International flights and layovers...a question.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on a lot of factors for me....specific airport/city/time of day/year.

Ex: overnight flight with a 2 hour layover in Iceland then to London and arrive mid-morning is fine to me because you are leaving around dinner time and can sleep overnight. If you have a major flight delay....okay, it's a small airport and you can maybe enjoy Iceland a little.

Flying from DC 11:30 pm -Atlanta (5 hour layover overnight) then onto Denver to arrive midday is not preferable to me with kids. That sounds like hell. My kids will do better settled on the airplane, not arriving at the airport hours after bedtime.

I will sometimes intentionally pick an extra long layover in say - Copenhagen where there is a beautiful city that is very quickly accessible to try and enjoy. I'm okay being stuck there an extra day if need be.

I try to avoid layovers domestically though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to fly that route often. I would absolutely pay more for a non stop to Madrid from DC, but it may be seasonal route or prohibitively expensive.

If you must have a layover, JFK is the superior choice for a few reasons:

1. Iberian peninsula is closest European destination to North America, why fly further only to have to come backwards to arrive at your destination?

Closest option, Heathrow is a mess with connections and I have missed them at least twice. Had to wait five more hours to get to my destination and that was precovid with lots of available seats on next flight.) No gracias. Although, if you can get the midnight flight out of Dulles to heathrow, might be worth it so you don’t have to take a vacation day to fly out.

2. Lots of flights to Spain/Europe on different airlines so you have options if your flight is delayed/cancelled.

3. Coming back there are many options to get from jfk to dc (fly, Acela, bus, etc) if your connecting flight gets cancelled. You will not be camping out on the floor of some random European airport.

4. Flight to/from mad - jfk is very zippy, 6 hours and you are there. I love that!

One anecdote: the downside of flying out of national is if your connection to jfk gets cancelled, it is harder to get overseas. I once jumped in a cab from dca to Dulles to get a different flight when my flight to jfk was cancelled. You can avoid this stress by flying out of Dulles, lol.

A lot wrong with this advice. For starters, there’s no midnight flight from Dulles to LHR. And MAD back to JFK in winter is at least 9 hours with wind, not 6. Who is this person?!

A person who has traveled to spain many, many times over many, many years. I've tried all the routes and I'm here to tell you what works: connect in JFK.

Give yourself enough time to get to your gate. Then wait among all the european tourists scarfing down authentic american mcdonalds food before they head back home to paris/rome/munich, their shopping bags full of northface jackets, macbook airs, and commemorative t-shirts from the M and M store in Times Square. In less time than it takes to fly to hawaii, you will be eating a squid sandwich in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid and shopping for some toro-themed salt shakers to bring home. And thus, the cycle of tourism dollars continues.

While there is no scheduled midnight flight to LHR, the last virgin atlantic iad-lhr is often delayed until midnight. A good option to consider if you encounter difficulties with your scheduled flights (like you're connecting in miami but there's a hurricane...try to get re-routed through that flight)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you travel internationally do you like layovers in the US or closer to your destination. We are going to Spain and found flights with a layover at JFK or various European cities. Do you have a preference. Someone I talked to said they like European city layovers because there are more chances to get out if you get stuck/delayed. But I like the idea of just having this long continuous flight overnight (best for sleeping?

Any preferences?

Generally I am open to both but would not fly through JFK. The flights from DC to NY are late often enough that there is a high chance of missing your connection. The small flights are affected by weather but the larger international flights are not. It can be really stressful.

[Anonymous]

If you were from Spain and spoke very little or poor Englsh, would you think it a trip from Dulles into DC were quick and easy?

ANY connection you take you will have to clear customs.

Too risky unless you're talking about an entire extra day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP - How are layovers in Munich or Frankfurt? I don't hear about them as much but that's probably a good thing.

Frankfurt is very easy. Haven’t been through Munich since COVID.

FRA will typically have better connection times. MUN is a much easier airport to navigate and I've found it more comfortable (and less crowded) than FRA, but with longer layovers.

[Anonymous]

Layovers are ok if you are traveling business class and have acccess to business lounge.

[Anonymous]

Fall 2023 updates? TIA

[Anonymous]

If there's 3+ hours to kill, I'd much rather do it at any larger European airport (Paris CDG being the only exception) than in JFK.

Actually, even CDG is better than JFK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to prefer international layovers because I could take a quick trip into town. Now I prefer domestic layovers so I can avoid going through immigration at Dulles.

Because Newark or JFK is so much smoother than Dulles. LOL.

Ha! I was going to say that. I will take a layover anywhere except Newark, JFK and Paris.

#NeverNewark

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I used to prefer international layovers because I could take a quick trip into town. Now I prefer domestic layovers so I can avoid going through immigration at Dulles.

Because Newark or JFK is so much smoother than Dulles. LOL.

Ha! I was going to say that. I will take a layover anywhere except Newark, JFK and Paris.

#NeverNewark

New Terminal A looks amazing, but it's mostly airlines which don't have connecting flights at Newark, so unlikely to connect there. United does have some gates there, but can't say for sure if they will use the terminal. Most of the big international planes still use Terminal C.

[Anonymous]

Well, if you connect in europe, if you are delayed coming back you have better options for recourse thru eu 261

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, if you connect in europe, if you are delayed coming back you have better options for recourse thru eu 261

US connections are now covered under EU261 if the itinerary originated in the EU and was a single ticket:

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/guide-eu261-flight-compensation/

"The connecting flight from New Jersey to San Jose was delayed by nearly four hours. Even though this delay affected a U.S. flight route, the court declared that these travelers were still eligible under the EU law because their journey on a single ticket originated in Belgium."

[Anonymous]

I like a layover in a major hub for whatever airline I’m flying or the local airline for whatever codeshare I’m on. So if I’m flying a BA codeshare to Spain and it must include a connection, I want my layover to be in London. If I’m flying a JAL codeshare to Asia, I want my layover in Tokyo. And if I’m flying from the west coast to somewhere in Europe via American, I want my layover in LA (AA hub), not Salt Lake City or something.

Hopefully that makes sense? The goal is to be somewhere with multiple medal and codeshare flights out every single day. I was in Kuala Lumpur at a major airport and a family was stranded for 2 days after missing a connection en route to Adelaide coming from Turkey. They were incredulous that were not daily flights on their carrier from Kuala Lumpur to Adelaide. Don’t put yourself in a situation where you stop somewhere without a backup way to get out that day!

[Anonymous]

For Europe, once you get on the contient there are so many ways to reach your destination.

[Anonymous]

Always layover in Europe. Airports are nicer and consumer protection laws are tougher, do you are more likely to get compensation if flight is delayed or canceled