Reader mail: Where should I make international connections?
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Reader Mara writes:
My husband and I are planning on flying to Milan from Houston later this fall using US Airways miles, and I’m wondering what the best option for connections would be. The agent tells me we can connect in Philadelphia, or there are Star Alliance flights we can take with Lufthansa, United, or Austrian. We know from reading your site that London Heathrow is bad for connections, and we would love some advice on where to change planes most conveniently. What should we avoid? Unfortunately there’s no Houston to Milan flight we can take! Thanks!
I applaud your strategizing, Mara, and I think you’re well on your way, simply knowing that Heathrow is a place to avoid. (Don’t believe me? Watch the video.)
There’s no nonstop Houston to Milan, so you’re going to be changing planes for this itinerary. So the question is, as you suggest, where to do it.
My general advice for travel to/from the United States: Try to avoid changing planes upon arriving in the US from overseas. You go through passport control and customs at your port of entry, not your final destination, so you have to claim your bags, possibly submit them to search, re-check those bags for your connection, probably change terminals, and hope you’ve left enough time to make the next flight. Not so in most of Europe: Connections are much, much easier in Europe, with customs inspections at your final destination rather than your entry point.
At the same time, the last thing I want to do after an overnight flight is to get onto another plane. Sure, I’ve done it, and sometimes it’s unavoidable, but my preference is always to have the overnight long-haul end at my destination. On overnight flights, try to arrive at your final destination, instead of at a hub requiring a connection.
So, practically, what does this mean for you? On your flight TO Italy, I would make connections in the U.S. and fly over the Atlantic direct to Milan. On the return, I’d make my connection somewhere in Europe and fly the long haul straight to Houston.
A caveat: These itineraries will usually involve different airlines on either end. That could get pricey for cash-money fares, even with codesharing. Try ITA’s search tool to find the best connections, and to get a sense of prices. Kayak.com may be of help, too, for mixed-airline itineraries.
But you said you’re using frequent flyer miles. Good! This is one of the less-celebrated benefits of the “free” ticket: You can mix your itinerary, with one airline going over and a different alliance member coming back. Use that flexibility to your advantage. And note: You won’t be able to view all the options online. You have to call the airline that you have the miles with — in your case, US Airways.
A quick search on arbitrary dates yields a flight from Houston to Philadelphia, and Philadelphia to Milan (all on US Airways). Coming back, consider Lufthansa from Milan to Frankfurt, and continuing from Frankfurt to Houston. Those flights follow the rules I set out, letting you avoid connections in Europe in the morning after your arrival, and skipping the tense fear that you might not make your connecting flight in the US, once you’ve dealt with Homeland Security’s passport control and customs inspections.
Either way you go, good luck, safe travels, and enjoy Milan!
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August 28th, 2007 at 11:05 pm |
[…] Reader mail: Where should I make international connections? [Upgrade: Travel Better] […]
August 29th, 2007 at 7:54 am |
YMMV - but I would avoid the USAir connection in Philadelphia at all costs. Between the ageing infrastructure of the airport, the extremly poor baggage handling system, the propensity for bad weather and general lack of customer service in the case of irregular operations it has the potential to be a nightmare. I would take the modest discomfort of connecting in the am in Europe over the gamble of having the start of your trip (or all of it if you never get your luggage!) disrupted.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:24 am |
I know you hate LHR, and I certainly feel something like that for most German airports, but I like LHR.
Lots of flights - you get stuck less often in bigger rather than smaller airports.
Showers. Nuff said.
Shopping. I can actually find books to read and presents for the wife and kids. Not cheap, mind you, but London isn’t cheap anyway. Good booze shops.
Food. There are at least three good (if not cheap) places to eat.
And, hey, you can buy a chance to win a 512BBi!
-TF
August 29th, 2007 at 8:50 am |
This is a fair point. US Airways’ operations in Philadelphia are notoriously bad. It’s important to leave sufficient time for connections.
August 29th, 2007 at 8:54 am |
LHR is indeed good for some things, as long as you leave yourself LOTS of time.
Agree with you about connections in Germany. Frankfurt is so unbelievably boring, especially if you land at 5:15 am and await a flight at 8:00, as I seem to often get stuck doing. Munich is a little better.
Very true that airports with lots of frequencies are better during cancellations, since there are more options to fly out.
So where are the best places to eat at LHR?…
August 29th, 2007 at 9:04 am |
I would avoid Philadelphia and US Airways, even if it cost more.
From USA Today’s business traveler column:
.
I can vouch personally for Mr. Brancatelli’s observations:
In thirty years of flying I have never seen anything like the chaos at the Philadelphia hub a week ago, returning from France. To get from the customs to check in for domestic flights, for example, passengers were herded through the parking garage, down three flights of stairs (the elevators were broken). Imagine your grandmother trying to get her two suitcases down a narrow, dark concrete stairwell.
Far from helping, the US Airways staff simply screamed at the passengers, providing contradictory instructions and abuse.
“Just drop your goddamn bags in this pile!”
“All bags must be re-checked! If you leave your bags in the pile they’ll be removed and destroyed!”
Nobody knows what to do or where to go, so the crowds get more massive, as the moving sidewalks push more people into the mass. People were jumping over the rail of the people mover to avoid being crushed.
Cattle? No, cattle are treated, generally, with far more respect and concern for physical safety than US Airways international passengers in Philadelphia.
August 29th, 2007 at 9:49 am |
Yeesh! Thanks for that tale, and the warning.
Alright, I should have put in the US Airways/Philadelphia caveat, and your story sounds absolutely awful, but in general, I stick with the advice that it’s more convenient to connect domestic-to-international on the US side.
Your personal tale is actually fodder not just for the anti-US Airways case, but also for my argument that you should avoid making international-to-domestic connections in the United States. The absurd need to lug your suitcases to re-check your baggage, which you describe, is not limited to US Airways flights. (Philadelphia sounds like the last place I want to make international-to-domestic connections, but it’s no picnic changing terminals at JFK, Detroit, O’Hare, or LAX either, I can assure you.)
Joe Brancatelli’s article is a frightening tale indeed. Everyone should read it:
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/columnist/brancatelli/2007-08-26-us-airways-europe_N.htm
August 29th, 2007 at 10:48 am |
Don’t forget, if you connect at LHR (which I know you’re trying to avoid), you can only have ONE carry-on bag, even if your original and final destination allow two. I actually encountered this problem during a transfer from Milan to NY, where, during a transfer that involved me running at full speed through two terminals, I had to figure out how to stuff my backpack into my rolling suitcase before they let me get on the security line.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:04 pm |
OMG, totally avoid Philly; my European trip did connect thru there and it was a bad (although not missed - barely) connection.
Philly = air traffic delays; you’d wait in the air before landing and wait on the runway before departure (1-2 hours!)
August 29th, 2007 at 3:17 pm |
I just check all my crap now so the 1 bag thing is no big deal.
My absolute fave place to eat is the fish/caviar place by the BA Upper lounge. The name escapes me. I like a couple of glasses of cold crisp white with the salmon sampler plate. Fifty quid and well worth it.
Then I go drain the JWB in the BA/upper.
Concur with you about needing a lot of time to connect, but I’m usually exhausted and half (or more) in the bag…..
-TF
August 30th, 2007 at 8:28 am |
A great European airport that I try to connect or terminate my flight in is Amsterdam’s Schipol. It even has a little museum and a Lego rendition of the airport along with the hourly hotel and all the shops. I’m not sure if US Airways or their codeshares are frequent connectors through Schipol though as I fly SkyTeam airlines.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:05 am |
Great advice! Whether or not Philly is the place to go on this itinerary may be debatable, but this is a great tip for intl travel to non-hubs.
What would you advise when you are actually purchasing the tix and the only option is on different airlines? I guess you just have to find out the multi-airline premium over a single carrier and do the cost-benny analysis on the convenience…
August 30th, 2007 at 12:54 pm |
Re: actually purchasing the tickets, you can sometimes get a decent fare for mixed itineraries within the same alliance, but cross-alliance pricing is pretty steep.
I have actually found Orbitz to be pretty good at coming up with mixed-airline itineraries. Probably because they’re running ITA Software’s search engine for fares.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:15 pm |
I agree with others to avoid LHR if at all possible. CDG is another European airport to avoid inbound.
AMS is a great connecting city, using Northwest/KLM.
FRA is good, using United/Lufthansa.
If you want to fly an economical business class over the pond, fly L’Avion out of EWR to ORY, then connect to LIN or MXP. (Linate in Milan is much closer than Malpensa).
September 6th, 2007 at 9:08 pm |
[…] Brian G. asks: Your recent reader mail about international stopovers provides a reasonable segue for me to ask a question I’ve been […]
March 7th, 2008 at 4:23 pm |
Considering that it is now March 2008, and nobody is probably going to read this, and it won’t help the person who submitted the question, but I thought I should mention this.
Prior to this month, I believe, there were no direct flights between LHR and IAH. This was because of the restrictions imposed by Bermuda II. In other words, you would have to fly to London Gatwick (LGW) instead. I believe that both Continental and British Airways operated these routes. For connections to MXP or LIN, you could have taken a budget flight on easyJet (no through ticket, so leave at least 3 hours to exit security, change terminal (North to South), check-in, and go back through security).
It is a bit of a mute point, because from the end of this month, Open Skies allows both airlines to fly to Heathrow directly from Houston. So, they are taking full advantage of it, and moving their flights from LGW to LHR.
So, for future reference to those of you who may want to do the same, you can do the following:
IAH —> LHR with Continental
LHR —> MXP or LIN with Alitalia
Continental and Alitalia are part of SkyTeam
or:
IAH —> LHR —> MXP with British Airways
Two points to note about transfer. Once terminal 5 is up and running, British Airways will start moving in. All of their flights will depart from there, meaning that transit should be much easier (and a more pleasant experience).
Also, once Terminal 5 is up and ready, airlines will be relocated to aid transfers. All SkyTeam airlines will be placed in Terminal 4.
So, should you wish to repeat the journey in a year’s time (that is just an estimate), the transit experience at LHR should be much improved!