I will be flying to Las Vegas, via Toronto in a couple of weeks.

The legal AC connection time is to my knowledge, just slightly more than 1 hour (although I remain to be corrected on this statement).

I have booked the 7 AM flight, that arrives at about 8 AM in Toronto, and the Las Vegas bound flight leaves at about 10:15 AM.

Assuming that there is no snow storm/blizzard in Ottawa or Toronto that day (as is the case now in both cities), with the additional time of de-icing added to the departure time in Ottawa, could I risk missing my connection in Toronto?

I do remember that on some occasions in past winters, that de-icing could add more than 1 hour to the departure time.

I believe that due to enhanced security measures, de-icing is now prohibited.

Huh?? Isn't it a safety measure to de-ice the aircraft?

On the contrary, it's a conspiracy amongst airlines and governments to confuse passengers and cause them to overwhelm bulletin boards with questions best asked of the airline.

I am not sure i understand what you are talking about. I always thought it was a fact that if they don't de-ice the aircraft and the aircraft takes off with ice on their wings, then disaster is bound to happen. Isn't that a safety issue? Am i missing your point?

Empress: I think it is a little nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

FG2: My guess is that if the flight delay is due to operations (i.e. "AC's fault") and you are on a single ticket YOW-YYZ-LAS, then they will protect you for this connection.

But who am I to say?  I'm not the voice of authority here.  I do believe that if you proceed to this page, you will find in big, bold lettering the telephone number for AC reservations which you can call and ask them your question on flight delays.

Aren't you Elite or something?  I'd expect you to be the one to have experience in these types of problems and know how to deal with it.  You should be the one educating me about these kinds of things, not the other way around!

FewMiles..

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Sorry, if my question regarding what AC will do, if I miss the connecting flight, was not clear.

Yes, it is very likely that AC will be responsible for finding a new flight, if I miss the Las Vegas bound flight. I am not questioning that, per se - I have no concerns that AC will look after me, if the connecting Las Vegas bound flight is missed.

My anxiety relates to the fact I do not want to get to the situation, where the Las Vegas bound flight is missed, and I have to then go to the hassle of try to find alternate routing, via an AC agent, with AC, UA, or non-Star Alliance carriers later that day, or perhaps future days.

My query relates to what type of delays can one see with de-icing, and could such a delay, with the bookings I made, make me lose the Las Vegas bound connection, that day?

As a corollary, I wonder if anyone can give my advice as to how I can access information for the number of average de-icing days in winters at Canadian (and northern US) airports, and the average delay from the departure time, at each airport, with de-icing? Is such data available, or published, for North American airports. With such data, I may be able to calculate whether my connection time, taking account of average de-icing delays in the Ottawa winter, will still let me connect to the Las Vegas bound flight, realizing I am going with family, including a 5 yr old child.

[This message has been edited by FlyerGoldII (edited 12-15-2001).]

[This message has been edited by FlyerGoldII (edited 12-15-2001).]

Get real, FGII. You travel regularly. You are an adult. These sound like questions from a first-time, teenager!

The only way to ensure not getting caught up in weather problems in a climate like ours is to not travel. Or pray to your respective devinity...

Must you posit every possible thing that can be imagined? Just let life unfold and stop worrying. If you are delayed, well you are delayed. That's life. Perhaps you won't even get out of Ottawa, then it won't be AC's problem at all other than to rebook you on the earliest AC flights.

Now why not ask the real probing questions, like:

When I leave Ottawa it will be very, very cold and I will need to wear a very heavy coat. But when I get to Las Vegas it will be very, very hot. How can I store my coat when I don't need it in the south, but still have access to it when I get back to Canada, but just in case there is a freak coldwave and snow storm can I also have access to it in Las Vegas?

And while we're at it, what about my snow boots and will they allow me to wear them through the security gate, or must I removed them and put them on the belt?

Or maybe I could bring an extra suitcase and we can all pack our coats and boots and check them along with our other bags? But then, if we are stranded at YYZ, we will need our winter stuff if we leave the terminal, so can we get those bags if they had already been checked in at YOW?

[Empress, you've been studying too hard. Most of these posts are actually satires. Including, I now suspect, FGII's original one. ]

Flyer Gold III

If your flight is late getting to YYZ, more then likely you will make it on the LAS Flight.
Your bags will be another matter.The YOW flight is quite often late in to YYZ.
SO dont worry, your bags will be on the next available flight to LAS and will be delivered to the hotel bell desk.

Thank you, airportstu 1 for your comments.

Shareholder, although criticism stings, I accept your criticism as valid.

Thank you to all who have responded to my post.

The one remaining question that I still have is whether there are any publications that state, from past years, the number of de-icing days and average times for a de-icing procedure, for Canadian and northern US airports.

????

I don't know of any airline that publishes expected deicing delays.

From past experience, deicing can take anywhere from 10 to 90 minutes, depending on weather conditions and the backlog at YYZ. But you could also be delayed by any number of other factors.

Minimum connecting time at YYZ from domestic to transborder flights is 50 mins. You should be fine with 135 mins. (But anything can happen ...)

Thank you.

I will report back in January, after I take the trip, and state what effect, if any, did de-icing have on my travels that day.

With de-icing last Friday (and no line-up for the de-icing bay, due to lack of planes going anywhere else), our departure took about 30min from pushback to liftoff.

andrew