MillValleyMom

My teenage daughter will be traveling solo from SXM to JFK, connecting on to SFO. Both flights are on Jetblue, and it appears that they are both in T5. How convoluted is the immigration process there for a young traveler? She only has 1:42 between flights, but it is a legal connection. How realistic is this timing? I am going to plan on her not having to check any bags, but she is not Global Entry, so she will need to wait in the regular queue. Thanks for your help!

sbm12

Should be a piece of cake.

Get the Mobile Passport App for her and she can be through very quickly, even with a checked bag. At worst I'd expect 20 minutes at immigration/baggage claim and another 20 through TSA. That leaves an hour to grab a snack and get to the new gate. And even call or text you to say she made it.

MSYtoJFKagain

1:45 is plenty of time. She'll clear customs and reclear security with time to spare.

I'm assuming she's on the 8pm JFK->SFO flight. It's usually running 15-30 minutes late anyway.

Another idea would be to upgrade her to an EMS seat which gives her priority through security, just to be safe!

MillValleyMom

This is so helpful and such a relief. Many Thanks! She does have mobile passport, so that should help. Thanks again for both of your responses!

MSYtoJFKagain

Happy to help! I know my mom still makes me text her if I'm on a long run of flights to make sure I'm all right. I'm well over a decade past my teenage years.

sbm12

My parents finally gave up trying to keep track of where I am.

So did my wife.

MillValleyMom

Just to report back. This ended up being a terrible decision. The inbound flight went fine, and clearing customs wasn't an issue. The problem was that my daughter was on the last flight out for the night and JetBlue ended up canceling the flight after delaying it for 4+ hours. It was after 1:00am at this point when they finally disembarked the plane. The passengers who checked luggage were told that they must claim their bags and re-check them for the next flight. This meant that my daughter needed to leave the secured gate area to retrieve her luggage. When she tried to get back through security, she was told that the terminal was closed until 3:00am. Overall she did fine overnighting in JFK, but as a parent 3,000 miles away, I felt pretty helpless and wished I had planned her travel differently. JetBlue gave us $175 for our inconvenience. Um, thanks?

pWei

Was it a MX or WX?

IMO it had nothing to do with the booking.

MillValleyMom

Sorry, not sure what MX or WX means, but my mistake was putting her on the last flight out of JFK. I could have routed her differently through MIA, but the layover there was over 9 hours, so I chose the JFK route.

I just update this in case there are other parents out there looking to book travel for their solo kids. This was a painful mistake for us.

guv1976

MX = mechanical; WX = weather.

Depending on what credit card was used to pay for the trip, your daughter might have been entitled to stay in a hotel for the night (at no cost to you), instead of having to overnight in an airport terminal. Indeed, if the delay was JetBlue's fault, and not due to weather, JetBlue might have owed your daughter a free hotel room!

MSYtoJFKagain

Looks like WX. Friday was a pretty nasty travel day here with rolling delays in JFK.

Sorry that your daughter's travel didn't go as planned. That's a tough situation for a parent to be in.

klanfa

Really bad luck, as bad weather can hit anywhere...
Either way, if you reach out to JetBlue (Facebook maybe) and give them some details of the story, I think they'll give you some extra vouchers. JetBlue customer service is pretty good IME

tphuang

that's the problem with connections in JFK. Delays and cancels have become a thing of norm this year. Even worse than previous years.

Sallycat

Agreed. B6 handled this fine. Not sure why the calls for additional compensation are coming through?

octr202

It almost seems odd that they'd compensate travelers $175 for a weather delay!