Connecting flight options

adocholiday

Hi all,

Just looking for some advice here. We are looking to fly Dublin to Lima in August and have two pretty good value options in terms of cost. The downside is both options have quite a tight changeover schedule and I'm not sure which, if either even, we should go for.

Option 1: Dublin > JFK > Miami > Lima
There's a 2 hour layover in JFK and a 1 hour layover in Miami

Option 2: Dublin > Heathrow > Miami > Lima
There's a 90 minute layover in Heathrow and a 2hr 35 min layover in Miami

We've only ever done 1 long haul round trip and both had loads of time between flights. This schedule is a lot tighter and I'm concerned that we may miss a connection or 2. Has anyone some advice?

Tabnabs

Have you considered cutting out Miami altogether and going through somewhere like Madrid?

January

First one, you're arriving as a domestic passenger into both JFK and Miami having cleared immigration in Dublin.

adocholiday

Tabnabs wrote: »

Have you considered cutting out Miami altogether and going through somewhere like Madrid?

Yeah but the flights are much more expensive then and riskier. The whole thing is cheapest (by a few hundred per person) by booking codeshare flights with American Airlines.

adocholiday

January wrote: »

First one, you're arriving as a domestic passenger into both JFK and Miami having cleared immigration in Dublin.

I was thinking that myself, however even the slightest delay in either Dublin or JFK could completely screw us for the Miami changeover. I was thinking with the Heathrow flight that the flight time is usually much shorter than is advertised so we'd probably have closer to 2 hours there. But in Heathrow would we have to be screened etc. for the States or would that be done in Miami?

Never flew to the States or via the States before so no idea what the best approach is here

endofrainbow

Option 2 impossible - you will never clear CBP in MIA in 2.35hr.

What about KLM/Air France via AMS or CDG ? also bear in mind that transiting in the US will require an ESTA.

adocholiday

endofrainbow wrote: »

Option 2 impossible - you will never clear CBP in MIA in 2.35hr.

What about KLM/Air France via AMS or CDG ? also bear in mind that transiting in the US will require an ESTA.

Just using Kayak to search for flights right now and American Airlines are cheapest at about €1000 each return, British Airways next (also flying via the US) at €1,200, & Air France are the next cheapest at €1,680 each. Massive difference in price unfortunately

January

adocholiday wrote: »

I was thinking that myself, however even the slightest delay in either Dublin or JFK could completely screw us for the Miami changeover. I was thinking with the Heathrow flight that the flight time is usually much shorter than is advertised so we'd probably have closer to 2 hours there. But in Heathrow would we have to be screened etc. for the States or would that be done in Miami?

Never flew to the States or via the States before so no idea what the best approach is here

You clear immigration in Miami arriving from the UK and you would never do it in that time.

adocholiday

How about Dublin to Philadelphia (2.5hr layover) to Miami (6hr layover) to Lima?

I guess with the Dublin pre-clearance then the 2.5 hour layover in PHI be more than enough?

goingnowhere

Option 1 is practical assuming its all on the same ticket

2 hours in JFK is more than enough even if you have to change terminals
1 hour in Miami is perfect, won't be any security check as you are arriving domestic so should be straightforward
If flying American Airlines you probably will go through security in Dublin only

Heathrow and Miami is asking for trouble, even on a good day Heathrow is painful and then you have to reclaim bags in Miami fight through CBP and then most likely have to do security again (DUB/LHR/MIA)

adocholiday

goingnowhere wrote: »

Option 1 is practical assuming its all on the same ticket

2 hours in JFK is more than enough even if you have to change terminals
1 hour in Miami is perfect, won't be any security check as you are arriving domestic so should be straightforward
If flying American Airlines you probably will go through security in Dublin only

Heathrow and Miami is asking for trouble, even on a good day Heathrow is painful and then you have to reclaim bags in Miami fight through CBP and then most likely have to do security again (DUB/LHR/MIA)

How would I know if it's all on the same ticket? I'm booking it all via one payment on the American Airlines website if that means anything?

Still apprehensive though about the 1 hour layover as even the slightest delay could mean waiting in Miami for hours and hours. Might be worth just doing the DUB > PHI > MIA and accepting the longer overall journey. We'd have a long wait in Lima for our next flight anyway so the end result I think is the same!

goingnowhere

adocholiday wrote: »

How would I know if it's all on the same ticket? I'm booking it all via one payment on the American Airlines website if that means anything?

Still apprehensive though about the 1 hour layover as even the slightest delay could mean waiting in Miami for hours and hours. Might be worth just doing the DUB > PHI > MIA and accepting the longer overall journey. We'd have a long wait in Lima for our next flight anyway so the end result I think is the same!

If it was sold by American in a single transaction then it is a single ticket and should be fine, some of the online discount agencies you can never be sure

60 minutes is considered quite a significant connection time in the US, its legal and if it goes wrong its American who will have at there cost to get you to Lima

adocholiday

I'd forgotten about my return flights from Lima, also via Miami, and also with a 2 and a half hour layover time. So back to the drawing board with that too.

Travel they said.... it'll be fun they said....

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Fr Tod Umptious

Hi OP

I did Option 2 a few years back, however I think the LHR lay over may have been slightly longer.

Anyway the Miami layover was not a problem, immigration etc was pretty smooth.

It was a Monday afternoon in October so I'm not sure how much difference that made.

Have you looked at Ireland - Amsterdam - Lima ?

adocholiday

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Hi OP

I did Option 2 a few years back, however I think the LHR lay over may have been slightly longer.

Anyway the Miami layover was not a problem, immigration etc was pretty smooth.

It was a Monday afternoon in October so I'm not sure how much difference that made.

Have you looked at Ireland - Amsterdam - Lima ?

Thanks for the reply but I think it's not potentially losing a day of our holiday over a few quid really. There's not a huge difference in terms of total time so we'll do the Philadelphia path instead. We're going to stick with the original leg home though.

Yeah we looked at the Amsterdam route it was over 1800 each so we abandoned that fairly quickly! Thanks for the suggestions though