neoflex5

You can make it if you took a cab or shuttle from JFK to EWR.

Not sure how much that would cost, but I think you could make it.

For what it's worth, I had to take trains from JFK to the Grove St. PATH stop which is close to EWR and just that took about 2 hours total.

If it were me, I would negotiate a deal with a cab driver, private limo, or airport shuttle to get you in EWR.

edit: SuperShuttle.com can get you a private car from JFK to EWR for $107.

Often1

Do not even think about SuperShuttle. You need 100% reliability. The sole way to be sure you make this is to book a real car service. Won't run much more than SuperShuttle.

zkzkz

Oh, incidentally, one other strategy is to watch your itinerary like a hawk between now and when you fly. Often the airline will make some minor change to the schedule. Sometimes even just moving a flight 5 minutes one way or the other. As soon as they do you call up and say the change won't work for you and you have to change the flights as a result....

I've never done this, only read about it, but I have often seen small adjustments to my schedule so I believe it.

It helps to research your options and have a specific flight in mind so you know what to ask for.

Likewise, on your departing flight arrive a bit early and go to the ticket desk and ask the agents there if they can help. If not there ask again in MIA (if there are any in MIA -- they might only be there before their direct flights). Ask again at check-in. Each time you ask there's a chance of a different answer and the closer to the gate you get the more flexibility the agents have (modulo checked bags causing issues)

ijgordon

Yeah, but the problem is that the ticket is non-changeable. That doesn't exist for tickets purchased in the US - they always allow changes for a fee. But many of the cheapest tickets sold in Europe are completely non-changeable. OP should hope for a schedule change or a miracle.

Stobe

Thank You all for your help and suggestions!

I will contact LH next week and ask what they think of this. I'll ask them politely if they can change us to another flight. If not, I'll ask their opinion on how they think this transit would work and how they think we should make our way from EWR to JFK. They obviously think it's doable as they sell it. I live almost next to the HEL airport so I could also visit their service desk in there if my phone call didn't result anything good...

If we end up doing it according to the current booking, I think we'll use taxi or a reliable car service for the trip between the airports. This is a Saturday evening in march so traffic shouldn't be that bad, and we'll cross our fingers for not meeting any bad surprises on the road. If it's around 100$, it's well worth it. Yes, it is expensive, but there won't be stress about train schedules, train changes and such, as I think we'll be stressed enough when the time comes because of our own mistake.

But as I said, I'll try and get LH to change it first. Of course I'll also be on the lookout if they happened to change the schedule.

Once again, big Thank You for your help!

UKtravelbear

When you phone LH (and you need to do it sooner rather than later) then it will pay you to do some research as to alternative flights you can suggest to them rather than just leaving it to them to sort out *your* problem. And this is your problem not theirs as you (or your friend) clicked on the 'confirm' button to purchase the tickets.


DO NOT rely on a possible future might possibly happen schedule change that means you can cancel and book again because in reality it is unlikely to happen to get you out of your problem.

Stobe

Will do first thing in the morning when they'll open their lines after weekend.

Have done this already, as I am planning taking this as far as booking new flights altogether...(tho I was hoping I wouldn't need to...)

I am very well aware of this.

I won't. I promise.
I know it is unlikely to happen.

Stobe

Folks,

I came here to ask for tips and tricks to solve MY (not Yours, not Lufthansas, not anybody elses) problem. I've got many and I thank You for that.

I never intended to accuse anyone else for this situation but myself. Nonetheless, I hope that Lufthansa will have some solution as, after all, they did sell me this itinerary. That, for me, seems that they think this can be done. I think it is just reasonable to at least expect them to tell me how it can be done.

As someone else said earlier, let this be an example. Please go through your itinerary before you press that "confirm" -button. We obviously didn't, and are paying for that now.

I've understood that by now and would appreciate to "not be kicked when I'm already down."

Thank you!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"I know it is unlikely to happen."

I think the likelihood depends on how far in the future the flights are. If they are next week, that's one thing; if they are in April of next year, that's something else entirely.

Even if the LH TATL schedules rarely change, UA's schedules from MIA to EWR are something different. The Minimum Connecting Time for a domestic arrival on UA at EWR to an international departure on LH at JFK appears to be 3.0 hours. If the UA schedule is changed so that the UA flight is scheduled to arrive EWR at 8:21 PM or later, you would then have an illegal connection, and I expect that LH would offer you a different itinerary.

But I agree that you should notcount on a schedule change. Planning to take a car service from EWR to JFK sounds like a reasonable plan if the flights cannot be changed.

Stobe

This is what I'm thinking as well. And as for now, this is also my plan at the moment. I'll let you know what they told me, after I've phoned LH. 'Cause someone else might be in the very same situation in the future.

UKtravelbear

I'm sorry if you feel you have been kicked whilst you are down but your issue is one that regularly crops up on flyer talk (and other airline related websites) so that explains any perceived lack of sympathy.

LH do not have to do anything for you. They sold you a itinerary with valid connections (otherwise they couldn't sell it) so why should they change it?

Their answer they will give you on how to get from EWR to JFK will be something like 'well there are plenty of taxis, shuttle buses, limo services and public transport options'.

That is the same as when e.g. people ask BA how to get from LHR to LCY or LGW for connections.


Perhaps if this thread was transferred to the LH board you might get more detailed answers regarding LH policies rather than posting on this the more generic New York page of FT. I've alerted a moderator to see if they will move it for you.

Stobe

Okay, maybe it's time for me to apologize, because I'm not asking for sympathy nor am I asking to be "kicked down." Just asking the opinions and perhaps experiences of people who've been in same situation. This thread has already been extremely helpful for me. Moving the thread to LH-part of the forum might be a good idea.

As to why LH should change it, well maybe they shouldn't. I'm fine with that. As long as it is a legal connection which it seems (and has) to be. I'm already much more convenient with this than I was a couple of days ago. Thanks to you. But it never costs more than a telephone call to ask so why not to try it.

ijgordon

There are only some people here who seem to be providing an abject lack of sympathy.

It's perfectly reasonable to ask for advice about how to work around the issue. And it also is a completely valid question to ask how LH will handle a mis-connect between airports. Perhaps more so since nobody seems to know the answer. And I don't think it's even necessarily an LH-specific topic. Perhaps there could be additional advice from folks on the LH board, but since it's a UA-to-LH connection it's probably not a completely straightforward situation. (And I might as well mention here that if there is actually a misconnect, there's a chance that LH may try to punt to UA for re-accommodation, particularly if the UA flight is late.

My take -- since someone mentioned the 3 hr MCT for EWR-JFK, then I assume if the UA flight arrives late, with less than 3 hours before the LH departure, you should definitely be covered for re-accommodation. If the UA flight is on time but you still don't make it to JFK in time (due to traffic etc.), then it becomes a bit messier. However, surely if one were to arrive on time for, say, a same-airport Intl-Domestic transfer and get caught in a 2+ hour customs line, I would think the airlines would still re-accommodate you.

Analise

I missed that part about MIA. I fixed the post.

Analise

How did it go when you contacted LH this morning?