Short connection time, should I?
 

I'm booking my parents on flights to come visit us in London this summer. Aer Lingus has far and away (like the pun?) cheaper flights than anyone else. Problem is that on the return there is only a one-hour connection in Dublin between the London-Dublin flight and the Dublin-SFO flight. Should I booke these, or is that way too crazy?

Have you checked US Airways? They have a really good sale now.

Much more expensive, actually.

Too much risk with only an one-hour margin, particularly with US immigration clearance happening in Dublin: it takes time.

There are multiple flight each day between London and Dublin. Can you not find an earlier one? If you are looking at the first flight out of London in the morning, then I suggest that you book your parents on a Dublin flight the day before.

I might be checking the wrong timetable, but I get direct Dublin-SFO flights leaving at 0940.

There's usually an 0650 flight from LHR (arr 0800) giving them a more comfortable connection than the next flight - bearing in mind they have to go through US immigration in Dublin.

Unless someone comes on here with real experience of getting off an inbound flight at Dublin and transferring, through US immigration, to a US-bound plane, I'd be very unhappy with just an hour.

An hour is not nearly enough time, considering they must go through immigration. Definitely pick an earlier flight into Dublin (I know it's a small airport - but not THAT small).

Have you checked with Aer Lingus?

If Aer Lingus considers it a valid connection and will ticket them as connecting, then they should be fine.

There may be many flights flights from London to Dublin, but none that come up with that price. There is only one option for each leg of London to Dublin and Dublin to SFO. So if I want that price I have to book those flights. The odd thing is that when I look these same flights up on Aer Lingus's website, the site gives me an error (looking for July 31 and August 19). Looks like some kind of system glitch. At any rate any hour just doesn't seem like enough time, a shame because these tickets are about $250 cheaper per person than the other options.

Do you think I should wait, and keep checking prices, or are prices most likely only going to go up? Right now (apart from Aer Lingus) I'm seeing fares in the $1300's for SFO to LON, which seems so high to me. I know prices are higher now than than were a few years ago and August 1-19 is definitely high season. Should I hold out, or just go ahead with a booking?

There may be an alternative.

It's often immaterial whether the airline accepts this as a legal connection, since they often can do nothing if you (or rather they) miss it except wait till the next flight - and I'm not sure Dublin-SFO flights are even daily. There's no obligation on Aer Lingus to get them out that day, or on a direct flight.

However, Aer Lingus DO have an agreement with Jet Blue, which might mean that if they miss the SF flight, they could be put onto a New York flight (if there is one) and connect there.

Assuming you're booking this directly with he airline, play with the websites to work out what options there might be if they miss the connection. Then decide whether your parents would be up to whatever the alternative flight would be.

Rule of Thumb for international connections: minimum two hours. Why complicate it further?