Tight Connection IAD
 

Hi All, I will be flying from YOW - LHR via IAD in May. After reading some horror stories with connections at IAD wanted some opinions. I'm pretty nervous about missing the flight and my luggage! I believe I will preclear US customs in YOW. I am also assuming that I will not have to collect my luggage when I get to IAD but not sure.

Flt UA7860 Depart YOW at 19:12, arrive IAD at 20:55
flt UA924 Depart IAD at 21:46

I believe the flight from YOW will arrive in concourse A and I will have to connect to my LHR flight in concourse C.

Thanks for your assistance,

Wayne

You are right - no luggage and you pre-clear customs. As for the terminal, it could be A, C or D (but you should prepare for A just in case).

You have just under an hour, as long as the flight is on time you're fine. It will be tight, but doable if you're not too late.

The shuttle trip from A to C takes only a few minutes. Heck, a walk from C to D might be longer.

I personally would not risk a 50 minute connection that late in the day if I really needed to make the LHR flight. While there is likely a later flight you might end up in a middle seat (of course, maybe you're already in a middle seat and you'll score a better one).

This is the last IAD-LHR flight. I would not risk this connection either.

If the UX flight is on time you will make the flight to London if it is late, there could be problems.

At least UA has the daytime IAD-LHR flight, departing about 12 hours later and still arriving in London on the same day as the original flight.

Thanks for your replies. Unfortunately, It will cost me too much $$ to make changes to my itinerary, so I think I'm going to risk it. I have an RBC Avion Visa so I'm fully covered with all sorts of travel insurance.

Also, the other good news is that for some reason, flight UA7860 from YOW - IAD has been arriving early (anywhere from 10 - 30 minutes) almost every day for the past couple of months with a couple of exceptions according to flightstats.

Really, the only thing I'm nervous about is my luggage!

will keep you posted on my adventure!

Wayne

Wayne - is that really you?!

In the U.S., you could standby for an earlier flight for free. Not sure if you can do that on UA from YOW.

You can research other late flights from IAD to Europe on UA and LH so that your're prepared in case of missing your flight. Good to kinow your options. I would also include flights leaving around the same time (in case they are delayed then they become options). But I don't think there will be many options with such a late departure time. Then on the next morning, you can connect from FRA (or whatever) to LHR.

is that correct? i thought some jerks like US did not allow that, necessarily. I have walked onto AA flights, but US told me they wanted money.

On UA, not on every carrier.

thanks for all your help. I just wanted some clarification, how do I get from concourse A to concourse C? Can i just walk inside the terminal? Or do I have to take some sort of shuttle? Also, do i have to go through security again?

Thanks again!!

W

At the end of Concourse A there is a short up escalator - At the top, to the right are people movers (buses) that go to the main terminal, to the left are the people movers that go over to C Terminal and D Terminal. They go over every 10 minutes or so. There is usually a crowd of people waiting for the bus to come in.

Nope. That is one of the airports that once you are in, you are in. :)