (last flight of the day) due to our first flight being delayed. What are your thoughts? What would you do?

nessundorma

Newark airport has in the past had significant problems with delayed flights. It is also located in a part of the country where the weather is quie unpredicatable: fog and thunderstorms can make it impossible for planes to land.

If you get stuck in Newark overnight, you can head into New York City if you like. But Newark itself, and its surrounding hotels, are not much fun. Your airline may put you up if you miss your flight, but they are not going to put you up in New York.

Here's a thought: Have you considered taking the train from Baltimore to Newark Penn station? You can easily get a shuttle train or taxi to Newark Airport from the Amtrak station. Crunch the numbers and see if the total travel time is any longer than what you would have flying from Baltimore with a five hour layover (or a chance of missing your flight if you try to shrink the layover.)

Cicerone

Do you have to change terminals? If you are taking the TAP flight to Lisbon, it goes out of Terminal B, but if you are arriving on a Continental flight (which is my guess), they arrive into Terminal C. Check with the airline to see if they know what terminal you will arrive into. Website for Newark Airport is at http://www.newarkairport.com, it may show this info. If you have to change terminals, the one hour layover may be tough, esp if the flight is late and if you have not been to Newark before. You have to take a train between the terminals, although the distance is not far, the terminals are not physically connected. (I am not even sure it is possible to walk, maybe downstairs on the arrivals levels there may be a series of connections sidewalks.) You will then also have to go through security in Terminal B before you can get out to your gate, which will add more time. (Newark is pretty slow in my experience).

Are the two flights on the same airline or a codeshare airline? If so, there is a better chance they will hold your Lisbon flight's departure if your Baltimore flight is delayed, esp if there are a number of people on your Baltimore flight who are also connecting to the Lisbon flight.

Are your flights on a heavy travel day like a holiday weekend, or a light day like a Tuesday? If the latter, chances of being late from Baltimore are less.

If you are taking CO from Baltimore and connecting to the TAP flight a 6:15 pm, I see that CO has a 1:40 pm flight that arrives at Newark at 3 pm; this would mean a layover of less than 3 hours. This would allow for delays but still be comfortable for changing terminals, etc. Maybe you could get on that flight. I don't know that it operates every day.

I second the train idea. Why don't you take Amtrak from Baltimore to Newark Penn Station (or even from the BWI train station if you want to park your car at BWI airport), then a taxi to Newark airport (or you could take the Air train from Newark Penn Station directly to Newark Airport, this is kind of a pain if you have a lot of luggage IMO), which mean you could skip the long layover but also be there earlier for your Lisbon flight? A taxi from Newark Penn Station to the airport would take about 10 minutes and cost about $15. The train only takes about 2 hours, which is actually not much longer than the flight which takes just over an hour. The train fare from Baltimore to Newark is probably less than the flight, of course if you are paying an overall fare you may not be able to get this portion deducted. However IMO taking the train and having no chance of missing the Lisbon flight is worth paying a bit of money rather than missing the flight altogether, if you don't want a long layover.

The Newark airport website will give you info on Airtrain if you want to take it from Newark Penn Station, I think it also lists estimated taxi fares.

WillTravel

What are the odds that Continental would hold the flight for late arrivers? That might be something to ask Continental.

I took Continental last year to Madrid, with a layover in Newark (from Seattle). We had to wait at least 30 minutes sitting on the plane for the people who were connecting from Miami. But in that case, I suspect the number of people involved was fairly high.

laclaire

My philosophy on this is that I would rather have 5 hours in Newark and know I am going to make the flight than less time and be worried about missing it and thus having to cut a night out of Europe. 5 hours is not fun, but if you have good reading and are traveling with someone you like, it should be a nice thing.

rkkwan

The OP is definitely thinking about CO. CO2491 arrives EWR at 7:18pm, and CO64 departs 8:25pm.

First, there's no need to change terminals or reclear security. Both flights will be at Terminal C. The walk between the CO Express gates to the LIS flight should be 10 minutes or less.

Now, since 2491 is on a ERJ-145, there's only a maximum of 50 on board. I doubt you'll have a large group all going to Lisbon. So, if ONLY your BWI flight was late, they won't hold the flight. But if there's a system-wide delay at EWR, then yes, they will hold flights to wait for connecting customers. It'll depend on situation how long they'll hold. The airport coordinator can hold flights up to about 20 minutes; over that they need approval from Houston.

Personally, I think you should be okay. The actual flight time for BWI-EWR is about 25 minutes. The scheduled time is 73. So, even if you get airborne 40 minutes after departure time, you're still more or less on-time. And you still have an hour to connect.

Also, since you've already ticketed it as BWI-LIS, they will not let you change to a EWR departure even if you're willing to do the train instead.

rkkwan

One other thing. If you decide to do the late flight and miss your connection, CO likely will tell you to wait for the next day's flight. But keep in mind that there's a late flight to Paris CDG that departs at around 10pm and CO can put you on an Air France flight to LIS. Yes, it's going to be late getting there, but still better than waiting in Newark for 24 hours.

bailey6325

Thank you for the good suggestions. I will look into them all.

cmt

If you get stuck in Newark, you could go to the Newark Museum on Washingtron St. It's an excellent museum, and would probably be world-famous if only it weren't in Newark. The Tibetan collection is extensive and really fun to visit. There's also a nice sheltered garden in the back where you can sit and relax.