Transatlantic flights with a connection - taken to roadwarrior perfection

Dear blog reader,

Most of us have to connect at least once when travelling to/from transatlantic destinations. 

Few have the time available to put in a spare day as an insurance against This story is about a few ideas that can reduce the impact of delayed flights risking your connections.

When You schedule transatlantic flights you might want to consider some of the following security measures to reduce risk already at the point if booking.

•  Avoid connections in the US. Immigration procedures at a US airport different than your destination always introduce extra connection risks. In addition luggage has to be re-checked after clearing customs
• Pick an option offering just one connection, dual and triple connections are harder to recover.
• Book a seat in the front of the plane for fast exit in case you need to rush off
• Consider the unconventional but efficient route into the US, with late incoming flight to an east coast hub, i.e. NYC, with short hotel stay upon arrival and first flight out in the morning.
• Plan for travelling with just hand luggage, should be your norm for anything less than a week. Wash clothes along the road. Double up on shoes, pants and jackets.

In relation to the actual trip you might want to consider the following extra security measures.

• Research and note down 2 alternative back-up routes from your first connection point, with scheduled departure 1h and 2h after your planned connection time. Beyond 2h delays it is hard to recover.
• Note down the phone numbers to your travel agents 24h service and your frequent flyer service desk. Call these or have someone call these when it is clear how long you will be delayed to your connection hub. Just waiting for an option at the customer service desks when delayed very often result in time penalties as "rebooking to next day" tend to be the norm. Just waiting for your turn in the line significantly reduce your odds for same day rebookings
•  Check for terminal or even airport changes and type of transportation in between. The best odds are for connections within one terminal and planes by the gate without buses.
• Travel in shoes enabling a light run at the airport. They can come in handy 
• Board the plane early to secure your hand-luggage can be stored close to your seat.

So where do you need to be extra careful? For transatlantic travelling I have found three airports to be a bit more dangerous than others, and for very different reasons. You might want to add 30 min to the minimum connection times allowed at these hubs and book the penultimate flight option rather than the last one available:

• Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in the winter - often hit by bad weather. Very large number of daily flights build up congestion quickly. A long transfer time required to/from the International terminal 5 (Train+Security) to the major domestic terminals 1 and 3.
• Paris' Charles de Gaulle (CDG) - Authorities allow for very short connection times (45min) at the point of booking. Many euro-connecting flights are served by gates with bus transfer to the plane.
• London Heathrow (LHR) - fog/rain often in play and putting euro-connections in ATC holding patterns before departure. Short flights are more often delayed but long distance ones leaving on time. The LHR authorities require at least 35 minutes from security entry to departure at the new terminal 5, which is the bottleneck in any LHR delay recovery plan.

This might sounds as a very long list, but it can increase your chance of successful connections by 20-40 minutes, often enough to save your plan for same day arrival as your initial plan.