Originally Posted by
MELso
Thanks for this. I am in the same boat as flyer8989. Managed to fluke a SYD-SFO award flight on Boxing Day on UA (booked through VA), but needing to fly on to MIA arriving by midday on 27/12. Have booked the direct UA SFO-MIA at 8.33AM on a separate refundable ticket, which is a very tight 93 minute connection. Am hoping to get bags checked through (so as to avoid additional baggage fees and hasten getting to the gate on time), but fortunately there are plenty of other options to get to MIA - I just have to hope there's space available on them!
The Minimum Connection Time at SFO for a UA-UA international to domestic ticket is 1h20m. You're at a mere 13 minutes more than that -- you're gambling on absolutely
everything going right. (You're also expecting UA to keep its schedule consistent for the next 10 months, which is… possible, I guess).
Checking your bags through won't make much of a difference. As SFO is your first point of entry to the US, you are required to collect and re-check your bags at SFO anyway. All you're really doing is avoiding the line of any other people who need to speak to a re-check agent, and/or avoiding dragging them back to the main check-in desk. And you're still going to have go through security before you can get onto your MIA flight.
Although the US doesn't celebrate Boxing Day, the day after Christmas is still a relatively busy travel day. The chances of being able to take an alternate flight if you miss your connection aren't great, especially if there has been bad weather at one of the other hubs.
Do you have status on UA? Global Entry / PreCheck? Anything to help you through the line faster?
Personally, I'd probably go ahead and change flights now. I'd much rather be confirmed on a later flight, standing by for an earlier one because I unexpectedly got through early, than racing to an earlier flight knowing that I have to rely on standby if I miss it..