our flight arrives at 7:15AM in Milan Malpensa. Is it possible to clear customs in time to take a 8:45AM flight at the same terminal ?

We waited a little over an HOUR one time for our luggage...after passport control etc.
But that may not be the norm. It was a very rainy, stormy morning (in fact we didn't see the ground until were were ON IT! &gt

if your luggage is checked all the way through on same ticket, i wouldn´t worry about it, as they will send you on next available flight if you arrive late.

however, if you are booking separate tickets.. you would be re-checking bags, plus be responsible for a missed connection, thus running expense of another ticket.

not knowing which situation you are in, i would try to book a later flight, and then wait list for earlier one if possible.

there is no reason to assume you will be getting in on time, whether customs and/or immigration are quick or not.

Is your connecting flight within Italy, within the EU, or to another location outside the EU or Europe? This would be very important to know. If you are going somewhere in Europe but outside the EU (like Switzerland) or somewhere outside of Europe, you will not have to go through Immigration or Customs at all, and will not in fact see your bags, as they will be transferred for you.

If you are taking a flight to another city in Italy or within the EU, then you do have to go through Immigration and Customs formalities. It is Immigration that can take a while waiting in line with a host of others who have arrived on your flight and numerous other flights. Customs is quite perfunctory and basically consists of you walking through the Green “nothing to declare” channel with your bags. However, you do need to have your luggage to do this, and I agree that if you are arriving in the morning after a flight from the US, you can be waiting a while for baggage. An hour may be a bit close. The good news is the intra-Italy and intra-European flights tend to be delayed, so you may be able to make it. The other good news is that in my experience, international long-haul flights tend to arrive just a bit early, like 10-15 minutes, which can give you a little bit of a cushion.

I generally like to have 1.5 hours between flights at a minimum just to deal with all things that could go wrong. If you do have to go through Immigration and Customs and re-check bags, then IMO an hour is cutting it quite fine.

Per the comment above, there is NO reason to expect that just because you have a flight on two different airlines, your baggage would not be automatically transferred. Virtually all airlines have baggage sharing arrangements where they agree to transfer baggage. This cannot happen if your connecting flight it within Italy or the EU, because you do first have to go through Customs with your baggage, but if your flight is to a destination outside the EU, there is no reason to think that your bags would not be transferred. This is done all the time. the only airline that I am aware of which does not transfer bags is British Air, what can I say about that.

never assme that (unless you are ticketed on ONE ticket) that your bags will be checked onto another airline when connecting.

if your journey is all on one ticket.. of course they will.

but if you have bought two separate tickets on different NON-partner airlines there ARE many that refuse to check them through , forcing you to collect them and re-check .

I agree you should always check when flying different airlines, but I do this routinely, probably 3-4 times a month, and have never found two airlines that won't transfer baggage. I just did this yesterday when flying Singapore Air on one leg and transferring to Cathay Pacific on the last leg (and they are decidely NOT code share partners and are pretty hot competititors over the same routes). I was surprised to learn a few months ago from a poster on this board that British Air refuses to do this. I have never had any first hand experience at being refused baggage transfer. It is all easily handled at check-in, thse baggage tags simply have your transfer airport and then your final destination.

i guess you have never flown iberia or low cost airlines.

there are PLENTY of airlines that will NOT check baggage through if it is on separate ticketing.

we may not be talking about the same thing.