Indirect flights - how long do you allow for change?

chocolateMinnie

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 1, 2008
never flown indirect but now my children are older we are considering it for next year (will depend on the savings).
Obviously you need to go through immigration upon arrival at the first port of entry and presumably different airports are better/worse than MCO.
How long do you allow for the layover?
 
All depends on the airport but, personally, I wouldn't really be comfortable with anything less than 2-2.5 hours
 
Personally I'm over cautious and I would prefer to have 3 hours. We had to change planes at lax when we went on honeymoon and had delays at Heathrow, got stuck on the tarmac at lax, had to clear immigration, collect and drop bags, change terminals and get back through security and we almost missed our connecting flight with a 3 hour layover.
That being said, we have flown indirect to Orlando before, we had a three hour layover in detroit and cleared immigration and collected and redropped bags within 45 mins so had plenty of time to spare. I'd just make sure you've allowed enough time in case you do have a bit of a delay.
 
Thank you both.
I am someone who worries about being late. Much prefers to be early (much to my kids’ disgust).
Anymore advice from either of you about choosing indirect flights would be very welcome.
 


For Orlando I've only ever experienced changing in detroit which had the shortest queue for immigration I've experienced in the states so it's somewhere I would quite happily change at again. I looked at flying indirect this year and also asked for a bit of advice regarding layovers, from the replies I got, atlanta seems to be one to avoid. It's an extremely busy airport and you'd need a minimum 2 hours to change. Also be wary of airports in new York for the same reason.
Out of interest what time of year are you planning to go?
 
No idea of where you live BUT

Fly to Dublin & fly direct to Orlando ( MCO ) with AerLingus

Best part is that you clear Customs & Immigration in Dublin ...... so arrive in Orlando as a Domestic Passenger.

If you fly into Dublin with Aer Lingus or other Airlines your Luggage Should be booked through to Orlando

so no need to carry cases around .
 
I live on the edge and 90 minutes is my cut off for any indirect flights outside of Europe (otherwise I'm happy with an hour). I am also one of those people who gets to the airport with enough time to go through passport control and grab a coffee, much to the chagrin of my mum.
 


Thank you both.
I am someone who worries about being late. Much prefers to be early (much to my kids’ disgust).
Anymore advice from either of you about choosing indirect flights would be very welcome.

Just a couple more pointers from me (and this is purely my opinion/what works for our family):

We would only choose indirect if we were saving at least £100 per person, unless the flight times were such that they would get us to Orlando as early as a direct flight.

We would only choose indirect flights if both legs of each journey (outbound or inbound) were with the same carrier.

We would only choose indirect flights that had us land in Orlando at a reasonable time, bearing in mind the time difference.

Whilst the minimum time we would want for a layover would be 2 hours, would be much more comfortable with 3 but would not choose flights that had a layover of more than 4 hours, unless they were significantly cheaper.
 
Thanks for all the advice.
I am all for indirect if the price is low enough but to be honest unless it was £200 per person less I probably wouldn’t bother.
The Detroit/Atlanta/Dublin tips are all great.
Definitely hadn’t thought about the time arrivals properly.
Honestly all great tips thanks BUT I am definitely not a short risky layover person.
The panic would ruin my holiday
 
We've done indirect many times. Atlanta is a doddle. Yes, the airport is massive but it's so easy to change terminals as they have the 'plane train' which connects them all. We always leave three hours between connections - four to be really on the safe side. Dublin is great and I'd have no hesitation in using this route again.

The advantage of Atlanta is the onward journey and carrier - we've flown with Southwest who are quite cheap however we've also flown with Delta. Delta fly to Orlando virtually every hour so if your ticket is booked as a through ticket, this takes the worry out of a delayed flight. If you miss your connection, you'll be put on the next available plane.
 
I've only done it once. We had 4 hours and it was only just enough time on way out. We went via Miami and passport control there took about 1 hour but our outward flight from Heathrow was delayed nearly 2 hours so our plans to eat at Miami were scuppered. So in theory 2 hours would have been more than enough if flight had left on time.
 
i never allow less than 3 hours for the flight into the USA - for crossing immigration and customs (and waiting for those stupid suitcases to show up to clear them with customs)..
certain airports are horrifying, others are pretty easy...

we always have to fly indirect as there is no non-stop from where we live...
so we're pretty used to it...
it's not a big deal, but there are definitely airports to avoid...

my favorite airport for plane changes? Detroit
my most hated airport for plane changes? JFK (avoid at all costs, especially if you have to use terminal 4)......
 
i should add that when we fly through detroit, it's because we're on Delta..
detroit is one of the delta hubs and a very user friendly airport (the delta terminal in detroit is)..
and if you have extra time on your hands in detroit airport, there are some very nice airside shops to waste your time in....really nice ones...
and the airport food is pretty good as well...
and it's very easy to navigate...
so two thumbs up for detroit...the airport that is (definitely not the city which is a hell hole - as one who was born and raised in detroit can attest)...

.
 
We are in Glasgow and noticed that going gla-Gatwick-mco was 250 pp cheaper than Gatwick-mco for next April. Very odd.

We have also done icelandair with the 1.5 hour stopover in Reykjavik which was a doddle. The airport if literally like a bus station - off one plane wait in holding area then on the next.

Have done Atlanta with 3 hour connection. We were delayed an hour and a half and missed the connection. Thought would be ok but by time cleared customs and collected suitcases and changed terminals it was nowhere near enough. Suspect even 3 hours would have been tight!
 
We are in Glasgow and noticed that going gla-Gatwick-mco was 250 pp cheaper than Gatwick-mco for next April. Very odd.

We have also done icelandair with the 1.5 hour stopover in Reykjavik which was a doddle. The airport if literally like a bus station - off one plane wait in holding area then on the next.

Have done Atlanta with 3 hour connection. We were delayed an hour and a half and missed the connection. Thought would be ok but by time cleared customs and collected suitcases and changed terminals it was nowhere near enough. Suspect even 3 hours would have been tight!

Just wondering, what happened when you missed the flight. Did they rebook you and how long did you have to wait?
 
Just wondering, what happened when you missed the flight. Did they rebook you and how long did you have to wait?

we missed our connection at JFK.
I'd left us 3 hours as i always do, but there was a slow down at JFK - union action....they were delivering suitcases one by one to the belt...and that was only after waiting for more than an hour for the first suitcase to show up.
So almost everyone on the plane missed their connection.

When we got through customs, i immediately found the airline rep.
There was a line a mile long (it was 747), but i just went to the front of the line and gave her my name.
She said, "oh thanks for coming up - we've been waiting for you, follow me".
so my daughter and i raced behind the airline rep.
It turned out we'd missed the last flight out of kennedy, so they put us on a bus.
A HUGE bus with only my daughter, me, another mom and her son - and sent us over to la guardia.

as we approached the terminal, the driver said "you have to RUN when i get you there. You have no time to make your flight and it's the last flight out of la guardia".
So we did as he said.
crossed through security and made a mad dash for the gate where they assigned us seats and put us on the plane.
2 seconds later, the door closed and we were off.

if we hadn't made that flight, i don't know what would have happened.

The airline that arranged everything was the one we'd been on trans-atlantic.
That's the importance of having one ticket for both legs. So that they're responsible for getting you to your final destination.

.
 
Thanks for that, just wondering as we are changing through Atlanta in Summer - Virgin/Delta combo on one ticket. Virgin were only selling tickets with a 2hr10 min connection which I know is tight, however I have been via Atlanta before and I know there are lots of Delta flights out of there to Orlando. I’ll keep everything crossed that we make it!
 

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