Normally my Chicago stories (esp winter) are bad, but here's a good one on UAL from just recently.

Scheduled: 9am from LGA to ORD, 1.5hr layover, with connecting flight to west coast.

No traffic on the way, so I arrive through security at LGA at 7:45, ready to hang out, get coffee, etc till 9am departure. I hear the announcement. Last call for Chicago (8am flight). Walk up, UAL puts me in EconPlus seat on 8am flight, so I hop on the plane. Figure I'll be ok with 2.5hr layover vs 1.5 - better to be half way there than hang out at LGA.

Arrive at ORD 15min early (yes, Chicago, and no, I'm not fibbing). Get off the plane at gate 25 and hear from adjacent gate. "Last call for my destination" - 2.5hr earlier flight. Walk up to gate, exchange boarding pass, and hop on. Middle seat, but still EconPlus. Got me to west coast 2.5hrs early.

Total airport wait time about 10min (5min ea) at 2 airports. Not suggesting anyone ever try to plan this, but it's nice when connections work out well and the airline (UAL) says "no problem, welcome aboard".

It's not only UA.....:-) that does the same day standby.

Wow, how lucky J62--I guess you were only traveling with carry-ons for that to work?

AAFrequentFlyer -- I'm glad I read this forum. I have been stressing out because I'm taking a trip to Italy in two weeks and we have a 1 hour 15 minute layover in Paris. We leave out of Detroit. I wasn't sure if this would be enough time, but from your responses it sounds like this shouldn't be a problem.

We didn't want such a short layover, but that flight worked best with our schedule. Will this be OK?

<b>ginafay</b>,

Your situation is little different. You will be coming off an international flight and it is CDG :-(

I wouldn't stress too much, but it will be tight. I assume your connection is on the same ticket so if you do miss your scheduled connection the will accomodate you on a later flight.

Good luck and have a great trip!