stupid

My daughter is flying PVD to EWR on July 13th-Last flight of the day from PVD. She is connecting through EWR to LAS-last flight of the night also. Terminal A to Terminal C. CO has alloted 35 minutes between flights. Can she make it or do I plan for the same day option. Thanks in advance for any help.

travelbuff

35 minutes is a REALLY tight connection at Newark, and flights in and out the last week or so have been really delayed. Today Newark was running 2 hours late, bad weather and technical problems, they said on the news.

I would hope for the best, planes on time and easy connections but would plan for the worst since these are the last flights you might want to book a hotel room just in case and then be able to cancel if all goes well.

rkkwan

travelbuff is correct. The whole NE is a mess in the last many weeks, especially the NYC airports. Be very prepared to spend the night at EWR.

Terminal A to C requires a bus ride between the terminals. Even at the best circumstance, 35 minutes is iffy.

But who knows, the LAS flight is highly likely to be delayed too. Question is whether it will be late leaving the gate, or leave gate on-time and sit on the tarmac.

HowardR

Chances are not good! As a previous poster commented, there is a real possibility that she'll be spending the evening at Newark.
I wouldn't take the chance.....unless, of course, she doesn't mind waiting until morning for her connection.

stumpworks73

I would depart PVD one flight earlier and have some cushion between flights. I am a veteran EWR traveler, and my lifetime experience is never, never, never on time even in ideal weather.

A_Traveller

A 35 minute connection at EWR between Terminal a and Terminal C will never happen. Remember that time is from scheduled touchdown of the inbound flight to scheduled take-off of the out-bound flight. In reality, the out-bound flight will begin boarding about the time the inbound flight will be landing and the gate agents will normally stop the boarding process about 5 minutes or so before scheduled departure. Meanwhile the inbound flight will still have to taxi to the gate and your daughter wil de-plane. Assuming the plane arrives "on-time", there are no delays getting to the gate and she's sitting near the front of the plane it will take at least 15 minutes for her to get off the plane. Add to that about a 5 to 7 minute walk to the tram, another 3 to 10 minutes waiting for the tram and say another 7 to 10 minutes for the tram ride & walk (from the tram) to the security checkpoint at Terminal and she's used up just about the entire connecting time and she hasn't yet gone through the security checkpoint at Terminal C.

You see, it's just not feasable.

dawnnoelm

I am currently sitting in Chile - was supposed to be in Paris right now - we were delayed out of LAX and missed our flight (well, they opted to not hold the flight - and gave our seats away - "an operational choice" - when the plane was still there - we were told we could wait till TUESDAY to get a flight to Paris or they would re-route us to Santiago (yes, that is right???) because Newark, JFK were all a mess with flight delays,cancelations et.

We flew 9 hours to Chile and now will fly 13 hours to Paris tonight - arriving in Paris on the 30 instead of the 29 - putting us at 48 hours travel time... ::igh:::
I will never book a flight again with only a 50 minute or less lay-over - use to be you could but these days - no more.
Signed,
Frustrated in Chile

nytraveler

Not to pile on - but the chances of making this flight are almost nil. It's likely she'll still be in the air whn the next plane takes off. And the later in the day you are at Newark the more frequent and longer the delays.

Either change the incoming flight or make reservations at an airport hotel. (I hope this is all on one ticket so she doesn't have to buy a new ticket as well as pay for a hotel - but it sounds like not, since I can;t imagine 35 minutes is a legal connection.)

And - she doesn;t have any luggage to wait for does she?

rkkwan

Looks like the OP's daughter is flying CO2174 PVD-EWR, which arrives 8pm. Connecting to CO468 EWR-LAS at 8:35pm.

I didn't know how I missed this when I did my first reply, but 2174 from PVD does not usually come in to Terminal A. Both flights operate from Terminal C.

The main problem is that the first flight, on an ERJ, is highly unreliable. These shorthaul Expressjet flights really get low priorities when weather go bad around EWR. For example, 2174 had been cancelled for the last two nights. Continental has extremely high completion factor, but that record doesn't extend to the regional carriers. They are the first ones to be cancelled. And on the days it wasn't cancelled, it can be very very late.

Granted, 468 can also be delayed at the gate when weather gets bad. The incoming flight may as well be very late too, so you don't know.

If she can get out of Providence early, I highly suggest her to standby, or even do a $25 guaranteed same-day standby, to get to EWR on an earlier flight.

redsoxgal

Regular PVD-EWR Continental flyer. Would not try for a connection. Sadly, 35 min not enough time even if gates were side by side. This summer things are tough and getting tougher - summer thunderstorms will make things worse flying late in the day. And Newark is not a nice place to spend the night.

GoTravel

I agree with all that has been said.

I'm surprised the airline let you book such a tight connection. I would call CO back and let them try and rebook for you.

They should do this for free considering they didn't catch the mistake the first time.

GoTravel

I'm trying to find this information officially but according to Northwest Airlines, the minimum connection time at Newark is 60 minutes for domestic flights.

http://www.nwa.com/plan/guide08.html

rkkwan

Continental, unlike other airlines, does not publish a minimum connection time through its hubs. [Though I strong think they should.] As long as the itinerary shows up when booking, they may say it's valid.

But do call anyways and see if they can do anything for you.