Ok so I am going to Paris in Sept. And I found this itinerary. Basically I have 40 mins to catch the flight to Paris. Just wonder what happens if my plane got delayed. Will CO try to arrange another flight? Or I'll have to take the next available flight, which is the next day? Would they blame me for booking the flights with such a short layover? Any input would be really appreciated!!!

Depart:
12:13 p.m.
Sat., Sep. 15, 2007
San Jose, CA (SJC) Arrive:
6:00 p.m.
Sat., Sep. 15, 2007
Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) Flight Time:
3 hr 47 mn OnePass Miles/
Elite Qualification:
1,608 /100% Flight: CO160
Aircraft: Boeing 737-700
Fare Class: Economy (Q)
Meal: Snack
No Special Meal Offered.
Change Planes. Connect time in Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) is 40 mn.
Depart:
6:40 p.m.
Sat., Sep. 15, 2007
Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) Arrive:
11:05 a.m. +1 Day
Sun., Sep. 16, 2007
Paris, France (CDG) Flight Time:
9 hr 25 mn

Travel Time:
13 hr 52 mn OnePass Miles/
Elite Qualification:
5,026 /100%

Total Miles:
6,634 Flight: CO10
Aircraft: Boeing 777-200ER
Fare Class: Economy (Q)
Meal: Dinner

There is a flight from SJC at 8:35am. I would try to get onto that one. There are also earlier flights from SFO and OAK.

If you missed your scheduled 40 minute connection for weather or ATC reasons you would almost certainly need to wait until the next day to travel.

I would be very nervous on this schedule...I would, personally, take the earlier flight into Houston.

I would definitely find an itinerary with more wiggle room.

No way I'd risk that! Book earlier flight - out of SJC or SFO, whatever.

If your luck is anything like mine, we'd leave SJC 10 minutes late, it would take 10 minutes to get off the plane at IAH, you'd spend 10 minutes trying to figure out which terminal you're in and how to get to the other one and by the time you'd done all that the CDG flight will have closed.

Is this flight much cheaper than AF from SFO?

I do 30 minute connections all the time at IAH, but those are to places like SAT, AUS, MSY, EWR, etc with plenty of flights each day. I go from B to C/E too. When I�m traveling to place that only has 1 flight a day, (POS comes to mind) I give myself plenty of connection time. I�d pick a longer connection if I were you, just incase.

Unless you have a big need to transit IAH, I'd book AF to CDG. From SFO you get a 747, free booze, better food and no connection / wasted time. I plugged in some random dates and it looks like it's only about $300 more. To me, it's worth the $300 not to have to worry, but it depends on your pocketbook.

AF #31, departing IAH at 9:55 p.m., could be a contingency plan if things go south, but even though it is a SkyTeam partner flight, there are no guarantees that CO will accommodate you on it if you misconnect or that space will be available on the day of departure.

I echo the unanimous opinion that a 40 minute domestic-to-international connection to the last CO flight of the day to the destination is a perilous endeavor.

Thanks so much for all your input. I guess 40 mins from domestic to international is "mission critical", if not "mission impossible".
So I searched the web again, AA actually dropped the price for almost 400 today. 700 round trip from SJC to CDG.

The only thing is if I fly CO, I'll for sure get my Platinum this year. If I switched to AA... decision, decision, decision.

It is a no brainer. Take the earlier flight and fly CO.

Why take CO when you can reportedly save $400+ and avoid a very protracted four hour and 21 minute layover in Houston, the alternative to the too-short 40 minute connection?

With $400 more in the wallet/purse and half a year left, shynelong should easily be able to find flights to make up the remaining CO miles necessary to qualify for Platinum.

The connection is fine IF your first flight is on time. The problem is that there is ZERO margin for error if a glitch delays that flight.