? re: layover time, flying from midwest in winter....

[MamaParrotHead]

We're flying from the midwest (MLI) to Miami next January. Normally I look for flights that have about an hour or so layover time, figuring it's enough time for me to get to the gate and my luggage to hopefully find the plane as well.

 

This time we're looking at flights with 3-3 1/2 hour layovers. Now, I can see where this would be advantageous, in that it gives us time if one flight is delayed to make the connection. But I wondered what the chances of everyone else also being delayed effecting our flight would be...thereby turning out 3 hour layover into (for example) a 5 hour layover.

 

Need help from the experts on this one.

 

Any thoughts?

[6rugrats]

What does the length of your layover have to do with anyone else on another flight being delayed?

 

I would not waste time giving this a lot of thought. When chosing a flight, just consider all the information you have and make the best choice you can. The rest is out of your hands.

[PennyAgain]

You are wise to have additional layover time, but what would be even wiser is to fly to your departure port 1 to 2 days ahead.

 

Plenty of people missed cruise departures so far this winter!

[MamaParrotHead]

No, it's definately the day before the cruise departs.

 

Good point, 6.

[silentbob007]

You might also look to see where your flights are connecting ... though look at this year ... I would have booked connecting flights through Dallas instead of O'Hare or Atlanta instead of Detroit and perhaps ended up in a world of trouble. It's all playing odds but still a small gamble. I would take 3 hours over 40 minutes though, especially if you start thinking about time being added on for de-icing, etc.

[kenish]

The flights you are on and the airports involved are important, but weather or other problems elsewhere can still mess things up. For example a colleague's MIA-DFW flight was cancelled during the blizzard that hit DC. The weather was fine in MIA and DFW, problem was the aircraft was routed Baltimore-DFW-MIA-DFW. The plane never made it out of BWI. A lot of flights were affected, and due to the ripple effect he didn't get a flight out of MIA til noonish the next day.