Do I have enough time between two flights?
 

Hi folks,

I booked a flight from Frankfurt Germany to New York(JFK) with Lufthansa towards to the end of August. The flight will arrive at JFK around 20:00pm. I am tempting to book another flight from JFK to my home city (on east coast as well) departing two hours later (around 10:00pm). What do you guys think about the timing. Would two hours be enough for that time of the day towards to the end of August? Thanks ahead.

More details: We will have no luggage to claim but just a few carry-on backpacks. With two adults and two children, one adult has global entry and another one has TSA pre-check. We don't plan to carry any items that would be required us to declare at Customs. The connection flight is independent from our first flight from Germany. We should be able to check in the connection flight online before we take the flight from Frankfurt.

Will you be connecting to the same or different airline? Will you have to claim and re-check luggage or will you only have carry-on? Do you have Global Entry and are you registered as a Trusted Traveler so you qualify for TSA -Pre-Check? Will you have anything to declare at Customs? Will you be able to check-in for your connecting flight online or when you check-in for your Frankfurt to JFK flight or will you have to do that at JFK?

I have all of the above on most international flights and almost always have only carry-on. My "rule of thumb" is that when connecting from an International flight to domestic flight I always allow a minimum of of 2 hours. If I have checked luggage I usually allow a minimum of 2.5 hours between flights.

If connecting to an airline that uses a different terminal than your arriving flight (very possible at JFK) than error on the side of caution and allow more time than less time. Remember Murphy's Law of Air Travel is alive and well. It clearly states that the shorter your connection time the more chances there are for something to go wrong - your inbound flight is delayed, there are long lines at immigration, your checked luggage is the last to be offloaded from the plane, your connecting flight leaves from the . Conversely, the longer your connection time the greater your chances are that your inbound flight will arrive early, there will be no lines at Immigration, Customs and TSA, the gate for your connecting flight will be only a few minute walk from the Customs Hall and your connecting flight will be delayed. You get the idea!

Remember, you can be a couple hours early for a flight and all that happens is you sit in an airport but if you arrive at the departure gate 3 minutes after the gate closes you've missed your flight.

Thanks for the response. I just added more details to my post for better suggestions.

On which airline is the 2nd flight? More than likely you'll have to change terminals. But I personally wouldn't book this since the 10PM flight is probably the last flight of the night to your destination. Anything at all going pear shaped (and lots can go wrong with the current shortages in all segments of air travel/airport staffing), and you'll have to stay over night and hope to get a flight out the next day. With current load factors, getting 4 last minute tix might be a problem.

Plus there is also the very VERY good chance your LH flight will have a schedule change(s) between now and end of August. I'm flying TATL LHR and back in early July, booked in late Feb -- and so far both my connecting flights in the states (different airports coming and going) and one of the long haul flights have had schedule changes.

2 hours might be absolutely fine, but you won't know til the day.

I'd avoid the stress and book a morning flight the next day (and maybe stay at the TWA hotel for fun) . . . but that's me.

One person in your party having Global Entry and another having TSA Pre-check isn’t going to help you much as any time saving they may get will be negated by them having to wait for others in your party who aren’t qualified for those perks.

All parties having only carry-on, on the other hand, will eliminate a potential long wait for offloading and rechecking luggage so that’s a plus as already having your boarding passes for your connecting flight.

That leaves you only with 3 different “time consuming” bottlenecks: a) getting through Immigration which will depend on how many other international flights have landed around the same time as yours, b) getting through TSA and c) getting from the International Arrivals Terminal to the terminal for your connecting flight. It is this last step that can throw a monkey wrench into your connection. If your connecting terminal is within walking distance 2 hours should be OK but if you have to take the shuttle to get to your connecting terminal 2 hours is stretching it. I’d be more comfortable with closer to 3 hours.

P.S. You added the additional information by editing your original post. It is usually better for responders if you simply add that information as a reply rather than an edit. Some contributors often don’t go back to see if the original post has been edited. At first, I didn’t and thought you didn’t actually give more info so I almost did not make offer more comments.

You and your family are likely to be quite tired after your long flight from Germany. Your bodies will be on German time so it will feel like 2 am when you arrive. You won't want to be in the situation of having to scramble at the last minute if you miss your connecting flight.

Unless you think your children will have slept on the plane and will be unable to go back to sleep, for peace of mind I would book a hotel near JFK and get some rest before taking your flight back home. If possible, I would try to change the flight out of Germany to an earlier departure time.

I would not feel comfortable with that because of your "independent" second flight. What are the rules for the 2nd airline, can you do a "same day change" with no penalty. If your flight leaves Germany an hour late, can you contact your 2nd airline and pre-arrange a new flight without any penalties?

If you're dealing with the same airline, or sometimes with partners booked on the same itinerary....then you have more wiggle room with canceling/rebooking the 2nd flight. Since you're traveling independently on a 2nd airline it's possible that your tickets are non-refundable and that you have no recourse should your first flight be delayed.

Personally I would be comfortable with your plan, but I generally have a higher risk tolerance than some others

the only time that matters is to be at your departure gate by cut off time, likely about 15min before scheduled departure.

The biggest variables are on-time arrival and queue at immigration. My rough guess is that you have about a 30-45 min leeway for late arrival and still make it. My guess only.

The key question to ask yourself is ‘what will I do if I miss my connecting flight?’, then be ok if that happens.

a) when is the next flight home (the next day) and what will it cost me to get on that flight, if I can at all…

b) where will I stay overnight?

if you are comfortable with your own answers to a & b (we don’t need to know them) then go for it.

Thank you all
 

Thank you all for such valuable suggestions. I will discuss with my family about your thoughts before making a decision. Again Thank You all.