nas6034

Adam Smith

EF shows TK connecting to anything in YUL has MCT of 2 hours.

I don't know whether that's related to TK's OTP, immigration issues typically experienced by TK's customers, or what.

nas6034

I was able to ticket with 1h15m connection time which seems unsafe connection time considering pre-clearing US immigration.. IST-YUL-US. IST-YUL leg on TK, YUL-US leg on AC.

RangerNS

If they sold it to you, they will take care of you.

Which US destination? Time of day?

Seat13F_AC_CRJ

And what passport are you travelling on? J or Y? Global entry? NEXUS?
--
13F

RatherBeInYOW

Not to mention that Intl - US at YUL (and YYZ for that matter) are pretty efficient. Depending not he time of day and whether you have GE, 75 mins should be doable. If it was me I'd want to understand if my AC YUL-US flight was the last one that day for whatever destination, if there were any other options if I missed it, etc. before I got too concerned.

yyz_atc_qq

When I entered TK inbound and AC outbound, I see 1hr for anything to the US since technically its an Intl-Intl choice.

Either way, if the airline sold it as 1 ticket, it should be their responsibility (unless the delay is at US CBP due to the OPs documents/status for entry)

nas6034

Flying J. US passport, not GE or Nexus. It's an evening arrival into YUL from IST. There is one more flight after mine to my final destination. If I end up missing connection does it become UA's, TK's or AC's responsibility?

After how much time has elapsed before it goes from airline's responsibility to CBP delay?

Adam Smith

Are we looking at different things? 60 minutes is the standard for offline, but there's an override for TK that pushes it to 2 hours. That shows up whether you search for I-I or I-D connections.

nas6034

yyz_atc_qq

We are looking at the same thing, and one time I look at it I agree with the TK pushing it to 2 hours, but then I look at it again (in a different frame of mind) and think.... no.... anything to the US is 1hr.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was booked by the airline as 1hr.

Either way.... if the airline booked it as a single ticket, it "should" be their responsibility to sort out if things go wrong.

As to how long of a CBP delay would turn it from the airlines responsibility to the passengers responsibility..... that I don't know.

Adam Smith

I think the TK-specific MCT overrides the generic Intl-US MCT. But airline systems aren't perfect in this regard - I had great frustration trying to get AC to book me CM flights through PTY a few years ago when their system kept seeing the generic MCT instead of the (shorter) CM-CM MCT. So I could easily see UA's system misreading the MCT as 1 hour instead of 2.

​​​​​​True, but I think OP's suggestion of calling UA to argue the connection is below MCT and ask to be re-booked on a direct flight is a good one. Worst case, a few minutes are wasted and OPs has to deal with the ticket as-is. Best case, the whole question is rendered moot and OP trades a connection for a non-stop.

eigenvector

You may be right, but I should highlight the risk that having been informed that they've inadvertently given OP an illegal connection, UA forces him to change it to an even less optimal itinerary. It's an award ticket, and if there's no award space on TK IST-EWR, and the existing itinerary is illegal, UA may force him on a worse routing on UA metal (probably just a later flight out of YUL) rather than buying revenue space on TK. In my experience, if there's an option to get you to your destination on UA metal (albeit with more connections), that's likely what you'll get.

There have been occurrences where UA has purchased revenue seats to accommodate award ticket holders in the past (notably when they abruptly made SFO-AKL seasonal), but it's generally only in extraordinary circumstances. The degree of accommodation will also likely depend on OP's status, if any, with UA.

Of course, all this is moot if IST-EWR has available award space for the desired date.

nas6034

nomadic.relief

Edit: never mind, my reading comprehension was off, I now see Adam Smith kindly provided the MCTs and there is an exception for non-AC-AC. Bugger.

Sorry to repurpose this thread, but I have the reverse - I wanted to book a reward with an AC-LX US-Int connection at YUL, but am being told it is impossible because it is 1 minute shy of the 90 min MCT. Is the MCT really 90 minutes?! According to the AC website US to intl at YUL should only have a 40 min MCT. Is it because the onward flight is with LX and they made up their own bogus time?! Or is this a matter of HUACA? I couldn't find a rule specific for LX - ironically if booked, this particular award would allow for a 40min connection in ZRH. The only other option to get me to YUL in time would be a redeye on a 320 to YYZ and connect from there to YUL, not terribly appealing.