parkkibum

Hello,

I have a flight from LAX-SFO(layover)-JFK in AA flight(aa16) arriving at 7:37pm(terminal 8) in business class and checking 2 baggage.
Then I have TAP Portugal flight from JFK-LIS departing at 10pm(terminal 5) also in business class checking 2 baggage.
These will have to be booked as separate ticket.
I have TSA but my friend doesn't but I will be booking award flight for JFK-LIS using my lifemiles, will my friend get TSA as well?(when I book ticket(AA and United) under my name for my friend, that friend always got TSA)
or will we get some kind of fast track since we will be flying in business?

If I had no baggage, i think 2.5 hr would be plenty but because i have 2 checked baggage, i'm concerned if i should take other flights.

Thank you!

ijgordon

You don’t have 2.5 hours, you probably have to have your bags checked with TAP by 1 hour before departure, maybe more (check with them). If the AA flight is on time, that’s still enough, although AA will probably take 30-45 minutes to deliver your bags at T8. I can’t imagine T5 security is all that busy around 9pm (and pre-check may even be closed then), but then again, I think making the check in cutoff will be the gating item. If you do that you should be fine.
So it comes down to tolerance for a delay on AA and you don’t have a ton of wiggle room. What time of year is this? Certain times are more prone to weather delays into JFK. June-August would be quite risky. And winter of course too.
And the last thing to consider is what is the cost of missing the TAP flight? Will they rebook you the next day for free or a modest change fee, or will you have to buy a new walk up ticket? That would certainly factor into my risk tolerance assessment.

UKtravelbear

TAP check in formalities close 60 minutes before departure and from my experience of them at BOS they enforce it as the staff either move into their next airline job or go and run the gate for departure.


So you are down to just over 1 hr 20 mins to de board from AA, get your bags and make the terminal switch. Of course your flight might be early giving a greater cushion but it could as well be late.

For info the TSA website says the pre lane at T5 closes at 9pm


I’d be looking to try and arrive earlier into JFK.

parkkibum

it will be in August before Labor Day weekend so it will be summer vacation season. Thanks for the tip. i would have to find other flights.

parkkibum

Thank you for the tip, i will have to find other dates to fly.

ijgordon

Yes, I agree. The risk of a misconnection is relatively high. Probably 20-30% chance. If I was making a domestic US connection on a US airline with a "flat tire" policy, I'd accept that risk, but not in this situation.

Often1

Given that if you no show for your onwards ticket, you may well (and likely will) be stuck purchasing a new ticket to LIS and likely being stuck for a day at JFK, simply moving your LAX departure earlier makes all the sense in the world. You will have lounge access as a J passenger, so it should not be a hardship either.

A318neo

More likely than not, the original plan will work. Another poster above says 20-30% chance of failure which is the same as 70-80% chance of success. It's also possible to buy travel insurance, which might be the cheapest solution if the alternative flight to JFK is more expensive.

It all has to do with risk. Will missing the flight mean death, loss of a job, loss of a lot of money? Or will life be only temporarily and slightly inconvenienced? Also consider if one can not check in bags or check in bags with clothes that one can do without for a day or two.

UKtravelbear

Insurance is not the panacea many on these boards think it is. It very much depends on the policy and their wording re separate trips and time periods that they will and won't cover.

Recalling my (UK based) policy it will not cover me for separate tickets like this unless there is more than 6 hours between scheduled arrival and departure.

I am not saying people shouldn't have insurance but that they should be aware of what the policy actually coveres and what exclusions there are before buying so they can be sure it meets their needs. I am aware that the US market is different from say the UK market but it still comes down to what an individual policy covers and what the fee is.

ijgordon

Yes, you can't just assume insurance will cover it. You have to read the fine print. You also may have to contact them to rebook you to your final destination and you may not have any control over the airline, routing, or even class of service. Caveat Emptor!

RooseveltL

Hold on. Doesn't AA have interline baggage with TP? So couldn't OP simply check bags from SFO onwards to flight. This would make your connection a simple, get off the plane, transfer to Terminal. Check-In (verify they see baggage tag) and you are done? Your risk in this equation is the delay from SFO to JFK or well JFK. As long as baggage transfer I would argue the chance of misconnection here is directly the on-time arrival % of your flight from SFO-JFK on AA. As the flight is summer schedule it isn't posted yet but consider an morning departure from SFO unless fog or mechanical probably high % of success as can't keep a SFO-JFK circling too long or delayed landing.

ijgordon

AA won't through-check bags on separate tickets even if both flights are on AA, so the chances of them doing it on an AA-TP connection are less than zero!
https://saleslink.aa.com/en-US/docum...te_Tickets.pdf

AA and one-world in general are pretty draconian about through-checking baggage. DL/Skyteam is much better. Not sure about Star.