airport with short MCTs
Oct 22, 2018, 11:09 am
#16
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UA keeps showing me a 37 minute domestic-international connection at IAH on a route I'm shopping right now, so I presume the MCT at IAH is 35 minutes or less. That seems crazy. Even if everything is on time, my inbound flight still would be on final approach while my outbound begins boarding. Accepting such a routing is asking for trouble. I'm glad I know to check connection times; I worry for people who don't and find themselves on such likely-to-fail itineraries.
Oct 22, 2018, 1:47 pm
#17
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UA keeps showing me a 37 minute domestic-international connection at IAH on a route I'm shopping right now, so I presume the MCT at IAH is 35 minutes or less. That seems crazy. Even if everything is on time, my inbound flight still would be on final approach while my outbound begins boarding. Accepting such a routing is asking for trouble. I'm glad I know to check connection times; I worry for people who don't and find themselves on such likely-to-fail itineraries.
You are right to be wary: even if much of the airport's schedule is running a little behind (especially the Barbie jets), they often still get the widebodies out on time.
Oct 22, 2018, 10:43 pm
#18
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Air Canada has a few airports with 15 or 20 minute MCTs on domestic-domestic connections. These include Saskatoon, Regina, St. John's, Charlottetown, and Quebec City. That said, I'm not sure how many of these ultra-short connections are actually possible because of flight availability.
Personally, I've never tried any of these, and don't plan to, especially in the winter when de-icing can easily add an hour to any flight time on a bad day. The shortest I'll go is 30-35 minutes on AC express to AC express, domestic-domestic, at YEG or YYC, and only in the warmer months were de-icing/snow isn't a factor.
https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ion-times.html
Personally, I've never tried any of these, and don't plan to, especially in the winter when de-icing can easily add an hour to any flight time on a bad day. The shortest I'll go is 30-35 minutes on AC express to AC express, domestic-domestic, at YEG or YYC, and only in the warmer months were de-icing/snow isn't a factor.
https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ion-times.html
Oct 22, 2018, 10:56 pm
#19
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Air Canada has a few airports with 15 or 20 minute MCTs on domestic-domestic connections. These include Saskatoon, Regina, St. John's, Charlottetown, and Quebec City. That said, I'm not sure how many of these ultra-short connections are actually possible because of flight availability.
Personally, I've never tried any of these, and don't plan to, especially in the winter when de-icing can easily add an hour to any flight time on a bad day. The shortest I'll go is 30-35 minutes on AC express to AC express, domestic-domestic, at YEG or YYC, and only in the warmer months were de-icing/snow isn't a factor.
https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ion-times.html
Personally, I've never tried any of these, and don't plan to, especially in the winter when de-icing can easily add an hour to any flight time on a bad day. The shortest I'll go is 30-35 minutes on AC express to AC express, domestic-domestic, at YEG or YYC, and only in the warmer months were de-icing/snow isn't a factor.
https://www.aircanada.com/ca/en/aco/...ion-times.html
Oct 22, 2018, 11:07 pm
#20
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An airport having short MCTs only matters if an airline has two flights that line up at that MCT and those two flights happen to start/end in the cities you want. I'm not convinced this is the best way to find fast journeys.
Oct 23, 2018, 2:08 pm
#21
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Indeed, and even choosing short connection times can backfire against the goal of fast journeys if the time is so short that it introduces material risk of mis-connecting. I look for ~60 minute connections (domestic to domestic) as the sweet spot for minimizing average overall travel time in light of the commonness of small delays.
Oct 23, 2018, 2:27 pm
#22
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Indeed, and even choosing short connection times can backfire against the goal of fast journeys if the time is so short that it introduces material risk of mis-connecting. I look for ~60 minute connections (domestic to domestic) as the sweet spot for minimizing average overall travel time in light of the commonness of small delays.
Oct 26, 2018, 8:51 am
#25
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Oct 26, 2018, 1:13 pm
#26
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I forget how long the actual connection was but it was quite short at YWG. I flew in I think from either YEG or YXE and deplaned and walked out the jetway and walked to the adjacent gate and immediately or almost immediately hopped on my flight to YYZ. I don't recall the date but it was a number of years ago.
Oct 26, 2018, 1:33 pm
#27
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I don't think OP has really flown through hubs and realised or experienced how critically important some padding in layover time is.
Short connections may work for you some days but they're also likely to strand you for a lot longer.
Since OP has SU affiliation, try conecting through ATL or CDG with a really-short MCT, the former especially in summer.
Short connections may work for you some days but they're also likely to strand you for a lot longer.
Since OP has SU affiliation, try conecting through ATL or CDG with a really-short MCT, the former especially in summer.
Oct 26, 2018, 8:39 pm
#28
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Oct 31, 2018, 12:16 pm
#29
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I just did a tight one today. 30 minutes at DCA, which is how they sold it. My connecting flight was boarding as I was getting off. Trouble was that I had to take the bus between the two AA concourses. I boarded about 20 minutes before departure.
Oct 31, 2018, 1:18 pm
#30
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DL --> DL at DTW / MSP is 30 min for domestic and 40 min for domestic to international.
I see OP is also based in HKG where efficient and accurate departure and arrival times are the norm. In the US, I would never take a MCT on a major carrier unless it was my only option.
DL often tries to sell me the same 38 minute nonsense through AT that was mentioned above, thankfully there are RDU - ATL flights virtually every hour so I just opt for the earlier RDU - ATL flight to have a more reasonable 1.5 hour connection.
I see OP is also based in HKG where efficient and accurate departure and arrival times are the norm. In the US, I would never take a MCT on a major carrier unless it was my only option.
DL often tries to sell me the same 38 minute nonsense through AT that was mentioned above, thankfully there are RDU - ATL flights virtually every hour so I just opt for the earlier RDU - ATL flight to have a more reasonable 1.5 hour connection.