Originally Posted by
redtailshark
Take home for OPE: know your Star options for same-day Asia departures, and don't accept the system auto-protect options that cost a whole day on short itins.
Another thing I do on trips where timing is critical is avoid hubs with few flights to the region where I'm going.
What I mean by this is avoiding hubs that are likely to have fewer reroute options. This is not just for CO, but for all carriers (e.g., avoiding DEN for Europe, IAH for Asia, CLE, MEM or CVG for anything int'l, etc.).
Had you flown TUS-LAX-XXX or TUS-SFO-XXX, this would likely have been much less stressful as there are many more reroute options out of SFO or LAX, almost all day at that. Similarly for Europe, I would prefer TUS-EWR-FRA over TUS-IAH-FRA since there's many more NYC-Euro options.