arthursiew

How is the weather conditions at DEN in mid-December? I'm thinking about connecting in DEN, but it is only a short 45 minute connection. Since I am unfamiliar with the Denver area, I'm not sure if 45 minutes would be short for a connection from YVR to DEN, especially if snow regularly delays flights. Thanks.

DenverBrian

December is not traditionally a snowy month in Denver, and in any case, DEN is a modern airport with features and runway configurations such that only the very worst storms affect its operations. Your odds are good of an uneventful connection.

cblaisd

The increasingly difficult (in my experience in the last year) thing about United at DEN is that more and more when you arrive on-time or early, either the gate is not available or there are no rampers or agent to get the plane to the gate and operate the jetbridge. I've waited as long as 40 minutes in the last year in this situation.

Concur on the weather advice of DenverBrian. There are more wx delays at DEN during the summer late afternoon/early evening thunderstorm season. DEN will get a few snow storms each year that will slow the airport down, but these can occur between October and May! And, as noted, the airport usually rebounds pretty quickly.

On the whole, though, I never like to schedule connections at DEN of less than 75-90 minutes. There is just too much that can go wrong.

DENviaLAX

Given that your flight from YVR to DEN will be a mainline flight, and I imagine an originator in Vancouver, 45 minutes should be alright. Chances are good that your flight to DEN will get in on time, and with it being mainline any wait for a gate or ground crew would be minimal(as UA operations are run much better than Skywest). The walk from your inbound gate to your HNL gate should also be short with both flights being mainline.

If anything your HNL segment might be delayed and that could be bothersome, but as far as actually missing your connection, that would seem low risk to me.

DenverBrian

If final destination is HNL, then maybe YVR-LAX-HNL or YVR-SFO-HNL would be better?

HawaiiTrvlr

Just a word of caution about weather here in DEN this winter. The local weather people are predicting an El Nino weather pattern here in the metro area this winter. According to them (and using past El Nino years as comparision), we are set for more snow than usual. The Farmer's Almanac is also calling for a super cold winter for the US.

djp98374

You will have just as much chance of getting delayed in YVR as you would in Denver---anything is possible.

Its winter in Denver so it can snow---there will be a heavy snow at some point in December---when it will happen who knows.

If there is a snow storm happening ---that causes flights to get canceled.

Why are you even flying through Denver? mileage buffer?

arthursiew

Thanks for all the help. As I was about to make the booking, United changed the departure time for the YVR-DEN segment so it is now no longer possible to fly via DEN. I was hoping to fly through Denver for the extra miles.

DenverBrian

Hmmm. How about IAH then?

ERJ_12B

+1