Connecting in JFK
 

Hi.
We're travelling from Costa Rica to London by American Airlines on april 1st. We're supposed to arrive at 15:30 to Terminal 8, JFK Airport, and our next flight departs at 18:10, from the same terminal.

I've been reading a lot of bad reviews about the time it takes to connect from one flight to another in this airport.

Till now I was very sure that we had enough time, but now I really don't know if it's so.

Please help me

Thank you.

It's impossible to predict how long it will take to clear immigration and customs at JFK (or any airport) on any given day but with a 2:40 window you should have plenty of time.

2:40 should be plenty of time, but even if something goes wrong, AA has 2 other flights (the last at 22:55) that night and code-shares another half dozen with BA; they'll just re-book you on a later flight, especially since you're on AA the whole way. I've been on AA's last flight to a European city many times, and have been delayed hours while they made sure people on an international connecting flight got through customs and made the connection onto our flight. They do all they can to avoid stranding you in NY.

Assuming your incoming plane is on time you shuold be OK. US airports differ in that people switching from one international flight to another have to actually enter the US (go through immigration) pick up their bags, go through customs and then recheck them (slower than airports where yuo can stay airside and don't have to go thruogh these procedures).

As long as the Immigration line isn't too long you should have enough time.

Since NYC is my last stop I don;t have a lot of perspective - but for US citizens I have found Immigration to take from 10 to 30 minutes (if a bunch of international flights land at the same time). And wheels down out to the street from 35 minutes to 1.5 hours (when luggage didn't appear for more than an hour).

The difficulty is that you have to 1) go through immigration; 2) claim your bags; 3) re-check them at the transfer desk; and then 4) go back through security. With over 2-1/2 hours, you should be able to do this, but I certainly would not tarry at any point along the way. If you do get through early, you may or may not have time to grab a quick bite to eat before your next flight, but you're likely not going to have a lot of extra time. It generally takes at least an hour to go through immigration and customs.

You don't say if you are U.S. citizens, but if not that process will almost certainly take longer. If you are U.S. citizens and your flight lands on time, then I'm pretty confident you can make it; if not, it will probably be a closer call.

Thank you all for your kind answers, now I'm not so worried about this issue.
We visited Orlando the past two years, the first time everything worked just fine at the Miami airport, but the second time passing migration was just an incredible nightmare and we made our next flight when they were just about to close the plane's door. Yeah, I know ..... the same things happen here at our tiny airports!!

Thank you again

(sorry for my English, but muy language is spanish)