Originally Posted by
donlind
Making a 55 minute I/D connection in ATH certainly is possible. I did it a few years ago flying ATL-ATH and then on to Santorini.
To improve my chances, I jammed everything into a carry-on and had no checked luggage. I got a seat near the exit, allowing me to beat most of the people on my flight to passport control. Once I cleared immigration, I knew exactly where to go to check-in for my connection.
If you must check/retrieve luggage, if your inbound is late, if you're among the last people off the inbound flight or if you face long customs lines, your chances would be diminished.
A safer strategy might be to book the later flight and try for the 10 am if all factors cut your way.
Assuming an hour for arrival, and check-in an hour in advance of the later flight, plus travel time to/from the city, you would have very little opportunity to do much in Athens.
Thanks for the experience... definitely encouraging, and I think we could do that since we'll be arriving in J and I can push for carry-on only.
I may just go ahead and buy a ticket on both the 10:00am and 1:25pm as it's about $200 per person for both flights, and buying a changeable/refundable ticket is $215--and of course if we bought a changeable ticket, there's no guarantee of space being available on the day of travel.
Any downside to buying 2 tickets on the same airline on the same day? I can see how they may frown upon that...