Flying from Dublin to Dallas.

dibs101

Need to travel from Dublin to Dallas in a few weeks. Just looking for some advice from anyone who has done it.... Dub-Orlando-Dallas or dub-heathrow-Dallas with BA. Seems to be quite a stopover in Orlando when getting off aerlingus flight for connection to Dallas and never been in Orlando. Any input from anyone who has flown to Dallas from Dublin greatly appreciated...

RonnieRocket

I presume you're aware that the DUB -> MCO -> DFW route has US preclearance in Dublin, saving you the hassle of joining the long queues for immigration Stateside? For this reason I'd fly via Orlando. I'd also personally prefer two shorter flights rather than the long LHR -> DFW leg.

Skuxx

Would you consider US Airways, Dub to Phl and then onto Dfw

Irish Steve

Long time ago, flew BA from London to Dallas, the great circle route went over the top of Chicago, I was on the flight deck at the time as a visitor, we were looking out for the "home" of flight simulation, Chicago Meigs, the weather was kind, so the view from FL300 was excellent.

Chicago might not seem an obvious choice for a change of aircraft, but it is an option, and not as "off route" as it might appear to be at first glance.

If everything else is sensible in terms of prices and timings. there is a LOT to be said for a pre clearance at Dublin, the clearance at major hubs in the States can be quite time consuming, and there's nothing more frustrating than flying over Ireland at 0500 or thereabouts, and not actually getting back to Dublin until after 0900, or later, depending on how things go with the hassles in the UK on arrival there.

The other advantage of going from Dublin is not having the hassles of different baggage rules for the local flights compared to the transatlantic flights.

Evan DietrichSmith

Irish Steve wrote: »

Long time ago, flew BA from London to Dallas, the great circle route went over the top of Chicago, I was on the flight deck at the time as a visitor, we were looking out for the "home" of flight simulation, Chicago Meigs, the weather was kind, so the view from FL300 was excellent.

Chicago might not seem an obvious choice for a change of aircraft, but it is an option, and not as "off route" as it might appear to be at first glance.

If everything else is sensible in terms of prices and timings. there is a LOT to be said for a pre clearance at Dublin, the clearance at major hubs in the States can be quite time consuming, and there's nothing more frustrating than flying over Ireland at 0500 or thereabouts, and not actually getting back to Dublin until after 0900, or later, depending on how things go with the hassles in the UK on arrival there.

The other advantage of going from Dublin is not having the hassles of different baggage rules for the local flights compared to the transatlantic flights.

Obvious way to go.

dibs101

Evan DietrichSmith wrote: »

Obvious way to go.

Thanks for detailed feedback everyone. Assuming you are saying Chicago to dfw is the obvious way to go?

Evan DietrichSmith

dibs101 wrote: »

Thanks for detailed feedback everyone. Assuming you are saying Chicago to dfw is the obvious way to go?

I would think so..Dub ...Ord..Dfw.

Just my opinion though and not based on price or anything.

iusedtoknow

I would say..it depends.

If I was flying for business, and not paying - i'd go via London and direct into Dallas with British Airways. Their business class is second to none.

But for sheer convenience sake, Dublin via Orlando or Chicago is the way to do it - pre clearance in Dublin, and easy connection in either of those airports.

MuffinsDa

iusedtoknow wrote: »

But for sheer convenience sake, Dublin via Orlando or Chicago is the way to do it - pre clearance in Dublin, and easy connection in either of those airports.

Easy connection in Chicago?! It's the absolute pits! Far worse than Heathrow in my (limited) experience of them, one of the most horrendous airports I've everb been to!

Evan DietrichSmith

MuffinsDa wrote: »

Easy connection in Chicago?! It's the absolute pits! Far worse than Heathrow in my (limited) experience of them, one of the most horrendous airports I've everb been to!

What!

Into the international term .stroll thru immig and customs. monorail to your domestic term.

What's horrendous about that.

Edit

Sorry mightned be a 'monorail' but some kind of a train.

ProfessorPlum

EI get a huge amount if transfer traffic thru ORD, it seems to work fairly well for most, no customs or immigration and changing in ORD is a lot more direct than going all the way down to MCO.
Don't know how the timings work out, but maybe look at JFK and on with JetBlue. Don't even have to change terminal- Walk up one jetway and down another - it really is very painless.

sawdoubters

i would go for the quickest cheapest flight both ways

i would avoid ba heathrow you have to get from terminal 1 to 5 and they will not load your bags,

look for short connection time under an hour,as you will arrive at one gate and your other gate will be 5 minutes away

i would avoid Chicago unless it has a short connection time,apart from bad weather if you have to get from 1 terminal to the other its a nightmare bad signs,get on a train,then they built lots shops in front of security check causing a bottle neck
everyone is stuck in one line you might have 3,000 people,before they had 8 lines until they built the shops there,weather is horrendous in Chicago record freezing,

IRLConor

MuffinsDa wrote: »

Easy connection in Chicago?! It's the absolute pits!

Changing terminal -> reclearing security.

It would be fine in most European airports but going through the TSA song and dance twice in one day is *very* annoying.

eatmyshorts

sawdoubters wrote: »

i would go for the quickest cheapest flight both ways

i would avoid ba heathrow you have to get from terminal 1 to 5 and they will not load your bags,

look for short connection time under an hour,as you will arrive at one gate and your other gate will be 5 minutes away

i would avoid Chicago unless it has a short connection time,apart from bad weather if you have to get from 1 terminal to the other its a nightmare bad signs,get on a train,then they built lots shops in front of security check causing a bottle neck
everyone is stuck in one line you might have 3,000 people,before they had 8 lines until they built the shops there,weather is horrendous in Chicago record freezing,

What if the cheapest and quickest is via LHR or ORD then?

If you book a BA ticket DUB-LHR-DFW, then your bags will be transferred.

Are you seriously recommending to book a flight through LHR or ORD with a connection time of less than 1 hour??!! Madness!

3000 in front of you on 1 line? 30 seconds each through security... That's 25 hours queuing. Touch of exaggeration there I think.

intellectual dosser

What about United Airlines from Dublin? There should be some flexibility given that you can connect in either Newark or Washington DC? I flew with them in December and despite a 1hr delay outbound I thought they were fine.

bkehoe

IRLConor wrote: »

Changing terminal -> reclearing security.

It would be fine in most European airports but going through the TSA song and dance twice in one day is *very* annoying.

I changed in ORD from EI to UA in November and has absolutely no problem. From disembarking to clearing security in the other terminal took 40mins, and this was peak time around 5PM. Monorail transfer was a breeze and the TSA were much more efficient than many european airports are. I've taken many domestic US flights and in the last few years the TSA seem to be much more friendly and the pax seem much more aware of what they have to do (not the typical scenes I see in UK/Irl with people acting surprised that they have to take off their belts or put their liquids in bags, delaying the queues). The body scanners (controversial as they may be) seem to really speed things up too.

Roblestone

sawdoubters wrote: »

look for short connection time under an hour,as you will arrive at one gate and your other gate will be 5 minutes away

OP, I strongly advise you do not take the above advice of booking a connecting flight with less than an hour stopover! That is madness and leaves absolutely no room for even a short delay. Give it at least 2-3 hours stopover, it goes quicker than you would think.

bbam

I've done this route a few times in the past. BA via Heathrow is the most comfortable route.

Problem is when you get to Dallas, it's an awful dull spot.

IRLConor

bkehoe wrote: »

I changed in ORD from EI to UA in November and has absolutely no problem. From disembarking to clearing security in the other terminal took 40mins, and this was peak time around 5PM. Monorail transfer was a breeze and the TSA were much more efficient than many european airports are. I've taken many domestic US flights and in the last few years the TSA seem to be much more friendly and the pax seem much more aware of what they have to do (not the typical scenes I see in UK/Irl with people acting surprised that they have to take off their belts or put their liquids in bags, delaying the queues). The body scanners (controversial as they may be) seem to really speed things up too.

I've traveled though ORD a good few times over the last 2 years (head office is in San Francisco) and maybe I've just had a few bad experiences. Or maybe I'm spoilt by lots of good security experiences in DUB.