eternalX

Connecting to a flight to Sydney that I don't want to miss. both flights are 40% on time. EWR leaves at 5:55 and arrives at 9:30. JFk flight leaves 30 minutes earlier and arrives at 9:18. Flight to SYD leaves at 11:00

Do you take the confirmed NF seat on EWR or hope for the NC seat to clear on the JFK flight?

lucky9876coins

Regardless of the schedule I would go with the PS flight if there's a decent chance of it clearing. The earlier arrival is also nice.

expatinglasgow

f class out of ewr would be on the a320, i assume, which is nothing to write home about. plus, leaving ewr at 6 pm, heading west, well, be ready to run to your syd flight. even with the time that ua builds into the schedule, flights departing ewr that time of day average 30 minutes behind schedule ime.

all that to say, there are few strikes against taking the p.s. out of jfk.

eternalX

but how do i know if the chance is decent? I guess I'd be pretty high up on the list...but E+ sure would stink when I knew I could've had F... I'm going to be in biz to Sydney. too bad they won't be flying upgraded 747s...

lucky9876coins

While it's not all that accurate, check to see how full the C seatmap looks and also what the C, D, and Z buckets look like.

iwebslinger

Give me the dates and flight number.

drewnyc

Take P.S.

Although EWR delays are usually not as intense as JFK's.

eternalX

Ah. Only one seat taken on the seat map and all booking codes at 9. OK. That makes it pretty easy i guess. I would think a Tuesday is a good low biz day too.

DeltaG

Tuesday is good. The early evening Thurs or Fri PS flights are more difficult.

rjque

You don't have enough connecting time with either of these flights if it is really important that you make the SYD flight. EWR has 45 minute+ lines for takeoff at this time of day and JFK can be well over an hour, sometimes upwards of two. Remember that your connection in SFO is going to either require a bus ride or reclearing security. I'd go for an earlier flight out of JFK.

seawolf

Between a F seat on EWR-SFO and a possible NC seat on PS, I'll still take PS. My experience is that UA tends to clear NC upgrades last minute (24 to 4 hours prior to departure) on PS.

J.Edward

I too will cast a vote for p.s. as it has the one item I really care about (in all classes, no less!) - in seat power.

That said, are you sure you want to cut it that close for a connection to SYD? Yeah you've got a few hours to buffer yourself but that time will quickly slip away with delays.

Why not go for a lunch flight on p.s. out of JFK, drop your bags off at SFO/LAX (not sure which one you're connecting through) and take some time to relax, enjoy the city, find a good dinner, shower, etc. before continuing on?

rjque

Not a "few" hours; the connection options are currently 1:30 minutes or 1:42 minutes. These are fine if everything is on time but that is rare for evening flights from EWR or JFK. If it's critical to get on the SYD flight then I might take an early flight and just spend the day in the city of San Francisco. If it is not critical, I would still allow for at least two hours, preferrably three.

TA

I agree, you might want to take advantage of JFK's numerous departures and schedule yourself for one flight before the last possible connection, at least, and which gives you backup to go from either SFO or LAX if things go bad. If thunderstorms come through (which have been periodic this summer, I live close to NYC), there will be immediate, severe, rolling delays and getting out sooner is better (although sometimes storms are so bad that earlier scheduled flights end up leaving later than later scheduled flights... see here for a firsthand example)

But it all depends on how important your schedule is -- if you need to get there, no exception, take an hours-earlier flight. If not, then you can live with a possible delay of a day delay. If the airports are equally convenient, I would go with PS for the fun experience.

mdspadeccom

I am often flying back from SEA to SFO on an early evening flight. I can't tell you how many times we have been delayed by the dreaded marine layer over the airport at SFO , which reduces them to using one runway for landings. There are always passengers on the flight who though thay had three hours to connect and are paniced that they will miss their SYD flight! You have to change terminals by either queueing for a low capacity inter-gate bus, or leaving the security envelope. Try for an earlier flight from New York. Leave at least three hours to connect.