JenniP

The _Banking_Scot

Hi JenniP,

Welcome to flyertalk and the BA foum!

1.5 hours should still be doable assuming the plane lands roughly time,

There should be a bag drop off point after customs (you do not have to go to the standard check in desks) then reclear security.
DFW has a skytrain that links all the terminals airside so you can get to a faraway terminal in a few minutes so I would check after security which gate your connecting flight is from.

As you are on one ticket BA/AA will protect you.

Regards

TBS

Andriyko

This connection is within the MCT for DFW (Intl to Domestic), That said, this connection seems to be uncomfortably short to me. I'd call BA and ask them to move you to BA6576 that departs at 6:59pm (they will do it).

If you stick with the original flight and miss your connection AA will re-book you, however, you are very unlikely to get business class seats as by that time AA will have filled the front cabin with complimentary upgrades.

Bcla

I wouldn't be comfortable with that connection. I have been in line at customs for at least an hour before. And you have to go through immigration and luggage pick up before that.

rowsign

MarkedMan

These sorts of upgrades are processed 30 minutes before departure, as boarding starts, so there is less of a risk than one might imagine: if a flight is looking dodgy for a connection you would usually be protected and they would block a J seat if available. The real risk is that the cabin sells out, which can happen. You're flying on a Thursday afternoon/evening, which is peak consultant-going-home travel time and F cabins can sell out. All things considered I would expect one or two seats to be available still on the later flight, but if you're more comfortable just ask for a change, they will do it in this sort of situation as others have said. I do second the idea of looking for a longer flight on Intl Biz, you will miss a meal on the connection, but you won't be missing much. The second meal in CW on a SEA, SFO or LAX would be nicer these days, IMO. I would have looked at SJC save for the 787 issues leading to that flight getting canceled from time to time.

Best of luck

Often1

First, do confirm that you are on a single ticket. Check the e-ticket, not PNR to be certain that it is one e-ticket number.

That onwards flight is a codeshare. It operates as AA 2528, currently performed by a 321 with 2-class F/Y service, including 16 F seats. As an inbound CW passenger, OP will be seated in the F cabin.

There are two later services to PDX, but F does tend to fill up, albeit not with "free" UG's.

If you can get BA to make the change now, I would do so, either with an earlier xLHR or later xDFW.

However, if you are stuck with this connection, bear in mind that although you will have to drop your bags post CBP at DFW, you will not need to recheck them if they have been tagged at LHR to PDX. The difference is far from semantic as rechecking means standing at a special counter. Dropping means quite literally dropping and moving on.

T8191

Hi, JenniP. I’ve recently had some re-timing with a mixed AA > BA connection at DUB that was then looking unfeasibly tight. BA were content to change us to a later flight out of DUB for no charge ... even though this was on separate bookings.

Call them. I’m sure they will be sympathetic, and move you to the AA with the original departure time.

Do please report back on how it goes.

Andriyko

Not according to AA's T&Cs. It is not unusual for a disrupted F/J class passenger to travel in economy.

clarkeysntfc

This.

Our trip to TPA in December underwent a number of schedule changes, and when I called BA I was effectively offered carte blanche to name my desired routing. Originally booked LHR-ORD-TPA due to UuA availability to CW, and actually ended up with LHR-MIA-TPA.

BA are pretty flexible on this stuff in my experience.

MarkedMan

Fair enough, let's be more precise, AA will not sell out a cabin on upgrades. The way sticker/EXP complimentary upgrades work on AA is that there is a booking class which is opened for upgrades to clear into, and that booking class is typically not available once you have one or two seats only left in an F cabin; they might upgrade into them for a short LAX-SAN, but they will not on a sellable route.They will release final seats at boarding. Cabins do show up full, but when that happens it is typically because the seats were "sold" - as happens quite a bit on SFO-MIA for example.

On the AA forum there are always a great deal many complaints of upgrades not clearing early/at the window/per the Ts&Cs. Just because AA will potentially start clearing EXPs five days ahead of a flight, doesn't mean it is guaranteed - it will happen if space is available in the upgrade bucket; also note that the bucket for complimentary upgrades is different from the one for "paid" upgrades and different again for redemptions, so AA rev mgmt can in fact exercise a great deal of control about who goes up to the front. On premium transcons at peak times like Thursday evening, for Y->J upgrades the trend has been in recent years of EXPs clearing night before flights, the rest go to the gate. If the flight is very busy, no upgrades will be processed ahead of boarding, an all too common occurrence these days.

That said, yes, AA won't usually leave half a cabin empty, esp. with a 12 or 16 seat F cabin; more like a couple of seats at most. With any sort of meaningful disruption and without serious AA status the chances of going coach on a last minute rebooking are decent. Still in five years as EXP with lots of flying through disrupted areas like the north east in winter etc etc, it never happened to me even close, not a scenario you are guaranteed to come across as a frequent flyer.

Andriyko

MarkedMan, I did not really want to start a debate about how AA fills its premium cabins. All I wanted to say is that one should take into consideration the fact that AA does fill empty seats in domestic premium cabins with complimentary upgrades (and the 'filling' often happens a few hours before the flight) when thinking whether risking a short connection is worth it. So even when it looks like the later flight has empty seats in first class, it does not mean that those seats will be given to the disrupted passenger as there may be none left by the time the passenger is disrupted and reaches an agent to sort it out. Whether it is a highly likely scenario is not important here - I'd try to avoid that risk if travelling in the booked cabin was of importance.

JenniP

Thanks to you all for your advice, I talked it over with my other half and they agreed 1.5 hours is a little tight. So got on to BA and they changed us on to BA6576, even the very nice agent at the end of the phone said it was doable but she would not have been comfortable with it either.

In the end the risk of a downgrade if we did miss the connection was the deciding point, I don't really fit well into economy seats So now our plan is arrive stretch our legs and hit a lounge for a couple of hours.

Often1

I think that the issue is your use of the term "complimentary". On a flight exceeding 500 miles, AA would only offer what amounts to a complimentary UG to CK, EXP and PP. Plat and Gold would need to pay for their UG's, albeit at a reduced rate. You may be thinking of UA and DL which do offer free UG's to all of their own elites.

But, to be fair, this is not ultimately significantly different than the BA scheme which sells cheap(ish) UG's and a last minute reroute in IRROPS might well wind up with having to choose between a premium cabin and a quicker departure.

Gshumway

Almost any AA flight I have been on in the last 5 years, with the exception of very early Sunday domestic flights, flights under 500 miles (IND-ORD) or flights to Canada/Mexico/Caribbean have had the front seats all filled. There was like one exception, where a connecting passenger missed the flight and AA person actually asked the person next to me to move, leaving the open seat next to me (think CK treatment).

That has been my experience at least.