Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
The problem connection was in Guam. They could have added a night there to avoid problems on a one-a-day (I'm not even sure if it's daily) flight to Truk that had a 45 minute connection. As for the schedule change in Houston, there were probably alternate flights to IAH or Hawaii they could have changed to if the schedule was too tight. They made their connection in Houston, nonetheless. As for Truk, they also could have added a night in HNL to comfortably catch the west bound milk run. Personally would have never booked the route and 45 minute connection in Guam they did to get to the destination. Just plain dumb. They were counting on everything working perfectly. What could go wrong with that presumption?
Re-read the post. They did overnight in HNL. They opted for the risky 45 minute connection instead of the safer direct flight.
A little blunt, but I agree and think the poster set himself up for issues by booking the tight connection, especially in that location. When I took the Island Hopper years ago, it was every other day in a particular direction. So, say Monday would be Guam->Hawaii eastbound and then Tuesday it would fly back Hawaii->Guam, of course making all the stops. With a 45 minute connection on an every other day flight, that is just plain silly, especially with Guam where it's kind of the US, but kind of not.
If I had to get there again, I would likely either go EWR->NRT->GUM->TKK or EWR->HNL->(MAJ->KWA->KSA->PNI->TKK). The island hopper is a fun flight and I enjoyed it on my flight from Guam to Kwajalein, but I suppose I am biased because I got bumped up to first and didn't have to de-plane at each stop.
As a side note, I am flying tomorrow EWR->IAD->PEK and I had the option of either a ~1 hour connection in IAD or a 5 hour connection. I took the 5 hour connection and am on a 5:45am flight EWR-IAD specifically because I know if there is a delay and I get to IAD and miss the flight to PEK, I am delayed an entire day, which is unacceptable.