Advice please -I think our layover in Newark with CO is too short?

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girasole

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I have booked flights with Continental to Orlando via Newark in October. We have a 2 hour 25 minute layover in Newark. No problem, I thought - just a nice amount of time to collect the bags and stretch our legs. However I am gutted to discover that our flight (CO127, leaving Dub at 10.55am) does NOT pre-clear immigration in Dublin (unlike the earlier Continental flight), and in fact we will have to queue up in Newark to go through immigration. There will be five of us and I strongly suspect that we will not now have enough time to make our connecting flight. That would be a nightmare with young kids. I was under the impression that all Continental flights bound for Newark cleared immigration in Dublin but apparently this is not the case. I wouldn't have booked this flight if I'd been aware of this. The 9am CO flight, which does pre-clear in Dublin, was the same price and it would have been fine. Why don't they make this information clear? I would have thought it's fairly important in relation to planning onward connections.

Does anyone have experience of travelling this route? How likely are we to catch our connection?
 
You should be ok; Newark is not as bad as some US airports (e.g. LAX & JFK) for clearing immigration. Worse case scenario and you do miss your connection; Continental should put you on the next available flight to your final destination; looking at their website, Continental fly Newark to Orlando 3-4 times a day.
 
I assume that your connection is at 15:45 from Newark; the next flight is 18:10 which would not be the end of the world (even with 5 children)
 
Thanks redchariot. Yes our connection is the 15.45 from Newark. If we got on the 18.10 it would not be the end of the world but it would leave us arriving at our accommodation very late, making the entire trip at least 22 hours long door to door :eek:. Only 3 children in our group, but the youngest doesn't tolerate long journeys well so it could be a very unpleasant trip if we get held up. And what happens if the 18.10 flight is full?

My anxiety about this whole thing is compounded by the fact that on our return leg we also have a fairly tight layover and are on the last flight of the day from Newark to Dublin, so any delay leaving Orlando and we will be sleeping on chairs overnight in Newark.

I wish I'd just booked to fly direct to Orlando with Aer Lingus. More money but infinitely less stress :(.
 
Back in 2006 we flew Continental from Dub to Newark and on to Kansas City. We thought we would have lots of time at Newark but missed our planned connection to Kansas City. Continental offered to put us up in a hotel for the night but we wanted to get on our way so they put us on next flight, 2-3 hrs later. Maybe you might want to break up the journey if they offered you a night's accommodation in NY?
 
we used to do snn newark to orlando a good bit . I think you will be fine if you can try to only bring carry on luggage as otherwise you will have to pick up and recheck your bags which was the cause of us missing our flight before. Advise continental of your fears in Dublin and ask them to make a note on your file. Then if you don't show up for the flight they will bunk you up to the next one if there are seats available. If you are flying on a sat Newark is almost empty reg immigration however week days are very busy there. Don't worry too much about the return leg they allow a 2 and a half hour flight time from MCO to Newark but it only takes about 2 hours and your gates are opposite each other so you will have about 100 yards to walk form one plane to another. Make sure you check in for the second flight at the start of both journeys they will give you the boarding passes for the second flight on check in for the first one if you ask them and this will save you tons of time.
 
if you call continental they may change you to the 9 am flight as they are very good about changes. Explain your problem and they will do their best to help, I would call the USA number as the customer service that side is great
 
Can I ask the OP how they found what Continental flights pre-clear immigration? We are booked on the 9am flight in a couple of months and have been trying to find out this information.
 
Enoxy, I would certainly be relieved if we got put up in a hotel rather than spending the night in the departure lounge. I think I have been using no-frills airlines for too long, it didn't even occur to me that Continental might do that.

Minkydog, unfortunately we are flying on a week day and there is not a hope that we will be travelling with just hand luggage. I had phoned Expedia (as the booking was originally made through them) to see about it and they said Continental would charge E100 per person to make a change so I didn't pursue it any futher as it wasn't worth an extra E500. However I will definitely phone Continental directly myself and see if I can get any joy there. And thanks for the tip about checking in for both flights. Can you say if we will also have to pick up and recheck the bags in Newark on the return leg?

Tallpaul, I was googling something else and it came up on a discussion forum. I googled "immigration", "dublin" and "continental" and found the same information on a number of forums but I'm sorry, I didn't even check which ones.
 
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tallpaul said:
Can I ask the OP how they found what Continental flights pre-clear immigration? We are booked on the 9am flight in a couple of months and have been trying to find out this information.
Click to expand...

There's a thread on here from a while back about what flights pre-clear immigration in Dublin. Continental isn't the only airline affected, some Aer Lingus flights don't, American's flight to Chicago doesn't, and there may be more.

[broken link removed] lists the flights from a while back. I don't think it's changed yet.
 
2h25 you should be fine really ... get a seat towards the front of the plane so your off first can make a bit of a difference

Worst case scenario it might take an hour or so to clear immigration at EWR .. (I've never known it to take longer any time I've been through there ... and often it can be quite a bit less) ... It's an online connection with Continental so you'll be protected anyway if you do miss your onward flight, but really should be fine .. it's within the "minimum connection time" or CO wouldn't have let you book it.

As stated don't worry at all on the way home .. no issue there
 
2h25 you should be fine really ... get a seat towards the front of the plane so your off first can make a bit of a difference.

EvilDoctorK, thankfully we are seated in row 9, so that should help. I am going to try and be a bit more optimistic about it I think :D


it's within the "minimum connection time" or CO wouldn't have let you book it.

Yes, I thought that too when I was making the booking but the shortest connection time Continental have on that route appears to be 1 hour 10 mins, which seems completely unachievable according to what others are saying.

Is the procedure for the return leg the same in Newark as it is on the way out, (picking up the bags and rechecking them etc.), apart from needing to clear immigration obviously?
 
Hi
Just did this last week.. Didnt realise that I could not clear Customs in Dublin until it was too late (normally take earlier flight).
When I got to Newark I was off the plane fairly quickly.. it was a fairly long walk to the customs areas but all in all it only took me about 40 - 50 mins to walk and clear customs and collect my bag and transfer it. Probably quicker than customs in Dublin on a good day!
I then had to transfer terminals and this took another approx 20 mins so you will have plenty of time as you will have checked-in in Dublin for the full flight.

Enjoy your trip!
 
girasole said:
Is the procedure for the return leg the same in Newark as it is on the way out, (picking up the bags and rechecking them etc.), apart from needing to clear immigration obviously?
Click to expand...

No, you only have to go through this procedure when arriving into the the USA; if you are connecting from a USA domestic flight to an international flight (as in your case), your bags are checked the whole way through to Dublin; you don't have to pick them up in Newark and check-in again; in fact you won't even have to clear security again in Newark, you literally just walk from your arrival gate to your departures gate.

On outbound leg, your luggage is still labelled through to your final destination but you have to pick it up and clear it through customs at Newark (you still do this even if you clear immigration prior to leaving Dublin); I haven't connected through Newark before but from experience from connecting in other USA airports, after clearing customs you just drop your bag off at a transfer desk with little or no queueing and then go straight to security with your onward boarding card.
 
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