Short connection time at JFK (international flight)
 

I'm going from San Francisco to Rome. Flying American Airlines, I have a connection in JFK and it's only a 40 minute layover to make my flight. This sounded painfully tight, and like something that would probably land me in the airport for another 24 hours. Has anyone done this? Has anyone made a connection like this successfully with AA? Thanks for any help.

I am also connecting at JFK From LAX to Zurich on American. Originally I had I believe 1 hour 20 minutes. I was notified about 5-6 weeks ago of a new/later departure time from LAX that would give me a 40 minute connecting time. I was just at JFK over July 4th holiday, only LAX-JFK-LAX. My impression was it was S L O W. I immediately called American and said I did not comfortable with that new connecting time and asked to change my flight. Like you, I also have to make my connection or the next one is not for 24 hours. They did change my flight for me, and WITH NO CHANGE FEE :). And I am on an advantage award ticket. I do have a 6:30 AM flight now, UGH!!! But, I will have 2 hours and 10 minutes connecting time. I am feeling much more comfortable.

My recommendation is to call American and find out what it would take to get out on an earlier flight. Especially, if this 40 minutes is due to their schedule change like mine was. But, you may likely be told that generally the computer will only accept a "legal" connecting time and for JFK, 40 minutes my be legal connecting time. The good thing is that it is AA to AA and you are not interlining.

I wish you good luck

If your flights from SFO to JFK is on time you'll have plenty of time to connect. The 2 flights will arrive and depart from the same termainal, #9, so you don't need to go through security.

You may have a 10min or so walk from gate to gate.

BUT, whether it's a risky 'IF' to count on. Unfortunately you're on the earliest SFO to JFK flight.

If I were you I'd ask AA to reroute me through Chicago, where you can have a longer layover.

The good news is that both Alitalia and Delta have later non-stop flight out of JFK onto which AA could place you if their SFO-JFK flight were delayed.

you can go to www.flightstats.com and enter your flight number from San Francisco to JFK and get the historical ontime arrival statistics for the flight. it'll tell you the average number of minutes a flight is late. If the flight you are scheduled on is typically delayed, and you wouldn't make your connection, you should change to an earlier flight.

The problem, w13, is that jess is on the 1st flight out of the day from SFO to JFK, and there is only 1 AA flight from JFK to FCO.

When are you flying? This summer, JFK (and all NYC-area airports) is a mess. There are ground-stop delays almost daily, meaning flights arrive hours late, often diverted.

AA24 during the past 2 months was on-time 44 times (70%). On-time meaning arrive gate within 15-minutes of scheduled time. 6 late, 5 very late, 6 excessive and 1 canceled. I'll say that during the past 2 months, your chance of missing your connection is about 1 in 5 to 1 in 6.

[Yes, outbound flights are often delayed out too, but airline do give their international longhaul priorities to land and takeoff in such situations.]

I'll try to switch to the Chicago connection with about 3 hours. [But much earlier departure from SFO.]

My concern actually is not so much on allowed connecting time, walking 10 minutes is not a problem. It comes from my experience over July 4th holiday. We departed 15-20 minutes late from LAX, then at JFK SAT ON THE TAXIWAY FOR 35-40 MINUTES waiting for a gate to become available. I WOULD NOT have been able to make a connecting flight (with 40 minute connecting time) and NO WAY would my luggage have made it. JFK luggage handling is extremely SLOW IMO. That's why I added myself that buffer.

I didn't know you already had the first flight outta SFO. Maybe the change of routing thru Chicago could work better for you.