How much time should one allow between flights?
 

Never missed a connection until the last trip. I allowed 3 hours in between so that we could clear customs and would not have to rush since there were five of us.

It played out that there was a 3 hour weather delay on our flight leaving Edinburgh....then we circled quite a bit before landing...Made it thru customs 10 minutes after our flight departed.

Did I allow enough time? Was this just one of those things?

The hotel provided by our airline was awful....already tired...exhaustion set in...Can you bargain for a better hotel? Or are you stuck with their offer? We did have great seats on the flight the next day.

Ouch,,,I hate when that happens, but sometimes, stuff does happen!!! I think 3 hours is plenty,,,not much you can do about it :-(.

I think 3 hours is reasonable just about anywhere... but you don't mention the connecting airport.
Also, I would argue with my airline about the hotel if I knew anything about it. I am at a platinum level with AA and it can really make a difference when you start making demands.
Of course you can choose to stay in the airport or pay for a different hotel yourself ;)

Newark was the airport, stayed at a airport hotel provided by Continental. Since there were five of us I didn't spring for the upper hotel close by....might do that next time. Bummer end to a great trip!

You left what I would consider the minimum time for the connection - but even if you had left another hour there's a good chance you would't have made it.

How awful was the hotel? If was truly awful - unclean, no hot water etc- you could have moved to another one and fought it out with the airline. If it was just not very pleasant not sure there's much you can do.

Whenever I made such plans, I look at contingencies. Suppose I miss my connecting flight: is there another flight later, even on a partner airline, that I could make if I missed my connection?

Sometimes things do just happen, though. Weather is one of them.

I agree...I should have checked all options but I must add I flew 5 to London on FF miles so I didn't have the option of being too picky.

But,I will start planning earlier next time and either plan to spend the night upon arrival to US or take the crack of dawn flight...got to anyway so might was well have done it the first go around....

I emailed the hotel chain and sent feedback on recent stay...Perhaps that will help someone else.

Since when do airlines pay for hotels for weather delays?

I don't know ... never had this trouble before. Do they not usually put you up?

We also were given $18 of food vouchers a piece....So were not out any extra money by staying over....mainly time and sleep.

Perhaps there are different rules for international flights? Yes, for domestic flights at least, the airline has no obligation to compensate you in any way for a weather delay, including giving you a hotel. Shoot, AA a year and a half ago stranded me in Phoenix (their fault, not weather related) and still refused to pay for a hotel.

Oh, maybe so...it was an international flight. Does anyone know for sure? Would like to know for future reference.

We have a flight connection next week that I am almost sure will not work - 35 minutes in Las Vegas. But as another poster had mentioned, these were free tickets for 4 (Boston-Las Vegas-Anchorage and Vancouver-Phoenix-Boston) and would have cost us a small fortune if not on FF miles.

So we will bring necessities for an unplanned overnight in Las Vegas, have a cancellable hotel in Anchorage for one night, and know what our other flight options are for getting to Anchorage either very late that day or next day. We are not big Las Vegas fans, or prospect of getting stranded there might be more appealing.

I think this was plenty of time, and the circumstances dictated what happened. We missed a connection from Costa Rica in Dallas and had to spend the night. We knew we were going to miss it when we left. Not a thing to do about it. Our connection was even shorter than yours, but should have been doable.
Worse is when it is outgoing--like a connection to Paris. We were late, then delayed on the ground. I was going crazy since we were meeting our daughter ON the plane to Paris. They put us on a cart and buzzed us to the other concourse, etc. Surprisingly, the plane was still there because IT had mechanical problems. A breathless way to start a trip!! BUT I was upset with myself because I had let an agent make that connection (maybe an hour), and I should have/would have taken an earlier flight (3 hours connection).