Lessons In Air Travel

Cathy suggested a new post discussing some of our experiences with air travel.  What a great idea.  The key issue is how much time do you allow between connecting flights.  The answer is that it depends.  We had two connections that did not work out because there were too many unknown steps to perform between getting off one flight and getting on the next.  The biggest issue is customs.  If you need to go through customs then you are likely going have to additional time consuming steps involving unknown sizes of lineups.  These are:

1. To go backwards for a second, remember you have a lineup for customs.
2. You need to go through security again for your connecting flight.  Going through customs takes you out of the secure area of the airport and into the general public area.
3. You may have to get your luggage and take that through customs as well.  I said 'get' your luggage, but of coarse you first have to wait for your luggage.
4. You have to deposit your luggage with the airline.  Another line and another wait.

Another factor that has nothing to do with customs is the distance between arrival and departure gates, or even finding the gate. At Frankfurt, the distance was huge because we needed to change terminals.  At Montreal, the distance was less, but we did not know where to go to find the gate.  Our luggage was taken at an Air Canada desk just after going through customs but before we left the secure arrivals area.  The verbal instructions we received at the desk were too vague and brief - but of coarse we didn't know that until we could not find our way.

The order of these steps may depend on what airport you are changing flights at.  Frankfurt was not the same as Montreal.

This process of extra steps caused a 9 hour delay at Frankfurt for Cathy as she waited for the next available flight.  The same thing happened in Montreal on the way home, but we only had to wait half an hour for the next flight.

For a domestic connection, perhaps an hour is a sufficient gap between flights.  For an international flight involving customs, plan for a 2 hour gap minimum.  Of coarse the airline web sites do not tell you this, or worse, they don't tell you when you have left insufficient time between connecting flights.  We're back to the old rule - live and learn.