jsloan

You will not need to go through customs (you do that at YYZ), nor will you go to baggage claim. However, there's no guarantee that it will be a "short walk" from one gate to another. UA operates out of three terminals at IAD (A, C, and D). You're likely to arrive at terminal A, since that's used by most of the regional jets. You'll likely depart from terminal C. That means you would have needed to take a train or ride the "moon buggy" from terminal A to terminal C. It can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes, depending upon which C gate you get. BTW -- UA reserves the right to declare you a no-show and give away your seat 30 minutes before an international departure.

Yesterday, you would have been fine -- the YYZ-IAD flight arrived 15 minutes early. Today, you would have been stuck at IAD, because the YYZ-IAD flight arrived an hour and 12 minutes late.

This is a very risky connection. When connecting to a once-a-day flight like IAD-NRT, I try to give myself approximately two hours to make the connection. I would only consider a sub-one-hour connection if I had a couple of backup plans ready to go.

chermorg

The online booking system allowing it merely means that the airline(s) are willing to take responsibility for getting you on another flight if you misconnect (miss your next flight). Given that this is in late March, you hopefully will not need to deal with any sort of snow or ice related delays. As far as I know, YYZ isn't doing any sort of construction or other work that would cause metering. You are, obviously, at the mercy of thunderstorms, but those are unpredictable. If your YYZ flight leaves on time, you can probably make the flight. Your flight on UA will arrive either in the end of the A terminal, or in the C/D terminal (which are actually just one big long building without moving walkways). If it arrives in A, it'll be a stretch, if you get into C/D, you should be fine if you're able to jog a little bit. Even so, the second delays start adding up, you're looking at missing that second flight - and you may miss it even if delays don't add up.

Your only options are to make the UA flight to NRT, or you're going to be overnighting somewhere in the US (unless you got them to reroute you back through Canada), be it DC, New York/Newark, Chicago, or somewhere on the west coast. If I were you, I'd ask strongly to get moved to an earlier flight YYZ-IAD on either AC or UA. There are multiple earlier flights that you could take on either carrier which would be preferable. Given that you are not technically under MCT (as the YYZ-IAD flight is considered "domestic" since you go through CBP in YYZ), you may have to pressure hard, but hopefully you'll find an agent to do it for you.

habb

Much appreciate the time you took respond. Forgive me, but what is MCT?
Also, I assume that I would go through all necessary customs in YYZ & not have to clear customs in IAD?

mahasamatman

Minimium Connection Time.

My bet is that Aeroplan agent has never flown.

habb

Very possible. He sounded very confident that this would be a standard/simple connection & had to convince me of that before I made the booking.
Now I feel a little duped, not to mention concerned.

chermorg

MCT = Minimum Connection Time. Technically speaking, it's the perfect world scenario of how long it should take you to get between flights. Practically speaking, it's almost always 30 minutes to an hour shy of the "safe bet" scenario at all airports. The MCT list is "published" by each airline generally for each airport they serve (or allow connection at), and generally has different times for Dom-Dom, Dom-Intl, Intl-Intl, and Intl-Dom. If you have a flight under the MCT (due to booking error or a schedule change), the airline will usually change your flights or make you take different ones (and you should *want* to if you're under MCT). If you're over MCT, it could still be 90% likely you miss your flight (ex: MCT at LAX for American doesn't account for their satellite terminal very well), but the airline is obligated to put you on the next available flight on their metal for no charge, as well as they'll generally provide food/lodging if it's a long stay.

To answer your other question, yes, you will go through US Border and Customs in YYZ, after passing security. Your security in YYZ will be the same as any US security (except you'll use a metal detector instead of backscatter/millimeter wave scanner) - so shoes off, liquids out, laptops out, etc. Right after security, you'll go to a kiosk, where you'll fill out your US customs declaration, then proceed to a line and an officer - who will "welcome" you to the US assuming you're admissible. After that, you're technically "in the US" but still on Canadian soil. If you choose to skip your flight, you will have to "reenter" Canada through Canadian customs.

Having been through PreClearance at YYZ multiple times, it's never been a bad experience, the whole shebang has never taken more than 30 minutes from entering the security line to being done with customs and border patrol. Granted, I'm a US Citizen so this may differ depending on your nationality and passport. That being said, they're very efficient in Terminal 1 (where UA and AC flights depart from). The other thing to keep in mind is that if you're used to flying within Canada, the "F Gates" (US departure gates) are completely separated from the E gates (international flights) and the D gates (Canadian flights). You will not have access to any of the concessions, shops, etc in the D/E sections of the airport. Some E gates are also used as F gates (they have variable doors blocking the waiting area to maintain separation - portions of E can be switched to F, usually about 3-4 gates at a time, by closing and opening large glass doors in the terminal) - and these generally do not become available for waiting in until 30 minutes before your flight's departure. There's a ton of concessions in the F (US) gates, however, so if you can take an earlier flight (or even just get to the airport super early and standby for an earlier flight) that'd be great and you'll be fine sitting around.

Hopefully that's a decent enough summary of YYZ for you - I'm sure there's a whole thread on YYZ trans-border flights somewhere on FT, but I can't be arsed to find it right now :P

truncated

Even if OP misconnects an overnight might still not be necessary — can probably still make the late NH ORD-HND departure, or the LAX-HND redeye

habb

WOW!! Very detailed info. Thanks for taking all that time. Great help.
Will we have to change terminals in Dulles?

jsloan

There's an excellent chance you'll need to change terminals, probably from terminal A to terminal C.

saaveraward

Had zero problems coming in on KE and connecting to a separate UA ticket with a 1:40 connection. KE tagged the bag to the final destination, and even though I went though the main arrival terminal (I think), KE put the bag on the transfer belt and never had to interact with UA at all. Cleared TSA downstairs and then took the buggy to D.

InterPlace55

I'm scheduled to arrive to IAD May 7 on LH 418 at 4:00pm, would it be possible for me to make it over to a UA flight that takes off at 5:05pm? My original connecting flight will take off at 10 so I'd rather find a way to get onto the way earlier flight than to waste an additional 5 hours in transit.

goodeats21

If you have GE and no checked bags, it is possible. I was through IAD last week and was through to the C/D gates in about 20 minutes. No line at all, and TSA Pre-check was in operation at the mid-field security check-point. I wouldn't make the change now, but certainly could be possible for a SDC scenario.

jsloan

There is a specific Minimum Connection Time override for LH flight 418, increasing MCT to 1 hour, 45 minutes. The normal LH-UA MCT is 1 hour, 10 minutes.

The computer shouldn't let you select the shorter connection, but it will be available as a standby (non-UA ticket) or same-day confirmed change (UA ticket) upon arrival. I wouldn't try it until I was through transfer security and back into terminal C though. I imagine there's a reason that one particular flight has its own rules.

fumje

That's intriguing. Wonder if it's because 418 is flown with a larger plane?

goodeats21

Plane types can vary with schedules, so I doubt it is that specific that they alter MCT for a 747.

Maybe arrives at "Peak" time with crowded Immigration / Customs?