Do note it's really best to make a reservation. The last few times I've tried to do a walk in at the CLT Minute Suites they haven't had any open rooms.

Enough time?
 

It looks as if you will be connecting in Charlotte and this is the thread to look at: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...ction-etc.html. You should go through US immigration, customs and security in Dublin so you are making a "domestic" connection in Charlotte and 55 minutes is allowed however it will be a bit short. If you are lucky the flight from Dublin will be early.

Oops! Didn't notice which thread the OP was in.
Also, welcome to FT Ruud2007. I hope that you find it useful and a good way to learn more about air travel and other things.

Dublin is a pre-clearance airport for US arrivals, so you go through immigration and customs formalities in Ireland and the flight is treated as a domestic arrival. So since there is a common airside area at Charlotte, you don't have to go through further security screening as part of your connection there, and 55 minutes is generally not ideal because some random event could always happen, but in most cases/normal circumstances is very doable and will give you enough time for a brief toilet and snack stop on the way to your next flight.

MADPhil thank you for welcome me and thanks for your reply. It reassured me. We are going on holiday in July. And I hope all goes well. I will let you know. Kind regards, ruud2007

Beachmouse also thank you for your reply. I really appreciate it! We are going in Juli. I wil let you know if everything went well . Kind regards, ruud2007

Short D to I connection at CLT
 

Back in January I booked 3 business Saver awards to fly PHL-CLT-FCO in July. Due to recent schedule changes my relatively short connection in CLT became even shorter (56 min). It looks like it’s still valid and does not violate MCT.

We have to be in Rome on the scheduled arrival date, but I worry that we may miss the second flight even with slight delay on the first segment. Flightaware shows average delay 10-20 mins for PHL-CLT leg. When checking award space, there is no Saver availability on either earlier flights to CLT that day or on direct flight PHL-FCO.

I haven’t call AA yet but just wanted to ask experts here if there are any good options left for me at this point other than hope that my PHL-CLT flight will be on time. My main priority is to get to Rome on the scheduled date; the next priority would be to keep J seats.

That sounds like a decent enough connection time for CLT. You'll basically just be going gate to gate (no time for lounges if you're applicable) if things are on time. The bigger issue is if your CLT-FCO flight will even depart on time. AA MTC issues are increasingly getting worse with many hour delays for flights or cancellations (I'd suggest you follow that thread and watch CLT-FCO like a hawk).

You should be fine, here's my thoughts.

What time of day is your PHL-CLT? What time of departure is the direct PHL-FCO?

If your PHL departure is early morning then I'm more comfortable; later in the day your flight could succumb to a cascading delay.

If PHL-FCO departs after PHL-CLT, then if PHL-CLT is delayed while you're in the airport you can ask to be rebooked on PHL-FCO. You might have to tough it out in Main Cabin, however.

I tend to prefer longer connection times when connecting to an international flight just because of potential delays so if I were you I would call AA just to see if they would be willing to move you. However, even though I'd be stressed with that 56 minute layover I would not really consider it tight at CLT and the phone agents probably will not think it is tight either. If you have just a 10-20 minute delay you would likely be fine but I can absolutely understand why you would want to give yourself a much larger cushion of time for possible delays. If you call AA and they will not move you to an earlier flight to CLT then I'd recommend signing up for a month of Expert Flyer (if you don't already have it) so that you can set alerts for both of the earlier PHL-CLT flights and the direct PHL-FCO flight. Have you already checked the economy saver space for the PHL-CLT flight? Economy saver award space on that route does not seem to be that hard to come by so I would not be surprised to see space open up if it isn't already available. For that shorter flight I would definitely be willing to give up business seats to get the longer layover.

I concur. Last year, I had a PHL-ORD-CDG itinerary (saver Biz) on Dec 31. Schedule change meant my 3 hour connection was down to an uncomfortable (but legal) 60-odd minutes (can't remember the exact number). I did not feel comfortable with such a short time in ORD in late Dec. Called AA, they said, the connection was legal and "it will be fine." Set up an EF alert and switched to the direct PHL-CDG once it opened up.

If you have to be in Rome that day in order to board a cruise, 100% change your PHL flight.

56 minutes is fine for a CLT connection, so don't worry about that. The risk is if there is a delay of any kind on the inbound, you will likely misconnect and it's likely that any later flight you will be rebooked onto, e.g. the 19:05 via LHR or more likely 22:05 via LHR, means that you will arrive 4-5 hours late in FCO and that presumes space on those flights.

This is within MCT, but well below SCT (Sensible Connection Time) for a connection to a once-daily international flight where you must be there the next day.

I would call AA and ask to be moved to one of the earlier PHL-CLT flight. AA can be quite flexible, particularly if you are not in a position to run between gates. If you can't get the change, you just have to keep your fingers crossed, have the later LHR connections in mind for an agent and make sure you have the first 3-4 days of clothes in your carry-on although AA is very good about swapping checked luggage.

Remember that there are often last minute delays. If you arrive late at CLT, you should still go to the gate unless the flight has actually departed. If it has, find the LHR gate and head there.

Finally, all depending on what the commitment is in Rome the next day, there is absolutely no way I would arrive on the day of that commitment if it is important. Consider the day before, particularly if there is space.