gregmchicago

I can't speak for MUC, but the one time they did this for me at CDG -- no. Our MAD-CDG flight had been delayed several hours by fog, and we were whisked directly to the CDG-IAH flight. Pity AF didn't provide the same service for our bags.

DJ Bitterbarn

I would have cynically assumed something along this vein, that the airlines do it purely because of the percentage of infrequent travellers who will always choose the shortest connections over logic.

Of my friends from home, I don't think a single one* will consider a longer connection on the basis of "it will cause fewer problems", or on any basis, actually. A group headed to central america on a holiday recently and I recall the discussion where I advised them that a <2h connection in ATL was possibly going to be an issue, especially when there was no backup flight they could catch to their destination so they'd need to spend the night. But no, they'd have none of that, because the alternative was to spend 8 hours in ATL (or fly AC, which they won't do because they believe AC to be the devil incarnate**) or potentially make another connection.

I wish this was one of those great "FT saves the day" stories, but they got lucky and made their connections... this time (they aren't always so lucky). But at least I learned a few things from it and now I've stopped giving connection advice, because nobody listens anyway and almost always puts themselves in a situation where bad things can happen (I see it happening already with another friend right now). Learning how to avoid these problems is just one of the parts of air travel where a very small bit of research will pay off in a big way, just like so many other things in life.

I just look at it as a bonus for people who are paying attention.


* Okay, one of them gets it, and she took to it like nobody's business.
** The old saying should go: "On AC, you're not happy until you can find a reason to not be happy"

tjl

The only time I chose a risky connection was a 1:15 or so hour connection in YYZ, arriving from the US, continuing to YUL. This was because there was a flight from YYZ to YUL every hour, so the misconnect penalty was relatively small (unlike some other hubs where the misconnect penalty was a minimum of 4 hours because that was when the next flight to YUL was).

I only barely made the connection. The inbound flight was about 20 minutes late. Canada immigration and customs was fairly quick (I had carry on only, so no need to collect and recheck baggage around customs). I did walk fairly quickly across the airport, but the security line was slow because most people seemed clueless about removing metal objects (e.g. belts with large buckles) before going through the detector.

Someone who had checked baggage or walked more slowly would have misconnected for sure (and would likely have been at risk even if the inbound flight was on time).

The Mileage Millionaire

I just got of the phone with DL about this very issue. THEY changed my partner's connection time in DTW from 1:11 to 0:39 and now they refuse to change him to the next flight out of DTW, unless he pays a $400+ fare difference and change fee. I'll let him call back and speak to (yell at?) a supervisor!

Anyway, I am so sick of Delta's crappy Diamond customer service. Best in class? Yeah, right.

galindes

Do you have any reference or study that you can share with us on this topic?

Thank you.

anat0l

Most people here are sage enough to build in reasonable MCTs; I agree the public sometimes blissfully have no idea what they're in for.

I can't believe some airlines would force you onto routings that don't give you some choice of connecting times. If only for the sake of being able to pick a better connecting time than textbook MCT, the connecting time of pax differs based on needs and circumstances. (For example, a single traveller with hand luggage only has a different connecting time expectation than a family of four carrying the kitchen sink.)

In Australia for us it's pretty clear cut (well, on QF anyway), which is 40 minutes for domestic to domestic (25 for regional airports) and at least 75 minutes for domestic to international or vv. Even some of these times can be a squeeze, as many alluded to due to delays, weather or like reasons (and for international to domestic connections, incoming Australian customs).

Perhaps there are some sadists out there that book with bare connecting times (i.e. textbook MCT) so that either they are bumped or they don't mind being bumped when they misconnect. Certainly not a lot of incentive to do that in Australia (you might just get a much worse seat than your original flight). It's amazing how some of the illogic we discuss here can be once again reduced down to the black arts of marketing (i.e. using thin MCTs to advertise an overall shorter flight).

Aviatrix

You're wrong - see my earlier post.

If you book a flight at klm.com, going from A to B via AMS, you are given a complete itinerary (i.e., A - AMS - B) with no option of booking A-AMS and AMS-B as two separate flights. That's just the way their booking tool works.

It used to be different - you used to be able to pick flights one by one - but they revamped their web site and now that facility has gone.

anat0l

Well, not so much that. Take QF for example.

You could use multi-city to pick say A-SYD then SYD-B flights, or you could just put A-B and you would get a set of different A-SYD-B routings (and maybe others). Most of the time, the A-SYD flight would be different times (i.e. flights), so your connecting time can be shorter or longer. You probably wouldn't get all of your options, but you more than likely would get a few. You mightn't get any options except for one, too, especially if A-SYD is a low frequency sector. The key is though you would select a set of A-SYD and SYD-B flights, not each one by one.

For example, I could book BNE-LAX and be given the option to go via SYD (BNE-LAX exists direct but who wants to do that?). From there, I'd likely get a few BNE-SYD options connecting mostly to the same SYD-LAX flight.

For most part on other airlines I've used, a similar system exists.

Cha-cha-cha

I wonder if the airlines have done cost-benefit studies showing whether the benefit from extra ticket sales due to higher listing (or obligatory purchase) of close connection itineraries is greater than the costs of handling the passengers and their baggage who miss those connections. Sorry, silly question.

On at least one occasion when a major European airline gave me a close connection, I expressed concern at check in to the airline staff member whether this would risk my baggage not getting transferred, and was assured there would be no problem. But my baggage didn't get transferred.

On another note, I can't understand the mind set of people who think that if an airline gives you an unreliably close connection, that's the passenger's problem. It's like saying, "You're foolish to expect the airline to keep its commitments."

africaflier

I apologize if this is the wrong thread for this. I am making an international reservation to go BOS---IAD, IAD---ACC in July. United has a variety of possible flight connections---the shortest is only 1 hour. Given that there is only one flight to Accra daily, it is foolish to cut it that short, right?

The other possibilities are a 4 hour layover at IAD (but on a United Express/trans states airline flight), or a 6 hour layover also at IAD, but on a larger A319. Is it worth an extra two hours to travel on the larger plane?

I will have access to the United lounge, but still, a fairly long wait. What would you do?

B747-437B

Nothing that can be easily referenced online but if you drop me a PM with your contact details perhaps I can email you some stuff from my work account when I get back from vacation next week.

chemist661

We were flying ATL-DEN-LAX on UA with about a 1 hr connection. This was back in 2004 when I was 1K on UA. The ATL-DEN flight got a very late start due to summer weather problems at ATL. At that time, there were 3 flights (DEN-LAX) in the 8 to 8:30 PM bank. (a 747, 757, 767 at the time) Nothing later in the evening. We missed the DEN-LAX flight and my friend was non status. UA did not offer to put us up but when I mentioned that 1K's got free hotel/meal vouchers for being 1K, they then ponied up. I offered to pay the extra person charge at the hotel but the hotel said no extra charge for my friend. ^

I try to build a decent connection time into my schedule but the connections become terrible when the airline changes the flights. Oh well, I have to try to change it back to a better connection.

Fornebufox

I just tried a hypothetical booking on KLM.com. The first search results had MCTs of 1h15-1h35, but when I clicked on "show all flights" at the bottom of the short list it listed more than twice as many flight combinations with connecting times of up to 7h30. It looks emminently possible to find a connection you're comfortable booking.

Unlike AA's "search by schedule" option, KLM also shows total price (fares plus taxes and fees) for each proposed one-way leg along with flight schedules. Very nice feature.

AllanJ

(May be repetitious as I didn't read the entire the\\read)

The short connection time can work\\be a loophole in favor of the traveler.

There might only be a super saver fare wiht the short connection and you book it anyway. If you miss the connection the airline still has to transport you and you get the later more expensive second flight at the earlier flight;'s low fare.

tjl

Of course, if the next later flight is full, the next available flight that you can get on after you misconnect may be a longer delay than you anticipated.