Originally Posted by
jsloan
Delays work both ways -- it's entirely possible that your SFO-TPA flight will be delayed, allowing you to make the flight with ease.
I don't see any particular reason to book a hotel room in advance, though. So you get to SFO and you miss your flight -- it's unlikely that every hotel in the Bay Area is sold out.
Originally Posted by
ContinentalFan
Were I in your position, I wouldn’t worry: construction delays impact departures as well as arrivals. I’d also suggest you monitor the equipment performing the red eye: it could be delayed too. I’d like to have more than 55 minutes, but more often than not, things seem to work out.
Both of these, basically. Go with the flow and familiarize gates info and waypoint
Also nearly as important would be to track the aircraft for the inbound flight before SFO-TPA, as most aircraft spend little time on the ground. That inbound flight is likely to be in the air around the same time as your flight from YVR, which will give you some guidance and next steps closer to SFO.
For what it's worth, I made a 12 minute "connection" last month from AS gate in D concourse to UA gate in F concourse (high F gate - F22). Inexplicably, UA moved up the departure time by 10 minutes, which meant I lost 10 minutes + 15 minutes door closure time right away.
More realistic situation, last week, I had connected AS to AS at SFO, my flight to SFO got in an hour late (when SFO had just
ONE runway available for both landing and takeoffs for a few hours). The inbound aircraft for my connecting flight was also late by around the same time, so my connection time was still more or less the same.
Would not worry about accomodations, as there is not going to be a shortage of rooms under normal circumstances.