Originally Posted by
threeoh
Technically they can close int'l flights at T-30, so that leaves you with 22 minutes assuming your door opens on time and you're the first passenger off. Throw in a small arrival delay / deboarding delay and you'll miss it...and then on the other side early arrival, small departure delay, or them holding the flight open till T-20 or T-15 and you'll make it no problem.
For me it (almost) never makes sense to have a guaranteed overnight hotel stay to avoid the chance that I'll miss a connection and MAYBE have to get a hotel room. But it really depends on how bad a 1-day arrival day would be for you, whether you need seats together with family, whether you have onward ground travel booked at destination, and your general risk tolerance
Where does the T-30 figure for potential flight close come from?
I went back and looked at a handful of my int'l boarding passes, and ex-US or to-US regardless, the time between "Boarding ends:" and "Flight departs:" is always 15 minutes.