Ticket with 40 mins between flights in Chicago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

-100. I found this post very helpful. I'm not OP, but my DC is in Chicago and this is good information to know.

NP. Gate changes are frequent at big airports though. I recently landed at ORD and it was literally an hour from touchdown to walking off the plane.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure it is the door closes 30 minutes before take off? I think it is usually boarding starts 30 minutes before flight time (which is different than take off).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure it is the door closes 30 minutes before take off? I think it is usually boarding starts 30 minutes before flight time (which is different than take off).

It’s not. It’s 10-15 min before takeoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD coming back from college, bought a United ticket with 40 minutes between flights in Chicago. At first glance that seemed ok, but then we realized that planes close their doors 30 mins before take-off so basically she has 10 minutes to get off one plane and board the other plane (in the unlikely event the first flight is even on time.) What recourse do we have to get this situation fixed without extra charge? Shouldn't this be on United for selling such a ticket in the first place?

Likely not a good idea. Most of the United Flights (united express) To/From Smaller airports go from Terminal 2. Regular united flights to larger airports depart/arrive at Terminal 1 (B/C). It can take 10-14 mins to walk from the farthest gate in Terminal 2 just to the entry point to Terminal 1. Then, if you have to get to C (the underground moving walkway with lights) and are at the endpoint (walkway enters at midpoint), it could take another 15 mins to get there. So yes, it can take 25-30 mins to get between gates, and that's once you get off the plane.

I don't schedule Ohare United with less than 75-90 mins.
Unless you enjoy missing your connection

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, your DD's departing flight will know whether the arriving flight will be late since it is the same airline (united).

As a previous poster mentioned, United will have gates in the same area but since ORD is a hub for United, they have the C and B terminals which is a decent walk. If you type in the different legs of the segments, you can see where these flights typically land and take off from at ORD so you can get a sense of the distance that your DD has to walk.

Worst case scenario, she can camp out at the terminal overnight and there is a 6am out of ORD to DCA or IAD (assuming you live in DC).

United express flights (ie all the smaller cities in the Midwest and Northeast) come into/depart from Terminal 2. That alone can be a 10-13 min walk just to get to/from Terminal 1 (B). If you are Terminal 1 C (at the ends of it) add another 10-15 mins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

Oh and ORD is much like ATL (but just a smidge better) in that it took almost 15 mins from touchdown until we were at the gate. So add it all up, and making a 40 min connection is not very likely at ORD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

Oh and ORD is much like ATL (but just a smidge better) in that it took almost 15 mins from touchdown until we were at the gate. So add it all up, and making a 40 min connection is not very likely at ORD.

Well, to be clear, 40 minutes is the time from door opening on flight 1 to door closing on flight 2.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

Oh and ORD is much like ATL (but just a smidge better) in that it took almost 15 mins from touchdown until we were at the gate. So add it all up, and making a 40 min connection is not very likely at ORD.

So true. You'll often land and be THRILLED that you're early, only to taxi for 20 minutes. O'Hare is massive. It's also busy; so if you're early, you'll often be waiting for a gate to open up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

Oh and ORD is much like ATL (but just a smidge better) in that it took almost 15 mins from touchdown until we were at the gate. So add it all up, and making a 40 min connection is not very likely at ORD.

Well, to be clear, 40 minutes is the time from door opening on flight 1 to door closing on flight 2.

And if you get slightly delayed, waiting for a plane to move, for equipment/personel to be at your gate for your plane, then that 40 mins can easily become 30 min. And if your kid is back in economy, it might be 5-7 mins before they get off the plane. So now you are at 22-25 mins. So cutting it very close. In reality, flights at ORD do sit sometimes before getting to the gates (Have two kids who fly thru there a lot )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

Oh and ORD is much like ATL (but just a smidge better) in that it took almost 15 mins from touchdown until we were at the gate. So add it all up, and making a 40 min connection is not very likely at ORD.

So true. You'll often land and be THRILLED that you're early, only to taxi for 20 minutes. O'Hare is massive. It's also busy; so if you're early, you'll often be waiting for a gate to open up.

Yup! I had 1 hour 25 min connection in August. I barely made it to the plane before boarding started.


Now sometimes, Airlines will hold planes if there are several connecting, but you never know.

My one kid also flies thru DTW, had a 90 min connection, but due to cold weather and light snow at origin, their flight landed and pulled up to gate in DTW with 25 mins before next flight departed. There were 5 people making that connection (luckily), so Delta was aware and attempting to hold the plane. The original FA asked people to wait for those 5 to get off first (they were the tightest connection), and had instructed them that the fastest way was to take the DTW train once they got to the main part of terminal, as flight was at the far end. My kid walked on the plane and they closed the door 1 min later.

but ORD doesn't have a train---you have to walk it all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:40 minutes definitely tight at ORD- that's probably the Minimum Connection Time for United domestic-domestic connections there. MCT is the minimum time they will sell you a ticket for- shorter than that and their system won't do it as a single ticket. Different airports/airlines have different MCTs, and they are longer if including an international connection, of course.

Domestic flights usually start boarding around 35-40 minutes before departure time, and yes try to close the door 10 minutes before departure time.

United uses both T1 and T2 at ORD, but they are connected behind security. The issue is that T1 has concourse B (the one close to the road), and concourse C (the one you reach through a tunnel from B). If she say comes into Concourse C and 2nd flight is out of T2, she would have to walk to the middle of C, go through the tunnel to B, then walk to the southern end of B, through the connecter to T2, then out to the gate in T2. It could be a solid probably 12-15 minute walking max. Or they could be 2 gates down from each other and it's 30 seconds of walking. Definitely look at which gates those flights use on recent days (flight aware.com is good) to get an idea, but don't assume it will always follow that pattern on her day of travel. Gate assignments are complicated.

Finally, United has a program called ConnectionSaver that strategically holds flights for a few minutes if the system calculates it saves enough connections, but doesn't impact later flight times. Pretty cool actually. Again, don't count on it, but if the arriving flight is 10 minutes late and there are 10 people from it going to departing flight, good chance the system will signal them to hold it for an extra 5 minutes so they make it.

https://crankyflier.com/2019/06/20/a-more-detailed-look-at-uniteds-connectionsaver/

Oh good lord. This is too much information. She'll either make it or she won't, there are too many variables to game it all out.

Not too much info. It's explaining the realities of ORD United Terminals. Most people are not aware of Terminals 2 being used. And odds are, if you are flying thru ORD, you are using terminal 2 for one of your flights (otherwise you'd be on a direct flight). I flew in August into Terminal 2, F12 (end of F gates) and departed from Terminal 1 C17 (so at the midpoint right where you come out of the underground tunnel). It took me 21 mins to get between the two, and I was running/going very fast. And I was in Business, row 2, so first off the original plane. So even though I can move fast, you have tons of other people wandering around, most looking at their phones while they walk, so you spend the entire time dodging idiots who are not watching what they are doing. I'd say it would take the average person closer to 30 mins. My first flight was late and my 2nd flight started boarding just as I reached the gate.

Oh and ORD is much like ATL (but just a smidge better) in that it took almost 15 mins from touchdown until we were at the gate. So add it all up, and making a 40 min connection is not very likely at ORD.

So true. You'll often land and be THRILLED that you're early, only to taxi for 20 minutes. O'Hare is massive. It's also busy; so if you're early, you'll often be waiting for a gate to open up.

yes Ohare is massive. It's more efficient than ATL (ATL is the absolute worst) but not much better

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Phew, ok, that's a relief. I think it's the last flight of the night but it sounds like she might be able to make a run for it. Thanks.

The good thing about this scenario is there is basically a 0% chance that a flight at the end of the day is taking off on time anyhow.

[Anonymous]

He made it! First flight left early, second one left late.

[Anonymous]

She, not he!