Originally Posted by
youngdlplat
OP - To your initial question, here is how I would treat layovers.
CVG / MEM - 30 to 40 minutes layovers are generally going to be OK. Of course, you could always be delayed out of DCA, but both of those airports are small and easy to traverse. In neither do you really need more than 15 minutes, and ground delays at both are very rare. The danger is that they don't have as many flights should you miss your connection, but in terms of ease of connection, they are hard to beat. I would not worry about a short connection time at either. (For weather, MEM is almost never delayed too. CVG might have the occasional snow delay.)
DTW - I would want a 50 minute connection to be safe. DTW is a great airport and is easy to traverse, but it's much larger than CVG/MEM. It could take you up to 20-25 minutes to make a connection there. You really want to have at least 40 minutes or so from the time your first flight arrives at the gate to be safe. Ground delays are possible there, as are weather delays, but I find DTW is very well managed and delays are infrequent.
MSP - 1 hour - The layout of MSP is awkward. The airport is basically a giant H, and it can take a long time to make a connection if you have to cross the entire airport. Weather delays are possible in the winter. The worst problem from DCA is that MSP is far enough that the jet stream will impact the ability of a delayed departure from DCA to catch up. If you're late out of DCA, you will likely be late into MSP (whereas the other airports - except maybe MEM - are close enough that you can make up time in the air if necessary.)
ATL - At least 1 hour - I find that ATL has more and more ground delays. So many times I arrive and the gate is not open as the previous plane has not departed. There is too much traffic in ATL, IMHO, and that makes the possibility for ground delays too high. It's also unlikely you will make up time by having a short taxi for take off. Plus you might have a long way to go between gates (or you might not. Hard to know with ATL). Weather is unlikely to delay you (except during summer t-storms), which is good. The advantage of ATL is that if you do miss your flight to ORD, there's probably another one an hour later.
I would agree with this for the most part.
MSP I would say 45 minutes is reasonable.
For ATL, I've been able to make a connection on a 42 minute layover before but a few minutes were spent on the ground due to an aircraft occupying the gate that was still waiting to be pushed back and I was probably the last or second to last passenger to board my connection. 50 mins - 1 hour minimum just to be on the safe side and hope that you're not parking at E with your departing flight leaving from T.
When flying from MCO to most destinations, I have to connect in ATL and chances are we end up landing on the southernmost runway 10/28...it can be fun to see two other planes aside from your own landing at the same time, but the fun goes away when you realize the taxi time to the terminal...all due to landing on the runway furthest away from the concourses sigh.