rtom

Many months ago I booked award travel for late June: DEN - BOS - LHR, with 90 minutes in BOS.

I randomly* checked the itinerary just now at united.com, and found out that that they have delayed the first leg (DEN-BOS), and the BOS-LHR leg is unchanged, so that the layover is now only 54 minutes. That's too tight for my comfort, and if memory serves that's too tight for UA's standards too (right?).

Since the trip is not much more than 2 months away now, I am guessing that there will not be many (any?) award seats available for that evening (June 28).

What would you guys suggest we say when talking to UA? We have no status, and we burned all UA miles booking these tickets.

Of course, one option would be to just go and see if we make the BOS-LHR flight, but I'm uncomfortable with that and it would not be a great way to start a long vacation.


*Never got any email from them!

HNLbasedFlyer

54 minutes is plenty of time.

Never call regarding award travel unless cancelling

myperks

Isn’t there a Denver to LHR flight? Call and ask to be put on the nonstop because of shortened connecting time unless there is a reason to fly through Boston.

rtom

Yes, @myperks, there is a direct DEN-LHR flight ... but we didn't book that one because it was 2X the cost in miles. (Or maybe they were not selling direct DEN-LHR flights back then ... that was before the UK dropped all their restrictions.)
I'm of course happy to try to get them to give us the direct flight, but since we have no status at all it seems like a long shot -- or am I wrong about our chances?

Kmxu

I would call and change to nonstops in a heart beat (or two). There are two nonstop DEN-LHR.
Just tell an agent that you are not comfortable with tighter connection. No additional miles will be collected. Good luck.

SAT Lawyer

54 minutes is a legal connection at BOS and shouldn’t be that risky. I’d be comfortable with that connection especially if I had a long vacation ahead.

That said, UA has two nonstops from DEN-LHR on June 28 and many single connection options including via EWR, IAD, ORD, and IAH with longer connecting times. It is possible for UA to open up award inventory on any of its own flights to cure a problem caused by a schedule change. Call UA, mention the schedule change and your discomfort with the shorter connecting time, and see if they will put you on one of the two nonstops or single connections elsewhere that afford more time to connect.

Alternatively, if a delay materializes at DEN on June 28, both of UA’s DEN-LHR nonstops depart after your DEN-BOS, so there are potential service recovery options.

rtom

You guys were right ... easy-peasy to call, and the agent agreed that 54 minutes was too short a connection, and we now have a nonstop outbound trip with no additional charge. Sometimes schedule changes are good! Main thing is to keep checking the reservation every so often, to see if anything changed.

WineCountryUA

Some thoughts (too late)

Is the BOS-LHR, UA the MCT is 40 minutes, if not UA the MCT is 1.00 hour

If an award ticket change drops you below the MCT, UA will open award space on it metal (DEN-LHR) at no extra mileage to you.

If the connection is a valid MCT, it becomes a bit of YMMV -- you can ask but you might get a no.

At BOS for a UA to UA connection it is like a domestic connection.
If the arriving flight is 20+ minutes late and you are in the back of the plane, that could be a problem as the UA flight is the last flight of the day BOS-LHR

The would be the talking point with UA for changing to DEN-LHR or an earlier DEN-BOS (7 hour layover in BOS)

Especially if a direct flight alternative exists

danielflyer

Great thing you called. United did the right thing. A 54 minute connection would probabaly be fine, but they can’t just put you on that direct flight after the fact if you miss your connection in Boston.

mduell

Beware term B doesn't have FIS, so if you do this the other way you'll want a long connection to schlep over from E.