uluvbs

I'm booked from JFK->MIA, connecting onto EZE. Considering I'm on AA for both flights, should 1 hour be enough time to make it or is it way too risky? What do you think the odds are AA would hold the connecting flight a bit if there are several passengers affected by delays?

Thank you.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

If you can I would try to go beyond an hour, however, some of that would depend on what time your JFK/MIA flight leaves. JFK at peak times can be a reach b....h to get out of. MIA is notorious for having a/c waiting for a gate to open and it can be a hike between terminals if for example you arrive at Term E but go out of Term A. I would tend to think that AA would only hold the EZE flight if it were a fair number of paxs and the delay was not too long (I have been on MIA flights that they have held for 20-30 minutes waiting for International connections.) Suggest you go to aa.com and see what your options would be for a possible longer connection and/or if you missed your initial EZE flight.

MIKESILV

An AA to AA connection can be easily made in 60 minutes if your incoming flight is on time, if its late then ... well it depends how late and your connection time right?

If before mid to late Nov the worse case scenario would be a 20 min walk from the extremities of the AA system. If after the above period when AA will only be using concourses E and D it will be a 5-10 min walk.

mike

West Coast Ace

Your odds - very good. Very routine occurence in int'l flights to have the FAs announce that they aren't closing the door because a few more passengers are on the way. AA would only be bringing grief to themselves if they knew you were in the system (boarded the 1st leg) and didn't hold the EZE leg for you and others. They can easily make up 30-45 minutes in air on such a long 2nd leg. Having said that, if I were you and there was any delay in pushing back in JFK I'd be alerting one of the FAs to make sure they called ahead. And maybe ask the rest of the passengers to stay in their seats upon landing so you can get off and head to the gate in MIA.

USAFAN

I guess those are your flights:

JFK 6.45p MIA 10.20p 3h 35m AA 2111 AB6

MIA 11.20p EZE 8.55a +1 8h 35m AA 0943 777


One hour is no problem. However, I arrived recently JFK-MIA on Airbus A300. We had a crew from hell...all Spanglish and unfriendly. Biggest problem came at MIA:

-captain missed the bridge by some feet ... plane had to be pulled back
-next, the exit door didn't open for another 20 min.... total 30+ min ... o-happy-day!

I wonder, why didn't you take this flight?:

JFK 10.10p EZE 10.05a +1 10h 55m AA 0955 763

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

If you are taking the 645PM out of JFK, NO WAY. International flights push back at that time and you can easily be on the ground for 60-90 minutes. Can't tell you the number of times I have taken this flight and the pilot has come on the intercom and said there were well beyond 50 a/c ahead of us and he/she had no idea of how long it might take before we got near the runway. And if you push back a litte late forget about it, it gets even worse. AA might hold the EZE flight but I would not count on it. Again, as this poster indicated why not take the 1010 out of JFK. If not, suggest taking the afternoon flight to MIA. Yes, you will be sitting bored in MIA but better than sleeping in the MIA airport for the night. If you do not have lounge membership, get a good book and some music on your Ipod and head for a quite area towards the far end of Term D.

dstan

One approach is to review flight history on FlightAware (free membership) and/or FlightStats, so you can get a sense of how much padding there is in the published arr/dep times vs actual flight time and also of historical on-time performance.

AA2111 FlightAware
AA2111 FlightStats

AA943 FlightAware
AA943 FlightStats

I did this last Aug for a barely legal JFK-LAX-SYD connection. It was comforting to know that, 1) even pulling back from the gate at JFK an hour late, we had plenty of time, and 2) the SYD leg often leaves much later than the published time, presumably waiting for connecting pax. Note that on FlightAware, a good shortcut is to enter, for example, "AAL2111" in the Flight/Tail# box rather than going thru the flaky java menus.

FWAAA

You are correct. The problem isn't the connection at MIA, it's the fact that the flight may be an hour or more late leaving JFK.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Basically, AA budgets an extra 30-35 minutes for this flight. That is at best is when all of the "airport and airline" gods have come through. In other words, rarely arriving at MIA at 1020PM.

dstan

The FlightAware stats for AAL2111 suggest they are budgeting more like 1 hr extra. Relevant to the OP, a quick rough count showed 16 out of the last 26 flights arriving at or before 10:20pm with 21/26 arriving before 11pm. Meanwhile, AAL943 has seldom departed before 11:40pm. Odds aren't perfect, but perhaps not as bleak as some would suggest.

Mr MCO

My last international flight from miami was to Madrid. I had 1:15 min connection. My flight was 1:10 min late. They held the Madrid flight as there were 14 of us on my first leg. They even changed the gate for us to be able to make it on the connecting flight. My bags made it to my hotel 33 hours after my arrival. AA compensation... $25.

I would play it save and have a longer connection. It is not worth the hazzard. This is specially true with Miami layout. It could take 20 - 30 min from one gate to the other depending on the terminals.

uluvbs

Hi, all. Thanks for the info.
#1 - I would *much* rather be on the nonstop from JFK, but I would have to pony up 55,000 additional miles, which I don't really want to do, or wait until a Mile Saaver seat opens, which is highly unlikely. ;-(
#2 - Flight 2111 didn't leave JFK tonight until 9:21PM (!), but it looks like AA held the MIA->EZE flight for it. It seems likes AA is booking a lot of connecting pax thru NYC to EZE for that flight, so my sense is they will prob hold the flight in almost all cases.

kanebear

I'd get down there early. If JFK is going to be problematic, it's going to be in the evening, not earlier on. Also, the arrival is when MIA is at it's peak as well. You have quite a lot of risk at BOTH ends. While AA may hold the flight for JFK pax, you can't rely on that. What if there's only 2 pax and you're one? AA may make the call to go on time or may decide they can't wait any longer.

I wouldn't spend the extra 55k miles. If you don't have another choice, book the connection. Otherwise, book so that you get into MIA earlier. Either way, start watching reward inventory like a hawk. Check as often as you can. Unless it's totally sold out, something should open up as you get closer. Seats get released as late as just prior to departure. If nothing else you can always ask at check-in at JFK if they can route you on the n/s. I'm batting 50/50 for such requests.

USAFAN

I was not aware regarding the situation in JFK ... but found this article
http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=10600

I have flown twice "MIA 11.20p EZE 8.55a +1 8h 35m AA 0943 777" and the flight was punctual. I don't know, if there was no need to wait for late pax or not.

If possible, I would fly earlier like kanebear suggested.

BTW, I used to get a hotel voucher, when I missed the connection flight, due to the airline (not weather or so). Is this not true anymore?

muddy

My suggestion is to always book your connection times as short as the airline will allow. If you fly a lot, the extra time you avoid hanging out in airports will make up for the occasional missed connection ... just don't let it stress you. I have very rarely missed connections and when it does happen it is even rarer that an additional hour over the connection time would have made any difference anyhow.