jc3187

I have booked an AA award flight from Chicago to Halifax, NS via Philadelphia, departing ORD at 05:00 with a 2.5 hour layover in PHL however AA have cancelled the 05:00 flight and put me on the 07:00 flight meaning I now have a 41 minute layover in PHL.

I am concerned that the flight from ORD could be late (online stats indicate on-time performance is good) and that the short transfer at PHL means I personally make my connection, but my bags will not make the connection.

There is one flight from PHL to YHZ per day and over the last week, the 'shortest' delay has been 34 minutes so the on-time performance is poor. The fare is in Business/First Class.

Let's assume an on-time arrival into PHL, are my bags
a) likely to make the outbound flight? (unloaded and moved to the new plane in <41 minutes)
b) likely to be on the next flight 24 hours later if they miss?
c) able to be sent via AA to another airport (for example Boston where I am scheduled to be a few days later)
d) able to be kept at PHL for later collection.

I appreciate your advice and experience.

JJeffrey

When is your flight? If this was an AA schedule change in advance then you have the option of calling and asking for a better routing.

Do your homework in advance and ask specifically for the new flights. If there is only 1x daily PHL-YHZ, then you could ask for a ORD-PHL the night before just to be safe, although you would have to cover the hotel.

Otherwise, while 41 mins is certainly tight and leaves little room for error, but it's not impossible. If you were to make it but your bags didn't, they would most likely be out on the next day's PHL-YHZ flight.

jc3187

The flight is in September.

Entire journey is TUL -> ORD dep 19:16, overnight in ORD, then ORD -> YHZ journey as mentioned above. Leaving TUL earlier is not possible.

I'd chosen the 05:00 flight specifically to avoid the situation I find myself in. I can/will pack hand luggage expecting to be without my bags for 24/48 hours, just in case.

neo_781

In my experience bags transfer faster than people. They have processes on the ground to expedite your bags. On the AA app it shows your bag status so you can keep refreshing it (every minute) to see when your bag gets loaded on the second plane (it should also show unloaded on the first flight).

If your bag doesn't show up at your final destination then you would need to file a claim as soon as you land. At that point the default will be that AA will try to deliver it to your destination on the next flight but you could probably "negotiate" for them to keep it in PHL or send to a third location (but there are more experienced people than me to chime in on that part).

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I wouldn't do a 41 connection at PHL particularly if the flight to Canada goes out of Terminal F. My advise is go out of ORD the night before. Since you would have gotten up in the middle of the night for a 5AM flight hanging at the PHL airport that night for the flight to NS wouldn't be that much different. Just take the last flight out of ORD to minimize your waiting time.

JJeffrey

If you can't leave TUL any earlier than the evening the day before then there's not much you can do other than cross your fingers that you're on time and your bags make it.

If you could switch your schedule around to leave TUL a little earlier, you could ask for TUL-XXX-PHL on the first day, connecting to your PHL-YHZ flight the next day.

wrp96

If you could find anyway to stretch to a 6:22pm departure to DFW you could connect in DFW to get to PHL that night. Or even more creative, a 6:25pm departure to LAX with a redeye directly into PHL.

AA100k

dantheflyingman

41 minutes is a legal MCT in PHL (doesn't meet my SCT, but doable, even F -> A West). For what it's worth, I've found PHL to be one of the fastest AA hubs at baggage transfer. Your bags will definitely make it - you, maybe not.

I would do everything in my power to get to PHL the night before since there's only one flight to Halifax a day (also research UA/AC options, including out of EWR, to hold as alternatives day-of).

Exec_Plat

post flight numbers, we can check MCTs for you

JDiver

I agree. It’s generally more productive to include more, as opposed to incremental, data so helpful FTers can, if they choose to, use their extensive knowledge and tools like ExpertFlyer.

Good luck, OP.

aztimm

There's a 5:30am OKC-PHL, arrives at PHL @ 9:47am. You'd have 53 minutes to make the connection to YHZ.
According to Google maps, it is about 1:45 from Tulsa to OKC, but you'd avoid an extra connection. That alone seems worthwhile to me.

Back in the US days, we flew PHX-PHL-YHZ, but it was an evening departure from PHL (maybe there were 2?). That flight left from either A East or B, I think it was an EMB. The return flight was a CRJ and arrived at F (after a bit of drama, an emergency landing at BGR, and getting a new aircraft from there).

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Does the OP have a non refundable hotel at ORD? If the OP doesn't want to eat to that cost the OP can try his luck with a short connection. The good thing is that the first flight out is less likely to be delayed albeit even a modest delay would be problematic. OP's choices are limited and not particularly good. I'd probably just stick with the original routing.

etiene

Any likelihood of the early ORD-PHL being reinstated...? Might be worth waiting on the rebooking to see if other options arise [or the PHL-YHZ gets retimed]

wrp96

I'm guessing it was a casualty of the shifting schedules due to the MAX cancellations that have just been extended into September. I wouldn't expect the cut flights to come back if that's the case.