Flights to US, stopovers, risks and Homelands...

...flying over in a few weeks, short work trip. Self employed so need to watch the pennies, and need to get back on time.

Have found flights over and back which require a change at Newark. Just a bit concerned about the time needed. I think one proposal just gives an hour stopover, which is great but just wondering is it enough to get from one flight to another? If a flight is booked through a seach on expedia or ebookers or the like, is there any certainty that this means the arrangements will "hold up" or do they just throw out any flight arrangements and its up to the punters to ensure that this gives them sufficient time to make it from one flight to the other? Would it be better to arrange it through a travel agent and does this reduce the risk of a missed flight or at least mean that if a flight is missed they will look after arranging whatever needs to be done through other airports?

Finally, does Shannon still have that Homelands arrangement to get checked before heading over and reduce the time needed to be processed there?

Sorry for firing so many questions out, thanks for any help.

silja

If you book the flights on one ticket, they must re-book you if you miss the connecting flight. Of course, it could be many hours or even a day until there is a free seat for you, so if you have work meetings, that is no good.

Newark is a small airport- which way is the one hour connection? If it is going back to Ireland (ie flying something like Atlanta-Newark-Dublin), you should be ok as there is no immigration and your bags go straight through. On the way there it would be very tight though.

BuffyBot

And yes, both Dublin and Shannon still have pre-clearance. So if you're on such a flight this means that the time needed to make a connection on the US side is vastly reduced.

silja

silja wrote: »

If you book the flights on one ticket, they must re-book you if you miss the connecting flight. Of course, it could be many hours or even a day until there is a free seat for you, so if you have work meetings, that is no good.

Newark is a small airport- which way is the one hour connection? If it is going back to Ireland (ie flying something like Atlanta-Newark-Dublin), you should be ok as there is no immigration and your bags go straight through. On the way there it would be very tight though.

Thanks so much. It's on the return so hopefully that'll take some of the panic out.

pgmcpq

silja wrote: »

Newark is a small airport- which way is the one hour connection? If it is going back to Ireland (ie flying something like Atlanta-Newark-Dublin), you should be ok as there is no immigration and your bags go straight through. On the way there it would be very tight though.

Just to correct this a little. Newark is not that small. It has three seperate terminals connected by a light rail all of which are bigger than any Irish airport terminal. Depends on who you fly wth but international and domestic flights are usually different terminals. It is also a former hub for Continental (now United) so it is pretty busy airport with a lot of transfer traffic.

1 hour seems very very optimistic - especially if you need to go through enter security checks again.

InTheTrees

I do seattle > Newark > Dub/shannon, at least twice a year.

Continental right? If so both your flights will be in the same terminal you just have to change gates.

One hour is plenty.

Manic Moran

InTheTrees wrote: »

I do seattle > Newark > Dub/shannon, at least twice a year.

Continental right? If so both your flights will be in the same terminal you just have to change gates.

One hour is plenty.

Problem is coming back the other way: My experience has been that TSA doesn't trust foreign security and you may need to go through again.

That said, one hour feasible, esp if you let gate crew know about tight connection when you get off.

snow scorpion

Deleted User wrote: »

Finally, does Shannon still have that Homelands arrangement to get checked before heading over and reduce the time needed to be processed there?

American Customs Service was at Shannon last September. You get to them right after passing through Irish security. The funny thing is both groups do pretty much the same thing.

I went through Irish security - you know the drill: take your shoes off, take your coat off, take anything metal out of your pockets and put everything into those big plastic bins, put your laptop or tablet into its own bin. Go though the magnetometer. On the other side, put yourself back together and go on to American Customs...

...and go through the routine again! Shoes off again....laptop out of your rucksack again....magnetometer again.

Then you move on to the customs officials. Hand over your customs declaration card. The official scans it and a photo of your luggage pops up on a monitor behind the customs official.

"Is that your luggage?"
"Yep."
"Did you pack it yourself?"
"Yep."
"Has it been out of your sight since you packed it?"
"Nope."
"Welcome home." (She actually said that to me standing there at Shannon.)

Then during your flight the pilot will tell you, "Since you already passed through American Customs this is considered a domestic flight."

When you land, you go straight to the baggage claim, get your bags, and then its straight out into the arrivals terminal. I thought the whole thing was a big improvement over having to go through Customs as JFK.

Quin_Dub

Deleted User wrote: »

...flying over in a few weeks, short work trip. Self employed so need to watch the pennies, and need to get back on time.

Have found flights over and back which require a change at Newark. Just a bit concerned about the time needed. I think one proposal just gives an hour stopover, which is great but just wondering is it enough to get from one flight to another? If a flight is booked through a seach on expedia or ebookers or the like, is there any certainty that this means the arrangements will "hold up" or do they just throw out any flight arrangements and its up to the punters to ensure that this gives them sufficient time to make it from one flight to the other? Would it be better to arrange it through a travel agent and does this reduce the risk of a missed flight or at least mean that if a flight is missed they will look after arranging whatever needs to be done through other airports?

Finally, does Shannon still have that Homelands arrangement to get checked before heading over and reduce the time needed to be processed there?

Sorry for firing so many questions out, thanks for any help.

I connect through Newark regularly - If you're flying out of Shannon I assume it's United you are flying?

I regularly use a flight that has a 47 minute connection time in Newark - Never missed it once , and I always have time to stop and buy a burger from Wendy's on the way through

With the Customs and Immigration clearing already done in Shannon , anything over 45 minutes should be fine..

InTheTrees

Quin_Dub wrote: »

I connect through Newark regularly - If you're flying out of Shannon I assume it's United you are flying?

Me too. Have you ever gone into Manhattan? Use kayak and specify a long stopover and there's a great shuttle in to times square from outside the terminal, takes about 20 minutes.

The best I can do (to Seattle) is a 6 hour stopover but that' plenty of time to get into the city and have lunch and a little shopping before getting back to the airport.

Quin_Dub

InTheTrees wrote: »

Me too. Have you ever gone into Manhattan? Use kayak and specify a long stopover and there's a great shuttle in to times square from outside the terminal, takes about 20 minutes.

The best I can do (to Seattle) is a 6 hour stopover but that' plenty of time to get into the city and have lunch and a little shopping before getting back to the airport.

All the time on my return journey - I get to Newark at about 11:30am and the Ireland flight doesn't leave until 7:30.

I always get the train in (takes about 30 mins), $25 return ticket to Penn station (right underneath Madison Sq Garden) - Lunch in Times Square , bit of shopping and wandering about and then train back at about 5pm with plenty of time to spare