How to manage your flight connections
By Ed Perkins
Tribune Media Services
Posted: 11/08/2012
11:09:01 AM PST
I recently reserved flights on United from my home airport,
Medford, Ore., to New York, with a connection at San Francisco. My connection
was a bit more than an hour, so I thought I'd be fine. But a week before
departure, I started checking the on-time performance of my flight from Medford
to San Francisco. I quickly found that, out of the seven days before departure,
that flight would have made my connection only once -- the other days it was
either delayed an hour or more or canceled outright.
Accordingly, I called United and asked if it could transfer
me to an earlier flight, which it did, fortunately without any extra fee.
So instead of leaving Medford at a civilized time of 10:11
a.m., I had to get up at 5 a.m. for an 8:11 a.m. flight, leaving me with a
boring 3½-hour wait at SFO rather than the convenient 65 minutes I had
originally booked. But when departure day finally arrived, that wait shrunk
substantially. Our early flight was held up on the ground for an hour and a
half before leaving, so we actually arrived with a bit less than two hours to
connect. That cushion was appreciated, given that most United Express flights
and code-shared flights on US Airways at SFO now use the US Airways gates in
Terminal 1, and connecting travelers have to schlep on shuttle buses to
United's primary gates at Terminal 3.
The net result was that I made the connection comfortably.
And to cap the story, I checked the arrivals board before getting on the New
York flight; sure enough, my original flight from Medford had been canceled.
The purpose of this story isn't to pat myself on the back
for being such a smart traveler; it's to illustrate that connections are among
the most frustrating elements of air travel -- and given today's air travel,
that's quite an accomplishment. My story is by no means unique; many of you
face the same challenges.
Here's how to manage your itineraries to avoid the worst
problems:
- Avoid connecting entirely. Where possible, get a nonstop
flight, even if it costs a bit more. And if you normally use a smaller airport
that lacks nonstops to your destination, consider driving to the closest hub
that does offer nonstops rather than flying. Medford is a tough case; driving
takes five hours to Portland and at least six to San Francisco. But anytime you
can drive to a hub airport in three hours or less, drive. As an advantage,
you'll probably find lower fares.
-Check your flight's history. If you can't avoid connecting,
check on your first flight's on-time record. You have two approaches:
1. Airlines are supposed to post average monthly figures for
each flight, showing the percentages of times it was delayed or canceled. When
I checked, Alaska, American, Southwest, United and US Airways all provided
links to that information for each flight display; I couldn't find it on Delta,
but it must be in there somewhere. The problem with this system is that the
data are not current: In mid-October, figures show for the month of August.
2. FlightStats (flightstats.com)
provides both current (same-day) information and historical compilations for
most domestic flights. You can also slice and dice the data almost any way you
want. To remove duplication from the display, click the "omit
codeshares" button.
- Pad your connecting time. Today's typical published
minimum connecting times leave almost no slack for any minor glitch. Official
times for domestic-to-domestic flights can be as little as 30 minutes.
Supposedly, any connection your airline books compensates
for connecting times. But those can be misleading: In United's case, for
example, connections at Boston, Chicago, Houston, Newark, N.J., and San
Francisco involve inter-terminal shuttles, some requiring exiting and
re-entering security, and many international airports require terminal transfer
outside security.
Most airlines' official contracts allow you to pad your
schedule up to four hours at connecting airports and, if schedules allow, an
extra hour or two can mean the difference between making and missing a
connection.
