Kensterfly

My experience on April 25. Flight was ZRH to EWR. We landed about 15 early at Terminal B. We had booked Econ Plus seats in the very front row and were off the plane just a few minutes after the door was open. There was virtually [I]no one[I] in the US citizen immigration lines. Many lines were open and we went straight to a desk without waiting in line at all.
I have Global Entry but my bride does not. In our case, GE couldn't have been any quicker.
We had just successfully completed a two week Rhine River Cruise with carry on bags (easy for me. A challenge for her) so we zipped through Customs without having to claim and recheck our bags. Hopped the AirTrain to Terminal C.

With Global Entry I have been 100% PreCheck for the past year. My bride is not GE. About a month before this trip I got her her own UA Mileage Plus membership and opted her in to PreCheck, never dreaming she would actually get it. Amazingly, she got PRE on both our outbound flight IAH to AMS as well as our return from EWR to IAH. No one in the PRE line but I got "randomized" for a gunpowder hand check. Took about ten seconds.

From the time we stepped off the plane a T-B until I was sipping a beer in the United club at Terminal C, about 25 minutes had elapsed.

Couldn't have been a better experience for us, though this might not be typical for EWR. Hopefully, they will be adding passport scanning kiosks at the arrival hall soon that will speed things up, though I guess that will pretty much render GE obsolete.

LY777

Hi,

my sister will fly CDG-LAX via EWR.
What is the minimum connection time at EWR?
I heard 90 min was too short.
Thanks

JOSECONLSCREW28

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...thread-31.html

bldr1k

Now that Newark has 1 runway closed it is quite a mess. Last week flying DEN-EWR we were 2 1/2 hours late and most people missed their international connection. The entire cause of the delay was air traffic control in Newark.

Kacee

UA also has a nonstop CDG-SFO. IMO that's a preferable connection.

LY777

they don't offer a connection at SFO

Kacee

Who is "they"? When I search united.com on random dates, CDG-SFO-LAX is the first option displayed.

Perhaps there is an availability issue on the dates you are looking at.

LY777

Yes, maybe, it is in August

SoFlyOn

Yes they do. Use the multiple destinations search on ual.com.

Example for Aug 17:
CDG-SFO UA990 Dep 10:05 AM Arr 1:00 PM
SFO-LAX UA842 Dep 3:15 PM Arr 4:46PM

If one of the other LA area airports are closer, you could also fly into them from SFO.

LY777

It is way more expansive to book via SFO

Kacee

Perhaps on the day you're looking. The overall fare structure CDG-LAX is the same regardless whether you connect through SFO or EWR.

In any event, it's not that big a deal in the big picture. While the SFO connection would be slightly preferable, I'm sure the EWR connection will work out fine so long as you leave a nice cushion for the connecting flight.

LY777

The layover is 3.5 hours. I guess it is fine?!

Kacee

Yes that should be stress free and leaves a little time to walk around and stretch legs before getting back on an airplane. Much better IMO than worrying for the entire flight how the lines will be at passport control and whether you're going to miss your connecting flight.

cfischer

BOS-YYZ-EWR-BOM ... yes, there was a reason for this
EWR connection time went from 47 minutes to 42 minutes after a schedule change. Am I reading this correctly that the min connect time is 40 minutes from prop plane to an intl connection? Should be a C --> C connection.
Of course I know this is going to be nuts and I have alternatives in mind (e.g. if YYZ-EWR is late ask for YYZ-ZRH-BOM which is all avail on UA codeshare; I am in C).

UA-NYC

Do you just want the extra PQM? If so, just switch to a BOS-EWR flight and get ORC after the fact.