Tight Flight Connection in SFO Okay?
 

I'm flying from Seattle in Tucson towards the end of October. The best flights for my schedule leave me with a 50 minute connection in SFO. Flying United. In your experience, is this enough time for connections in SFO?

What if Flight #1 is late? Is #2 in the same terminal? Are you checking luggage?

That is awfully tight. It can take a good 20 minutes just to get off the plane. And SFO is quite spread out.

Unless both flights are United and they will put you on the next plane I would say no.

The answer is: who knows! Check if there are later flights, if one leg is late, you can take the next flight.

Matninstym (Fodorite) had a layover at SFO, his flight was late, he spent the night in a hotel - I think the airline paid for it.

If you are going to be renting a car in Arizona anyway, consider flying from Bellingham directly to Phoenix-Mesa on Allegiant Airlines. You should save money and not have the worry of a tight connection. They are not ticketing flights in October yet. http://www.allegiantair.com/
I've flown Allegiant a few times from Redmond Oregon to Las Vegas. Bellingham to Phoenix on Allegiant is currently 4 days per week it may change after August.

Okay...so perhaps the short connection time is too short. I am checking luggage, and I don't think there are later flights - and I need to be in Tucson by 9:45 a.m. on the 27th.

Thanks for the tip, tom. Bellingham is way too far away for me to travel to for good airfare. I'm not willing to invest the extra time in a discounted ticket, but I'll keep that in mind for some of my more price sensitive friends.

50 minutes is cutting it very close - you have no room for error. Remember, the outbound flight will begin boarding 30 minutes prior to scheduled departure so that means you could still be on the inbound flight when boarding starts. Murphy's Law of Airports might come into play - it states the short your connecting time the greater your chances are your inbound flight will be delayed. You are better off to opt for a longer connection time.

Depending exactly where your gates are located, if your first flight is on time I think you could possibly make it. I would be less sure about your suitcase though.

I've given up on the SFO flight for a flight connecting in PHX for 1.5 hours.

Thanks, everyone!

:)

Much better! Phoenix has always been an easy airport for me.