Minimum Connection violated at Heathrow (Disaster waiting to happen)
 

I redeemed miles for a saver ticket from MUC to EWR the other day connecting in LHR. I was happy to find availability and didn't look very closely at the connection time, but now am noticing I was given only 60 minutes to move from a LH flight (T1) to UA (T4). Heathrow's website lists the MCT at 90 minutes for T1 to T4, making this an illegal connection. Worst thing is the LHR-EWR flight departs at 6pm, and there aren't any *A flights later that night.

Would United be willing to work with me to change the flight without charging a fee? Otherwise, a misconnect seems inevitable, no? Checking saver award availability however shows there is nothing else left for that day between MUC and EWR/JFK/LGA (or the day immediately before or after).

When is your trip? I believe all the star alliance carriers are consolidating into one terminal in the near future at LHR.

1. When are your flights? LH and UA are both moving to T2, UA in June and LH in October.

2. Yes UA will make the change for free to fix an illegal connection.

I'm surprised there's nothing else available from MUC-LHR. LH runs quite a few flights per day. Alternative routings would include MUC-FRA-LHR or MUC-ZRH-LHR, plus connections through VIE (OS) and BRU (SN).

**-** II 1.30 TRM 1 - 4

UA should rebook you on another routing if saver space is available or all UA metal if not.

You may need to HUCA.

If a booked 016 ticket has an invalid MCT, UA will work with you {and no fee}. Working with you will be limited to UA operated flights if award inventory is not available on partners (which UA can not force them to open)

{double check flight date to verify this is before the consolidation to single *A terminal}

Yes, so if you want the nonstop, try to change it now before that happens. :D

The OP seems to be taking some responsibility for this. I wouldn't -- the computer is supposed to check MCTs and make sure they're valid, and not let you book something that's not valid. If it did, it's not the customer's fault, it's the person who programmed the computer (UA).

If you can convince an agent that the connection is not allowed, maybe they'll open space on MUC-EWR nonstop for you.

I have a flight coming up where a schedule change made a domestic connection illegal. The idiot back office schedule change gremlins reissued the ticket and did not catch it (SHARES doesn't validate these things like the old Apollo did). I'm holding that in my back pocket so I can retain refundability of that ticket or change to something else later.

CO's crappy systems and processes can work to your advantage.

Thanks for all the advice!

The flight is in late August, and the full routing is actually BUD-MUC-LHR-EWR (I only mentioned the MUC to EWR part because I thought that was all that would be relevant given that UA doesn't fly out of BUD and can't budge with partner availability).

There is an available BUD-MUC on LH at ~6am that would get me into MUC in time for UA's 9:30am MUC-EWR, but at that point, I'd rather just leave the day before. I can't see the agent would be THAT nice.

And there's nothing ex-BUD that can get you to LHR by 4 p.m.? That sounds really odd with all the potential LH Group routings (FRA, MUC, CGN, ZRH, BRU, VIE).

Indeed ;)

United is moving to Terminal 2 in early June (from T1 and T4). It is supposed to be a 10-min walk from Terminal 1 for the Star Alliance airlines still in Terminal 1 (some until October).

don't mean to hijack, but it just occurred to me reading this that i have a tight connection in europe coming up next week. EWR-ZRH-IST, from UA to LX with a 50 minute connection time.

i don't know what the MCT is in ZRH, but given my UA experiences at EWR as of the last couple of weeks, i'm pretty much completely assuming i'm going to be an hour late. anyone got any recommendations for me?

If it is a legal connection -- in other words, at or above the MCT -- and you misconnect, UA as the delivering carrier, will rebook you onwards.

Rebook on TK nonstop from JFK!

But seriously, you will be transferring non-Schengen to non-Schengen so there is a reasonable chance you'll make the connection.

1h is a valid connection time for this itinerary (between T1 and T2). OP's itinerary is valid as ticketed, although he might be able to find an agent to cut a deal.

How do you know 60 minutes will be OK for a T1/2 transfer -- has an MCT been published already? That detail is (understandably) not yet showing on Heathrow's connection guides...

Did I read somewhere that T2 was basically going to continue using the T1 remote gates? From the maps it looks like the two terminals are directly adjacent. So long as there's a connector, should be a very quick connection.