Have we got enough time between connecting flights at Washington Dulles?
 

We booked our flights to the US with United back in May for our Nov/Dec trip but the other day I received an email saying the flight times had changed. We're arriving into IAD from London and now only have 1 hour to catch our connecting flight to Orlando.

Ordinarily, this wouldn't bother me too much, but as UK citizens, we'll have to pass through immigration in Washington and I'm concerned this is cutting it all too fine. Our return flight from New Orleans to Dulles also only lands about an hour before our connection to London departs. Will this leave us enough time? Thanks in advance.

What time of day? If your group lands right after two other jets, there may be a delay at immigrations.

We land at 11.20am on a Saturday morning. Is that a busy time of day for arrivals at Dulles? Thanks.

I doubt you will have enought time, to pick up your bags, go through customs, get to domestic ticketing, go through security, get to gate.

I'd suggest calling United to see if there is a later flight to Orlando that you can get on if you miss the original flight.

Thanks Travelbuff. We were actually planning to check our bags straight through to Orlando from London, and assumed this would be possible. I knew we would have to go through immigration at point of entry into the US, but wasn't aware we'd have to get our bags and check in separately for the internal flight.

I will be calling United to claraify matters, but they're not open till Monday morning.

I;m guessing that you won't have enough time. That said, I'd be tempted NOT to change flights.

I'd check the United schedule throughout the rest of th day and check the availability of seats on those flights throughout the day. If there are seats, I may not change my original.

If you make the 1st flight, great... if not, let United deal with it. They changed the schedule and if they didn't figure out to chang the connection, they are usually pretty good at getting you on the next flight.

I think it's highly probable you won't make either connection. But the incoming flight is practically impossible - given that you must go through immigration.

Since the airline changed your flight they should be willing to put you on later flights out at no extra charge. I would contact them ASPA - and insist that they give you a reasonable amount of time. (Don;t buy "legal" conections - since they don;t take many factors into account - including your nationality.)

You don't have to go through a whole check-in for your flight to Orlando. You drop off your bags right after you pass through customs.

You're arriving at a pretty quiet time at IAD. If there are enough immigration agents on duty (always a gamble), you should be able to make your connection because you probably won't have far to walk to get to your gate. I wouldn't be as confident that your checked bags will make that flight, so plan accordingly.

I work as a Travelers Aid volunteer at Dulles, and here are my thoughts on your connection times.

There are usually 2 other flights arriving at that time - one from Korea and one from Japan.

We caution people that arriving passengers can take from 1-2 hours getting through immigration and customs.

Even though United will have probably printed your boarding pass for you in London, getting through security again may delay you - and you do have to get through security again.

Try for a later flight to Orlando.

On the return flight, you may be at the correct concourse to catch the flight to London (usually the "C" concourse), but I would not want to have such a short time to catch the flight and have my luggage catch the flight, also.

The problem with "let[ting] United deal with it" is that almost every flight is running full or over-booked these days. If you miss the earlier flight, you could be stuck for quite some time.

United recently cancelled a flight creating a similar situation for us in Frankfurt next month. The new connection was "legal" but totally unrealistic. I re-booked to a later flight.

Thanks for your replies everone - you've pretty much confirmed what I thought: we have no chance of making those connections!!

I have tried to amend our itinterary online but am not able to so will call United tomorrow.

Thanks again for your feedback.