Originally Posted by
noah
I'm flying PDX-SFO-CDG next Sunday. The flight has a 50 minute connection at SFO, which in normal operations is a little risky, but in this runway-construction environment seems to be an insane choice (I did not know about the construction when I booked the ticket in January). I've checked the flight status the past few weekends and in no cases did the PDX-SFO flight leave anywhere close to on time, whereas the SFO-CDG flight almost always leaves on time.
Given this, what are my options? United has no waiver in place, so they won't let me re-schedule to fly PDX-ORD/IAD/IAH-CDG. There is an earlier PDX-SFO flight but that leaves a very long connection and short of flying standby on it, I can't get them to change my booked trip anyway.
Any ideas? If I miss the 2:55 SFO-CDG leg, my only other option is to take the 7pm departure through FRA and get into CDG about 8 hours later
.
The real issue here is your 12:18pm departure from PDX is way, way later than almost any other reasonable departing option. The only alternative I see is PDX-ORD-CPH-CDG which doesn't get in till 5:50pm (i.e. no better than later SFO-FRA-CDG).
Given that, I would first try to SDC to the earlier PDX-SFO, or PDX-IAD/ORD-CDG (both of which have >90min connections and arrive earlier into CDG). If SDC isn't going to work, get to the airport early and try to standby for the earlier PDX-SFO. If that fails, stay at the airport, watch PDX-SFO like a hawk, wait till the inbound aircraft gets a delay (likely due to departure runway delays out of SFO) and then call in and try to get yourself moved to something that works (*A options aren't great, as discussed; OAL seems unlikely, but there are DL/AF/KL options that go at ~1:30pm).