I just booked a SkySaver coach award from Chicago (ORD) to Venice in Jun 2007. It is on Alitalia and has one connection through Milan. The TATL flight arrives MXP at 8:35am and the flight to VCE leaves at 9:50am giving us a 1:15 hr layover.

I have not done any significant international travel to make sound judgments regarding the scheduled connection time. I fear that the 1:15 hr layover is too short because I assume we have to pass through customs/immigration and that sort of thing. And if our flight from ORD arrives to MXP a tad late......

The next MXP-VCE flight is 2:35pm which means a 6 hr layover at MXP. I know a logical plan would be to keep the 9:50am flight to VCE and if we miss the connection, fly out on the 2:35pm flight. But there may be up to 4 of us on this trip (incl our 2 children) and the thought of successfully rebooking all 4 people worries me (can't leave anyone behind!).

My specific question to all of you: is the 1:15 hr connection time thru MXP is too tight? Should I bite the bullet and just rebook for the latter 2:35pm flight out of MXP (assuming an award seat is available)?