Short transfer; almost missed the connecting flight, again

fh2000

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Well, we purchased the flights through the travel agency as a packaged deal: flying to Europe and get on a bus for a 2-week tour, then fly back home.

This happened to us twice now that we got pulled for a detail check for our carry-on, and backpacks. One time in Dublin and the 2nd time in Amsterdam just few days ago.

The agents took their sweet time to examine all small packages inside our bags including the dirty laundry while DW was nervously watching the time ticking by and stomping her feet.

In Dublin, they finished with just 5 minutes to spare. We ran to the gate and the plane has just closed the door. We had to beg the ground crew to open the door again for us.

In Amsterdam, we had 10 minutes left and were the last ones to board.

We will have to be very careful for future bookings and make sure the connecting time is at least 2 hours. But, not sure what their criteria is for people with carry-on, and backpacks. What are the red flags on those? Size? Color? Our nervous expression?
 
We also consider 2 hrs tight for a connection. Start by deducting the time needed to deplane ,then time needed to potentially go through security again if required, and the time to get to the next gate. Let alone any late arrival time.

Our experience with carry on is that there are two different standards. The majors and NA carriers have a much more generous carry on policy and seldom appear to enforce even that. The downside is that it takes much longer to board and deplane because of this. So transferring with carry on from a carrier with loose, unenforced rules may cause issues if getting on a carrier that has stricter carry on rules and enforces them.

The regionals and a few others in Europe, Asia, etc have a very different carry on regs, often referred to as international carry on size. Smaller dimentions. It is what we now travel with no matter where we are flying.

Many also have a weight restriction on that carry on. Often between 7-8KG. Some airlines include handbags in that weight. Last time checking in at Hong Kong, the airline HK Airlines weighed my spouses carry on and her handbag together.

We have been stopped and checked numerous times. In Brisbane, our carry was weighed a second time at the boarding area. The clerk had a scale and a portable credit card terminal.

The airline folks appear to us to focus on those carry on bags that appear to be eitherr oversize or 'bulging'.

Just our experience.
 
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I consider two hours the minimum connection time for domestic flights, and would choose longer for international.
 
The strangest carry on commotion that we ever witnessed was on a 6AM Lufthansa flight from Venice to Frankurt. Two ladies ahead of us each had a paper or plastic store shopping bag with glassware wrapped in it as carry on.

They were told no, it was not going carry on. A manager came, same story. A second Lufthansa manager came. Same story. They were told it had to be checked or they could Fedex it.

Last thing we heard was one of the ladies claiming that the store clerk who sold her the glassware assured her that it could go carry on. Lufthansa was not budging and rightly so.

Not certain what happened. They did not appear to be on our flight. Perhaps they were attempting to board a different flight.
 
The strangest carry on commotion that we ever witnessed was on a 6AM Lufthansa flight from Venice to Frankurt. Two ladies ahead of us each had a paper or plastic store shopping bag with glassware wrapped in it as carry on.

They were told no, it was not going carry on. A manager came, same story. A second Lufthansa manager came. Same story. They were told it had to be checked or they could Fedex it.

Last thing we heard was one of the ladies claiming that the store clerk who sold her the glassware assured her that it could go carry on. Lufthansa was not budging and rightly so.

Not certain what happened. They did not appear to be on our flight. Perhaps they were attempting to board a different flight.

I was on a cruise ship and they had a "special" on booze, it was 4 bottles for a great price.
The sales person lied to me and said Customs would allow it no problem.
I didn't buy the story and didn't buy the booze, later checked and no it could cost extra to bring in that much.
Some sales folks lie to make a sale :eek:
 
Amsterdam was tricky.

We flew in, and walked around marveling at all the weird stores and such, taking out sweet time. Then as we get to the area to catch our "in Europe" second flight, we see to our horror a lineup.

We had to go through Customs , and we actually jumped the line as time was short. They even had a staff person calling out to people who needed to catch a flight to come to the front of the line.

Now I know to give lots of time and plan ahead about the Customs thing..
 
I was on a cruise ship and they had a "special" on booze, it was 4 bottles for a great price.
The sales person lied to me and said Customs would allow it no problem.
I didn't buy the story and didn't buy the booze, later checked and no it could cost extra to bring in that much.
Some sales folks lie to make a sale :eek:


It is not a big deal. I had 5 liters of booze, and went down to the customs officer on board. The duty is about $2.30 per bottle, and if the duty is under $10 they waive it. Two liters were duty free, so the total was way under $10.


I also sympathize with fh. We had a connection in Heathrow and there was only one flight a day to Moscow. We had to so through inspection again, a "jobsworth" inspector insisted on taking everything out of my backpack. We were the only ones there, so she had nothing better to do.
 
We had the misfortune of changing planes in London Heathrow when our second plane was at another terminal.

Normally this would not be a biggie but it was clear to us as soon as we entered the other terminal that there was some sort of security alert. Suits running all over the place....huge line up and very, very slow process to clear security.

No preference was provided to those with tight flight sched. Some people did in fact miss their flights to NA. Not certain why airlines did not delay some international flights for a 30 minutes or so. Lots of unhappy folks.

We made our flight home just as the plane doors were closing. Last to board. Another five minutes and we would have missed it. Plane left on sched. One reason why we do our best to avoid changing planes in LHR.
 
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Got extra special security treatment flying out of Belize last Winter but thank goodness still made my flight.

Unknown to me, dear wife stashed 1/2 bag of ground coffee in my luggage and that was caught on the security scanner. The airport security guy pulled me aside and started subtly asking for a few dollars to make this “go away”. I declined and was detained.

Both wife and I are proficient in ASL and were signing back and forth while she was at the gate and I was held in security. Told her to get on the plane. Don’t wait for me.

I was released from security right before they closed the door for boarding. Was last one to board. Wife bought me a drink once we were up in the air and all was back to normal.
 
"DW and I would consider 2 hours to be a slightly tight connection on an international flight and would avoid it if possible"

Couldn't agree more. We shoot for 3 hours and at times we've been stuck on even much longer layovers during international trips. Much safer way to go, I hate the worry in dealing with missed flights. Admittedly, I do enjoy hanging out in international airports much more than US airports. Lot's of new and different restaurants and shops to check out not to mention people watching.
 
We have a transatlantic flight next year to meet a cruise that originally had 90 minutes at JFK. We are not so worried about being held up boarding, but if the first flight was late we would be in trouble. We were able to get it backed up to the next earlier flight, knowing that this gives us a 6 hour layover. Better than missing the boat.
 
You didn’t mention if this was foreign customs or US pre clearance. Since both airports have pre clearance, I find that having Global Entry avoids a lot of checks that happens by US border control.
 
It is not a big deal. I had 5 liters of booze, and went down to the customs officer on board. The duty is about $2.30 per bottle, and if the duty is under $10 they waive it. Two liters were duty free, so the total was way under $10.
I agree. I've brought in as many as 3 if I've passed through my favorite whisky shop in London. I travel solo so that's over the limit. I ALWAYS fill out an honest Customs declaration (don't want to have it confiscated) and have never yet been charged duty.

The only times I've been singled out for a pawing-through-my-underwear search of my carry-on were both in London, once at LHR, once at LCY, years ago. Both times I had a small, boxy electrical converter. Eventually I realized I didn't need one- adapters were enough for all my devices- but I still keep all my cords, chargers, etc. in a large gallon bag so they can pull them out and look at them if necessary. I've also been on flights where they search EVERYONE's carry-on in the jetway - mostly India but once leaving Bolivia.

On connection times- yeah, I prefer VERY long ones but occasionally the airline messes it up by re-arranging the schedules. Most recently they changed a 2-hour layover in CLT to 45 minutes- and this was a family trip with 3 adults and 3 small children. I didn't call to change (not many good options available) and hoped they'd switch things again but they never did. We ended up having to cancel and still have the flight credits. Now on my trips to Europe I spend one overnight in London on the way there (Hilton Garden Inn within walking distance of LHR) and two on the way back. I know that's a luxury most people don't have.
 
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For domestic, I'm ok with an hour since I have no checked bags, but only if I know the airport layout (some are made for speed, others not so much).

Domestic? Yeah 2 hours is as close as I'd want to cut it, as the variables increase.

Not sure I've ever had my carry on checked by hand. But I don't carry a back pack. And no I would not sit there stomping my feet if I did - just smile.
 
On connection times- yeah, I prefer VERY long ones but occasionally the airline messes it up by re-arranging the schedules. Most recently they changed a 2-hour layover in CLT to 45 minutes- and this was a family trip with 3 adults and 3 small children. I didn't call to change (not many good options available) and hoped they'd switch things again but they never did.

This exact thing happened to DW and I. Three+ hour layover in ORD rescheduled to 45 mins months after we had booked with miles. Called to rearrange but no alternatives available for similar miles, so we really didn't have a choice other than canceling. First leg delayed, traffic at the gate on arrival. We ran. Last to board, but we did make it, as did our checked bags.
 
I once scheduled a flight from Cabo San Lucas through DFW. Airline changed it to a one-hour layover. I called and asked if I could change it to a flight out of DFW the next day (would have gotten a hotel at my own expense). Nope- that would be a "voluntary change" and they'd re-price it at the current rate.

Fortunately our cruise line got us to the airport earlier than anticipated and I was able to stand by for an earlier flight to DFW. Sure enough, I checked later and my original flight from Cabo left half an hour late and, given the time it took me to connect in DFW, I would have missed my flight home and had to stay overnight in DFW since it was the last flight out that evening. Not only that- since I was flying Business Class and the seat I had on the standby was in Coach they sent me a small refund. :)
 
An airport security alert may or may not be obvious. It can eat up lots of transfer time at an airport. Longer lines, more thorough bag checks.

We now assume 3 hours at major international airports. We have been through in 15 minutes, more than a few times it has been 2 plus hours. Just depends on time of day, security alerts, staffing, etc. For domestic it depends on whether we are changing terminals vs a few gates.
 
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We travel pretty frequently to Europe; I am there now and will return in two weeks after my flight back on Friday. I consider two hours higher risk, and will only take it if I don't have a critical day upon arrival and it is not summer. The flight schedulers often allow what I consider to be ridiculously narrow time windows, often based on averages and not based on practical matter of navigating the gauntlet at Heathrow, Schiphol, CDG, Frankfurt, etc. I fine 3 hours is generally OK.

I've not had big issues with inspections, but I often don't mind checking the main bag. However, I find the risk of a delayed bag is higher with connections under 3 hours. Having a travel history free of certain "flagging" countries seems to also help. Global Entry, helps, but only on the return. Nothing will help you in a European hub -- except potentially a high loyalty program status or a premium cabin that allow you to bypass some lines..
 
International connections: if I can’t fly from the US directly to the destination then I pick someplace I can fly directly to and enjoy a couple of days before moving on or take a same day train to the destination city. In some cases returning to the US from Europe we’ve taken a train to a city that has a direct flight back to the US. So somehow all these years we’ve missed dealing with international flight connections.
 
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I mentioned two hours in post #2 but actually our view is a little more nuanced than that:

The prevailing winds aloft are westerlies, so this is a headwind for a westbound flight and unexpectedly high winds are a common reason for late arrivals, particularly if the route is to the north of a low. The same winds affect the eastbound flights but there the result is likely to be an early arrival. So conservative layover planning should also consider the direction of the inbound flight.
 
Last time we came back from Barcelona on BA we had a choice of two BA connections in LHR. 2 hrs and 4hrs. 4hrs meant disembarking the ship a little early. We selected it. Carry on only so bags were not an issue. We did not want to chance the 2hr. layover.

We were traveling on a one way cruise company consolidator fare code ticket. We knew that if something happened to cause us to miss the 2 hr connection this fare code would cause us to be at the end of the re-schedule line. We were not willing to chance a 2hr connect time, with change of terminal, at LHR.
 
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We travel pretty frequently to Europe; I am there now and will return in two weeks after my flight back on Friday. I consider two hours higher risk, and will only take it if I don't have a critical day upon arrival and it is not summer. The flight schedulers often allow what I consider to be ridiculously narrow time windows, often based on averages and not based on practical matter of navigating the gauntlet at Heathrow, Schiphol, CDG, Frankfurt, etc. I fine 3 hours is generally OK.
And don't you love it when a suggested route lands at Heathrow but you have to take your connecting flight out of Gatwick? Sure, they look real close on the map. :)
 
And don't you love it when a suggested route lands at Heathrow but you have to take your connecting flight out of Gatwick? Sure, they look real close on the map. :)
Fortunately that is a mistake I don't make --- but some traveler schedulers do.....

I just got back on Friday from a five day trip for w***k (stuck in OMY). Frankfurt once again can be bear to get through. For the first time I tried connecting to my final city via high speed (200 to 220 km/hr) train, not plane. It worked out very well, as there are so many trains and with a flexible ticket you can easily rebook for an optimal connection time. Saved 6K on my ticket as well.

Connected through PDX --- hopefully the newly remodeled terminal will be better, for now, it's quite a disaster compared to other smaller airports like SLC. Wasn't at a risk of missing my connection, it was just a crappy airport to spend a four hour layover.
 
We flew into Brussels last week. One of our flight options was a 50 min connection in Frankfurt but I doubted we would make that connection. Instead we opted to connect in Newark with a 70 min layover.

However our departing flight was delayed to the point that we would miss our connection. We were rebooked through Frankfurt with a 90 min connection which surprisingly was plenty of time.
 
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