International connection at EWR

Having been burned by delays at JFK, I would never schedule an
international connection for less than two hours, coming or going.
What about EWR? Assume the best case for returning to the USA
- US passport and flying the same airline into EWR (from Europe)
and out of EWR - what is the minimum time for a reasonably safe
connection? 1.5 hours? 2 hours? Continental shows a connection
time of 1.25 hour on their website, but that time interval makes me nervous.
Are the passport control queues at EWR as bad as JFK?


Casey

Quoting "Casey" regarding International connection at EWR
in a message dated Sun, 09 Nov 2003 17:29:40 GMT:

Having been burned by delays at JFK, I would never schedule an
international connection for less than two hours, coming or going.
What about EWR? Assume the best case for returning to the USA
- US passport and flying the same airline into EWR (from Europe)
and out of EWR - what is the minimum time for a reasonably safe
connection? 1.5 hours? 2 hours? Continental shows a connection
time of 1.25 hour on their website, but that time interval makes me nervous.
Are the passport control queues at EWR as bad as JFK?

Casey

Of course it depends on the day and time you'll be there, but I think your
biggest delays will be in baggage claim and US Customs. INS goes
farily quickly as Terminal "C" (assuming you're comming back on a CO flight)
has it's own INS facility and it's fairly well staffed. I usually arrive
between 2-5pm and haven't waited any longer than 15 min in immigration.
Baggage is about the same as if it were domestic only, but the larger wait
might be in US Customs where there are only two lines comming out of baggage
claim. Depending on the flights that have arrived prior to or at the same time
as yours, you might be there a while (30-45 minutes) just to get to the initial
agent that either lets you go or points you to "the room." From there, another
15 min or so to re-check your bags for your connection (the facility is right
there after US Customs).

I'l allow at least 1.5 - 2 hours.



__________________________________

Regards,
Arnold.

(E-mail address altered, to prevent spamming. :-|
Remove all asterisks and the *hates*spam* to get true address.)

Casey wrote:

Having been burned by delays at JFK, I would never schedule an
international connection for less than two hours, coming or going.
What about EWR? Assume the best case for returning to the USA
- US passport and flying the same airline into EWR (from Europe)
and out of EWR - what is the minimum time for a reasonably safe
connection? 1.5 hours? 2 hours? Continental shows a connection
time of 1.25 hour on their website, but that time interval makes me nervous.
Are the passport control queues at EWR as bad as JFK?

If you're flying CO, they have their own immigration facility in
Terminal C. As long as you're not flying onwards to Atlanta, Chicago,
or Dallas, 75 minutes sounds reasonable.

This is actually funny, I prefer to fly into JFK because the few times I've
flown internationally into Newark the lines have been literally hours long.

Many planes coming in at once and not many lines open at all.

In my opinion, the lines are EWR are much worse then JFK, but I'm sure each
airport has it's good and bad times.



"Casey" wrote in message
ink.net...
Having been burned by delays at JFK, I would never schedule an
international connection for less than two hours, coming or going.
What about EWR? Assume the best case for returning to the USA
- US passport and flying the same airline into EWR (from Europe)
and out of EWR - what is the minimum time for a reasonably safe
connection? 1.5 hours? 2 hours? Continental shows a connection
time of 1.25 hour on their website, but that time interval makes me
nervous.
Are the passport control queues at EWR as bad as JFK?


Casey

"Mike Cordelli" wrote in
. com:

This is actually funny, I prefer to fly into JFK because the few times
I've flown internationally into Newark the lines have been literally
hours long.

Many planes coming in at once and not many lines open at all.

In my opinion, the lines are EWR are much worse then JFK, but I'm sure
each airport has it's good and bad times.



"Casey" wrote in message
ink.net...
Having been burned by delays at JFK, I would never schedule an
international connection for less than two hours, coming or going.
What about EWR? Assume the best case for returning to the USA
- US passport and flying the same airline into EWR (from Europe)
and out of EWR - what is the minimum time for a reasonably safe
connection? 1.5 hours? 2 hours? Continental shows a connection
time of 1.25 hour on their website, but that time interval makes me
nervous.
Are the passport control queues at EWR as bad as JFK?


Casey






Odd because I feel the same way about JFK although the bottle neck there
is the TSA check point after customs. not enough room to turn around so
when they have to wand someone, it all stops for everyone.

jcoulter wrote:
Odd because I feel the same way about JFK although the bottle neck there
is the TSA check point after customs. not enough room to turn around so
when they have to wand someone, it all stops for everyone.

It can sometimes be faster to go up and around to join the passengers coming
in off the street.

miguel
--
See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/

If you're flying CO, they have their own immigration facility in
Terminal C. As long as you're not flying onwards to Atlanta,
Chicago, or Dallas, 75 minutes sounds reasonable.

Please explain why my destination would matter. I would guess
that the delay would be destination independent. Is it because
those destinations are served by some far-off terminal? What
about to Denver?


Casey

(Miguel Cruz) wrote in
:

jcoulter wrote:
Odd because I feel the same way about JFK although the bottle neck
there is the TSA check point after customs. not enough room to turn
around so when they have to wand someone, it all stops for everyone.

It can sometimes be faster to go up and around to join the passengers
coming in off the street.

miguel

Duh! I feel sooo dumb, and think you have hit a winner on that one Miquel.

"Casey" wrote in newsyCrb.7124$6c3.6242
@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net:

If you're flying CO, they have their own immigration facility in
Terminal C. As long as you're not flying onwards to Atlanta,
Chicago, or Dallas, 75 minutes sounds reasonable.

Please explain why my destination would matter. I would guess
that the delay would be destination independent. Is it because
those destinations are served by some far-off terminal? What
about to Denver?


Casey




ATL, DEN, and DFW are generally not Continental destinaltions, but
Delta, and American (probably Delta was intended as they fly to all
three.)

"Casey" wrote in message
ink.net...
Having been burned by delays at JFK, I would never schedule an
international connection for less than two hours, coming or going.
What about EWR? Assume the best case for returning to the USA
- US passport and flying the same airline into EWR (from Europe)
and out of EWR - what is the minimum time for a reasonably safe
connection? 1.5 hours? 2 hours? Continental shows a connection
time of 1.25 hour on their website, but that time interval makes me
nervous.
Are the passport control queues at EWR as bad as JFK?


Casey