Flight transfers advice

[Hodders]

My 20 year old daughter wants to fly out to Manila in August to spend some time with a Filipino friend.

There are no direct flights from the UK. None of us have ever taken connecting flights.

Looking at Kuwait Air and Thai Airways both have flights with transfers in the order of 1h30m.

This seems like a crazy short time to land, taxi to the gate, get off, find the departure gate, walk, pass security (if required) and get to the new plane. That's assuming they transfer hold luggage. Any delay and you're screwed.

I know that the airline is responsible for making sure you get to your destination, but missing the flight could mean delays of a long time if the next few flights are fully booked.

But if all these airlines are selling flights with these short transfer times, they must be confident of dealing with these concerns.

So what's the deal? What's the minimum transfer time you would accept, or am I over worrying?

 

[Raymond Lin]

I would not book a flight with less than 2hrs, also, I would try to travel without any checked in baggage if at all possible. You might end up in a scenario that the bag might make the connection but you can't.

If I am or have to book a flight with such a short connection then I would think of Plan B immediately. Plan B being when is the next flight if I miss it, or Plan B being other mode of transport, or if the connecting flight is the last flight....where to stay.

I am unsure on the airline you are taking or how good they are in that part of the world, whilst all flights out of the EU should follow the law in the EU with regards to flight, when it's on the ground, in the moment, arguing with someone at the airport quoting EU legislations isn't going to do much good if they tell you to go away.

I have made it in 45mins but I would want 2hrs as a standard amount of connection time.

 

[Subliminal Aura]

Depends on the transfer airport. Some airports are primarily setup for it, like Instanbul saw.

BUT That's one airport I would like to be in and out as quickly as possible - it's awful BUT for rolling off one flight and on to another it's very efficient. I had a 3 hour stop there recently which was way too much time

I would agree with no less than 2 hours though

 

[Hodders]

Thanks for the advice.

We've booked different flights with Emirates transfers at Dubai with a 6hr window outward and 6h40 in bound.

That sounds much more sensible even if a bit more expensive.

 

[Shadowness]

90 mins is fine, pretty standard for a lot of connections. Some airports make it much easier than others though. Anything under 45 mins is twitchy bum time though.

 

[Sirrel Squirrel]

I've done an 80 min transfer at Paris Charles de Gaulle during a security strike before, that was very squeaky bum time, I only made it because the gate should have closed but there was an irate passenger refusing to check in his bag at the gate so they let me through (with my bag )

 

[Penfold101]

My parents had a connecting flight from Manchester to Heathrow delayed so they missed their main one to New Zealand. They were put on another one fairly quickly via Dubai, but their luggage only followed a few days later via Los Angeles…

 

[ShivP]

I would not book a flight with less than 2hrs, also, I would try to travel without any checked in baggage if at all possible. You might end up in a scenario that the bag might make the connection but you can't.

Bags are not allowed to travel without their passengers, cargo aside of course

 

[A2Z]

Thanks for the advice.

We've booked different flights with Emirates transfers at Dubai with a 6hr window outward and 6h40 in bound.

That sounds much more sensible even if a bit more expensive.

Er what? You booked her a flight with a 6 hour layover? That's pretty cruel and completely unnecessary.

90 minutes is more than enough time for somewhere like Dubai and is pretty standard. I've flown multiple times from London to the Philippines via Emirates and always with 90-120mins max layover time.

Changer her flight to a lot more shorter layover time or at least book her lounge access, making her sit at the airport for 6 hours is not nice.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Bags are not allowed to travel without their passengers, cargo aside of course

Of course I meant the check-in bags, not the carry-on.

 

[ShivP]

Of course I meant the check-in bags, not the carry-on.

Check in bags aren't allowed to be on a plane if the passenger isn't. They will remove the bags before departure if the passenger doesn't board

 

[Raymond Lin]

Check in bags aren't allowed to be on a plane if the passenger isn't. They will remove the bags before departure if the passenger doesn't board

How do you explain why all these bags gone to different places / lost then?

 

[On Holiday]

1h30m is fine for a transfer anywhere in Middle East and Asia, some of the most efficient airports I've ever been in.

Given it's too late, the least you can do is buy your daughter lounge access given the obscene layover time! Conversely, anything more than 2 hours transfer time is a dealbreaker for me.

EDIT: I just did Jakarta -> Tokyo with a 55 minute transfer in Singapore. Zero stress and I still had 30 minutes spare sitting in the departure gate. They simply would not offer these flight options if it were going to be problematic.

 

[ShivP]

How do you explain why all these bags gone to different places / lost then?

That's the law, obviously mistakes happen. Most of these such situations occur when the passenger flies without the bag, rather than the other way around
Anyway, back to the OP

 

[mattyg]

We've been stuffed 3 times with connecting flights. So I'll rather just book a hotel and get a flight the next day.

1st At Dublin trying to pre-immigration. We had to push past the security queue to get through

2nd Flight delayed due to weather New Orleans to Heathrow via Atlanta. Weather at Atlanta meant we just didn't take off from New Orleans.. Options were fly from New Orleans to LA then LA to Heathrow Or spend another night in New Orleans.....

3rd. Plane diverted to another airport so no chance of getting connection, so stranded in the Dominican.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Let me present to you my personal experience of trying this "short layover"

I booked this in 1 ticket. 1hr 5mins layover.

Departure scheduled 16:50

The plane was delayed taking off by like 45mins...note the screenshot of the video I took as the plane finally start to move at 17:37.

1hr 5mins layover with 45mins chopped off!

When I landed I got a text from Air France...the plane I am on is still taxi-ing and the other one's gate is already closing boarding.

And I took a photo, time stamp 20:38, almost 10 mins after received that text, I was still stuck on the plane.

Notice I am sitting at the 7th row....when my ticket is row 31F. I had explained to the flight attendant about my connection and she put me forward so I can get off quicker. To MANY other disgruntal passengers!

You know, I thought they know I’m on the passengers list…they know my flight was delayed…surely they won’t leave without it me, and wait a little bit….

I then RAN and RAN towards my gate and with another customs check in between, I got there at 20:46, 5mins ago I was still on the plane....The distance between customs to gate K57 isn't actually that far but by the time I done with customs....I got there just after 9. The plane had left.

They simply would not offer these flight options if it were going to be problematic.

This is simply not true. See above.

I have flown that route many times, every other time when I gave myself HOURS in between I don't have a problem, made it in like 45mins easily even when taking my time. The one time I "chanced" it....I got punished. And that time because that was the last flight out of Paris, I spent a night there. The 15 euro vouchers they gave me to spend....nothing opens at 5am bar Starbucks but Starbucks didn't take the voucher...... Also because the first flight was earlier than the shuttle between the hotel and airport starts in the day, I had to fork out 40 euros for a 5min taxi ride....I claimed it back but still....

It was rather problematic for that night...airport hotel not close the actual airport, the room was awful, the next flight was so early that it made the room almost pointless. I was also lucky my car parking at Heathrow didn't cost me more....I booked like 3hrs past my landing time but not an extra 12hrs. Also lucky it was a Sunday and I didn't have to go to work or forced to take an annual leave for it.

 

[Raymond Lin]

I also remember my 1st trip to Japan. I landed in Narita in Tokyo and booked a separate ticket, an internal flight down to Fukuoka, I gave myself 3hrs to get my luggage and then get to the other connection.

The plane landed on scheduled but what I did not anticipate were

1 - I got pulled over to get my fingerprints scanned....
2 - They opened my suitcases and examined it....

I remember making an sacastic update on Facebook at the time moaning about the so called "Japanese efficiency" because I was still not out of immigration after 90mins after landing.

I think I managed to check in and dropped my luggage to the new flight with about 50mins to departure.

 

[On Holiday]

This is simply not true. See above.

Algorithms and restrictions are in place to ensure statistically-unlikely successful transfers will not be offered to customers for almost all international flights between EMEA and APAC.

There is tremendous financial pressure on all parties involved to prevent "avoidable" international delays from all directions; from the airlines avoiding compensation loss themselves, the booking agents, the airports, and the ministries of tourism in some countries.

If an airline offers a flight with a 55 minute layover then they'll be basing this on many factors; historical take-off/landing punctuality at the given flight times, distance between gates, clearing any applicable security in-between, luggage logistics, ease of navigation between gates (even to the extent of pedestrian surveys).

The well-known third-party booking websites see a subset of the data here, and get a behind-the-scenes number along the lines of "7% risk of missed flight" for their own risk profiling.

--

Had you booked a proper A-Z connecting ticket with the above taken into account, I'm sure the ticket would've put you through Haneda instead

A good tip for anybody reading this; if you find multiple one-way single tickets cheaper or quicker than a connecting-flight booking, there's a good reason why you weren't offered that. On the other hand, that same good reason is why building your own return flights with multiple bookings is often more expensive than a return trip.

 

[Raymond Lin]

Algorithms and restrictions are in place to ensure statistically-unlikely successful transfers will not be offered to customers for almost all international flights between EMEA and APAC.

There is tremendous financial pressure on all parties involved to prevent "avoidable" international delays from all directions; from the airlines avoiding compensation loss themselves, the booking agents, the airports, and the ministries of tourism in some countries.

If an airline offers a flight with a 55 minute layover then they'll be basing this on many factors; historical take-off/landing punctuality at the given flight times, distance between gates, clearing any applicable security in-between, luggage logistics, ease of navigation between gates (even to the extent of pedestrian surveys).

The well-known third-party booking websites see a subset of the data here, and get a behind-the-scenes number along the lines of "7% risk of missed flight" for their own risk profiling.

--

Had you booked a proper A-Z connecting ticket with the above taken into account, I'm sure the ticket would've put you through Haneda instead

A good tip for anybody reading this; if you find multiple one-way single tickets cheaper or quicker than a connecting-flight booking, there's a good reason why you weren't offered that. On the other hand, that same good reason is why building your own return flights with multiple bookings is often more expensive than a return trip.

None of what you said makes the fact that it was VERY Problematic for the connection in Paris.

For the connection in Narita....i don't blame the airlines for that, that was 2 separate tickets, hence the short post, with no photos or illustrations (which I do have, just cba).

Also, notice that text was received at 20:27, a full 33 mins before it's scheduled departure....they know at the time my flight hadn't landed. The text might have been sent before I got a signal even.

What I am trying to say is that it doesn't take much for one to miss a flight. A 20min late departure and a 30mins earlier gate closing...that that's like 50mins cut off the 90mins layover. You now have 40mins to find your way to your connection, in an unfamiliar airport. If your plane takes a little longer to "park", then you have even less time. One time they let us off the flight in Heathrow, but then closed the doors in the corridor...then it opened....and then closed the next set of doors in the corridor...no idea what was going on! Probably spent 30mins standing there in the corridor. It's a different kettle of fish if you know where you are going, best route or steps to take. It's quite another for someone doing it first time at a new airport.

Those who fly frequently will likely have status and thus seat further up and closer to the door. For us less frequent flyer will be stuck in the back and it can take 20mins from door opening to actually getting off the plane. You got to allowed for that.

 

[happy_2008]

If its with the same airline they would put you on the next available flight if you miss your flight. Personally i would choose a transfer with at least 2 hours just for less stress. Funny enough i flew in Dec via connecting flight for the first time and had options of 1 hour or 3 hour transfer and i ended up picking the latter purely for less stress.