Help With Flights at Laguardia
 

New here so I apologize if I am in the wrong forum. If this is not the right place, can you direct me where to post these questions? I am Flying out of LaGuardia on Feb 25 at 2pm exactly to Madrid on Delta. The flight has a stopover in Atlanta. I am planning on flying into Laguardia from Houston on the morning of the 25th on Southwest and landing at 10:45am. I am curious if I have enough time to easily get my bags and take the shuttle to the Delta terminal and check in? I have never flown out of Laguardia and have never been to Europe. Also, is there too much of a risk that my Southwest flight get sdelayed that morning and I should just go in the night of the 24th? Thank you in advance. Thank you.

jkacal Welcome to FT

HOU-LGA xxxx 10:45 On Southwest
LGA-ATL-MAD 14:00-xxx-xxx (On DL)
So you have 3:15 to transfer. All about your level of risk tolerance. Weather, delays etc
By putting the Southwest flight number in google some sites will give information on the average delay
Personally before a long haul (expensive?) flight I would go to NYC the night before

Route is a little unusual--> Great Circle Mapper
Why did you not fly from ATL to MAD, not going up north to New York?

There is plenty of time to transfer between your two separate tickets at LGA. But, if there are delays (weather, mechanical, or whatever) on your WN flight and you do not make it to your DL flight, DL will cancel your ticket to MAD (and the return to the US if there is one) and you will need to purchase new tickets at walk up prices. As above, I would always allow an overnight between separate tickets. But, it is purely a matter of your risk tolerance.

Have you considered flying IAH-MAD? Flying HOU-LGA-ATL-MAD seems to be roundabout.

OP does not have 3 hrs 15 to transfer. They have that less the check in deadline for bag drop for for their LGA-ATL DL flight. So they should check that out.

Not saying it it will make much a difference but it's something to take in to account so they have a realistic idea about much time they have.

I think the biggest risk is a snow storm in NYC, in which case good chance the LGA-ATL flight is delayed. Or a mechanical issue with WN. Morning flights are more likely to be on time.
If there is a big weather issue anticipated (and a weather waiver issued for NYC), I'd try to get straight from HOU to ATL and have DL change your itinerary, if there's a big storm I'm sure they'll be happy to free up space on a LGA-ATL flight.

But the OP does have 2.5 hours to make it to DL check-in for T-45m, including time for WN baggage delivery. Assuming 30 minutes for that, and conservatively 30 minutes for the purple shuttle from Terminal B to D or C (it should only be a 5-10 minute ride and they run every 8-10 minutes), and maybe 15 minutes potential waiting time in the check-in line, there's still ~75 minutes of flex for a delay. Outside of a major storm or serious mechanical delay on WN, that's a healthy cushion. If the OP misses the DL flight, they may be willing to put him on a nonstop JFK-MAD later that evening subject to availability.

Echoing what others have already said, it depends on how much of a gambler you are. But arriving the same day is in my opinion a horrible idea.

Count me in the group who'd love to hear why you're considering/doing this baroque routing rather than just going from Houston on one ticket without all the stops.