I was looking over my flight times for my next mission in late April and I noticed United is only allowing for a 47 minute layover in Chicago. I fly from Austin into Chicago on United as well. Not sure about the "on-time" rate for my flight from Austin and I will be checking on that but even if everything is on time or close is 47 minutes enough time? I might have an option to hop the early morning flight from Austin to Chicago but that would mean a 8-9 hour holdover but that is an option. Might need to take a second mortage if I sit around in Ohare and drink for that long....

I had that kind of lay over once when flying to Brussels and wound up spending the night in Cincinnati (or northern Kentucky, to be more precise). I would play it safe and get on an earlier flight, especially if your trip is for a short period. Chicago is a great city so if you have 8 or 9 hours you can always take the train to downtown. Sometimes if you use a travel website like Orbitz they will book you on two different airlines so that you don't have such a long layover.

I'd offer to meet up with you but then you would need a third mortgage as well ;-).

--CC Lady

I would do anything that I could to avoid United/ O'Hare

What about Delta thru Atlanta, or KLM out of Memphis ?

Best Regards

Smuler

United's international flights leave from the same terminal as the domestic flights. The logistics (gate to gate) shouldn't be a problem. You just never know if a flight coming into a major airport is going to be on time.

What about Delta thru Atlanta, or KLM out of Memphis ?

I have used KLM and Delta but this time they were about $450 higher than United. Always fun to fly back into Memphis from Amsterdam....Some of the customs folks there are real cool but mix in a red neck here and there and add the fact that I am white and my wife is black and.....well it becomes comical sometimes. I imagine we will end up dragging ourselves out to the airport at 0500 and try to convince them to let us hop that first plane into Chicago.

Good luck

What about booking a cheapie airport hotel the night before thru Priceline ?

Will this help ?

Ohare= SNOW ??

Smuler

No Copenhagen this time ??

i wouldnt risk it O'hare is such a spread out airport, a layover isnt that bad go and get you a deep dish pie and think about the great smoke and great tang you are about to indulge in,


_____________________
Roll Up A Swisha

Unless your first flight is delayed 20 minutes (very common in winter) and you miss the connex!!

No Copenhagen this time ??


Gonna skip the Copenhagen gig this time around...although a return to Aero Island is gonna happen sometime soon.

With only 47 minutes, I'd be worried about my luggage making the connection as well.

I've had a few flights (all returning to the US) where a connection has been less than one hour. I've made it each time, but my luggage comes in a day or two later. Not a big problem when coming home, but a big nuisance when starting a trip.

On a trip last March, the airline changed my flight at the last minute and added another flight change. Just to be safe, I put a big piece of paper inside my luggage with my destination hotel's address on it.

I wouldn't risk it. All it takes is a little rain or snow and it can slow down the movement of aircraft. As far as flying through Atlanta it looks like they got rid of Delta 38 and 39. At least I couldn't find those flights to book on Delta or Expedia. It looks like there are no more direct flights from Atlanta. I am flying the end of March and have to go through Paris and am wondering if the hour they are giving me is enough. I have been stuck in Paris before

I think you will make it if you hustle, but your luggage is almost surely screwed.
I got a really cheap flight through O'Hare in March with a 49 minute layover.
I will let you know how it goes.
Hope I don't get screwed too!

Weasel we will be cheering for you.
Will you be taking the special hat?

Jake, there are direct Atlanta to Amsterdam flights for late march on delta.com for @600.

You know how girls love the hat!

"Hey, Cowboy"

I had a really bad connection flight to Amsterdam recently.

I had a Austin to Charlotte to Baltimore to Philadelphia to Amsterdam with US Airways. The connection from Baltimore to Philadelphia was only 35 minutes which is a legal connection. US Airways legal connection times are by local airport and do not take into consideration that one of my legs was an international leg. They just list all legal paths and let me pick one of them. They wanted to charge me $250 to change the flight and there is no way I was going to pay this extortion.

Anyway, what I learned at the airport was that the connection from Baltimore to Philadelphia was actually the same physical plane. The flight numbers were different but the airplane id's listed at the airport showed the planes were actually the same. So basically I never could have missed the connection.

I don't imagine this is your situation and I'm not sure if you could find out this information except at the airport (I couldn't) but I thought I would mention it.

As it turned out I was delayed getting to the international leg in Philadelphia because of air traffic control (probably due to weather). I had 1 hour and 45 minute connection time but had to race across the Philadelphia struggling with my luggage and just barely made the flight by 3 minutes.

In retrospect, I should have checked the itinerary more carefully before selecting my ticket. I would also want to be careful with the international leg and make sure there was a backup flight that was leaving the US after my scheduled flight and would get me to Europe within say 4 hours of my scheduled flight. You can get into a situation that there are no more flights going out until the next day which is really bad.

Out of curiosity..

how much was that ticket ?

Best Regards


Smuler

I'm not sure if you are referring to my ticket price but I will provide it either way.

I booked my flight at usairways.com in early December 2008 for a mid-late Jan 2009 trip.

Over the past 3 years I have used frequent flyer miles for 4 Europe trips so I'm not used to flight shopping. I did very little research but I did search some consolidator web sites that show which airlines have the best fares for a given source and destination city. I don't remember the web site(s) at the moment.

The fare was $538.50 and the taxes/fees were $198.43 for a total of $736.93.

It sounds so much better without the taxes and fees ... oh well.

Yes..thanks for the information

The price isn't bad..but all those connections ??


Would investing say another 250 USD would really cut down on your connections

Best Regards


Smuler

Yeah, I just made a mistake when I booked the flight and picked the lowest price without much consideration.

Note that the $250 I originally referred to is their standard change fee to make any change to an already purchased flight. You also have to pay for any difference in the current fair prices. Most airlines have the same policy.

I was used to being able to easily and cheaply change my flight like I could at delta with my frequent flyer miles. I think they used to charge me $25 or $50 to change my flight itinerary. I think frequent flyer flight change fees are just more reasonable with all airlines but I didn't know that at the time.

When I originally booked the flight there were definitely flights available with fewer stops for maybe a $25-$75 higher fair price (I don't really remember exactly). However as the trip became closer the fair price also increased so it really became expensive to change. The take away for me is to make sure to get the flight itinerary correct the first time. I also found out later that had I called the same day I booked the flight or the next day their policy would have allowed them to change my flight itinerary for no cost. They view this as a mistake as opposed to a change when you call them say a week later.

The primary problem with all the connections is that US Airways has their international hub in Philadelphia and a major US hub in Charlotte. So most of their flights go through these cities. This is not good in my mind especially when traveling internationally in the winter because it forces customers to fly through a bad weather city (Philadelphia) on international flights and risk weather related flight delays. My return flight came back to Austin through Frankfurt and Charlotte which was not bad. I don't believe they had any outbound flights through Charlotte though.

You might want to go to usairways.com, enter dates and source and destination cities, and view the results. This should give you a feel for their options. I think I read they will be going to Europe through Paris soon as well.

Good luck with your flight plans ...