Southwest Rapid Rewards - 35 min connection in Baltimore

Hi - hoping your frequent flyers can help me. I am flying from Providence to Phoenix in January. My two choices are flying through Chicago which gives me a 2 hour layover or Baltimore with a 35 minute layover. My inclination is to do Chicago but am afraid of snow in January!! However 35 minutes seems like a big risk, especially flying out of Providence - we could also have snow. Any feedback from past experience.

Oh - there is one non stop but we have to be there earlier.
Thanks, Sue

One thing that would be very useful would be to know what time the flight is - WN flights tend to accumulate delays throughout the day, especially if the plane makes multiple stops on a given flight #. I'm a little surprised you're being offered the option to go through BWI (I thought that they had a 45 minute connection minimum).

I wouldn't worry about MDW or PVD. I don't think I'd do a 35 minute connection at BWI unless it was first thing in the morning. Two hours at MDW is pretty easy--it's a great airport to kill time in (mmmm, Potbelly's). Snow delays at MDW are much, much less than they are at ORD. Same with PVD. You could also do PVD-LAS-PHX.

If it was me, I'd probably do the MDW connection. The BWI one, while tempting, might be pushing it if you're not flying first thing in the morning. If you do fly to BWI, sit in the first few rows so you can get off first.

Thanks for the feedback. The flight through MDW leaves PVD at 6:45 a.m. and then leaves Chicago at 10:25. The one connecting through Baltimore leaves PVD at 6:15. I'm more worried about a departure delay in PVD which would bog us down if we go through Baltimore.

When I plugged in PVD to Phoenix, nothing showed up connecting at LAS.
Thanks, Sue

I did a 30 minute connection last week in BWI. On going flight was an hour late, so ended up being plenty of time to even have a sit down meal at BWI. Weather will start becoming more of an issue though. January, you never know. I'd go w/ the longer connection myself.

I would choose BWI. Bad weather is typically less severe than MDW, and if everything goes completely bad, you can always take Amtrak back home.

I just came through BWI (ISP-BWI-PHX) this past week, and there were incoming delays with connecting flights all over the place, mostly from northeast cities (rainy windy weather). I wouldn't chance a 35-minute connection time in BWI, especially facing a 4-5 hour flight to PHX sitting in a middle seat if your PVD flight arrives late and you lose your boarding pass position, boarding the plane last!

Can you call WN and book a later connection from BWI to PHX? That way you don't have to go through Midway, and BWI is not a bad airport to hang out for a few hours...

HEY!! there is no snow in Chicago in January:D

If your flight into MDW is delayed because of snow, then your outbound flight is just as likely to be delayed. I would go with the 2 hour at MDW. And, seriously, there really are not that many snow delays in the winter. There are likely more thunderstorm delays in the summer at many, many airports than snow delays in Chicago in the winter.

Oh - there is one non stop but we have to be there earlier.If you truly have to be there earlier, travel no later than the non-stop the day before. If you are traveling after 09-Jan, the non-stop arrives at 17:35. The earliest connecting flight arrives at 11:45am. You are giving yourself at most a 5:50 cushion.

About two years ago I was boarding a winter morning flight out of BWI that had originated at either BDL or PVD. It was a clear cool morning at BWI, but the plane arrived nearly two hours late due to a deicing issue caused by minor precipitation overnight. (Flight deck announcement was that the deicer ran out of fluid midway through the process, perhaps tripling the original delay, but who knows??) There is plenty that can go wrong even early during a winter day.

Of course there's no way to predict the weather, so there is no certain answer. If you can't travel on an earlier day your decision may be driven by factors like whether BWI or MDW has more/better missed connection options. And don't forget that if there are already weather-related IRROPS first thing in the morning, you may be able to be reaccommodated before even departing PVD.

In other circumstances I'd emphasize that the biggest issue with the 35 minute connection (which probably has some slack time built in) is that your second leg is the much longer of the two; while you should have no trouble making your connection if things are running smoothly, you may miss the beginning of the boarding process leaving you with a suboptimal seat on a long flight.

I'm a little surprised you're being offered the option to go through BWI (I thought that they had a 45 minute connection minimum).I don't know the stated minimum connection time at BWI but those rules apply to building your own itinerary; scheduled published service has a slightly relaxed limit.

While were at it, what do you guys think of 35 min in STL?

35 minutes in STL is more than enough.