A bit of a tight connection

[DJ737]

Hi there

What is the shortest connection you have made?

On Australia day I decided to have a bit of a ride on JQ & VA MEL-OOL-SYD-MEL.
Booked row 1 on JQ MEL-OOL and J on VA OOL-SYD-MEL award flights for going shopping at Coles & Woolies

Anyway to cut a long story short THE JQ flight was 1hr late at OOL and I stepped on to the tarmac at 1207 at gate 8, and off the tarmac onto the VA flight at 1211 from gate 3.

Is a 4 min connection from one airline to another some sort of record?

Cheers
DJ737

 

[JohnK]

Excellent.

I had 55 minutes once SYD-ICN-MNL on OZ and I was in business. The SYD-ICN flight was delayed and arrived late. At ICN someone was waiting for me and we rushed through transit security and straight onto ICN-MNL flight and they closed doors behind me. Could have been 10 minutes but not more than 15 minutes. Everything happened quickly.

Other time MNL-HKG-BKK on CX. Had plenty of time for connection but we sat on the tarmac in MNL for over an hour. Arrived in HKG with enough time to board but CX staff waiting for us told us to go straight to transfer desk where they would sort out alternate arrangements. This was last flight of night and from BKK was carrying on I think to DEL. They chose to leave ~28 passengers high and dry. We were first at transfer desk sorting things and the HKG-BKK flight was still at the gate. Very dissapointing. Poor customer service too.

There have been a few others along the way.

 

[SydneySwan]

Not a connection as such but in 1988 I was booked on a flight from Aarhus to London on SAS. Taxi got stuck behind a tractor for over 30kms in the Danish countryside and I arrived at airport 6 mins before flight departure. I ran inside and SAS said no problem as flight is delayed 5 mins. Checked in and straight onto plane. No recollection of any sort of security check but it was a different era then. Flight was last London flight of the day.

 

[mfc1964]

Few years back I was scheduled for:
- Toronto (YYZ) to LAX on Air Canada,
- a 7 hour layover to check out some lounges,
- then LAX-NAN-SYD on a separate booking with the old Air Pacific.

Due to winter snowstorms and ice at YYZ the original flight got cancelled and reconnect options quickly dried up.

Ended up at YYZ all day and on the phone to AP as I queued for the final direct flight to LAX, assuring them I was finally on my way so please notify the check-in crew and gate agents. "No worries" they said.

Got to LAX 55 mins before take-off, but was stuck mid-plane for de-boarding! The AC flight attendants helpfully asked people to let me through and, being mostly Canadians, the Red Sea before me parted.

Thankfully, I had my terminal map handy and had already pre-cleared immigration at YYZ so I got to baggage claim super quick, waited and waited then finally got my bags and ran with them from T2 to TBIT.

There was an old Fijian couple just leaving check-in and the AP guy was turning off the display lights and starting to close shop (all the surrounding check-in counters had actually closed by this time)!

I shouted out to him to wait and ran frantically to the booth. At this point it was 30 mins to take-off. He was super-relaxed, got me a boarding pass and sent me around the corner to security.

Disaster! Massive queues and no TSA staff nearby to escort me. The old Fijian couple in front saw my AP boarding pass and asked me what to do. I said the only thing we can do is try. I started loudly asking the people in front to let us through, explaining "we'd" had a 7 hour delay due to east coast snowstorms.

Not much response so I got louder and kept at it, eventually the people in front started to let us through bit by bit. Made it through but the oldies were delayed due to water bottles in their baggage. Wished them luck and bolted for the gate. Five minutes to take-off at this stage!

Arrived at the gate and the old couple were right behind me on a golf cart. The gate agents ushered us straight to the air bridge and as I headed down the ramp I did a couple of those Toyota "oh what a feeling!" jumps and let out a cry of "YES!!!".

Just before the dogleg in the air bridge i thought to myself pull it together and put on my best poker face as I approached the plane. They literally closed the door behind us and I gave the oldies a high five as they took their seats near the front.

The plane was actually pushing back as I headed down the back! I still laugh at how freaked out people looked as I approached them... a wild-eyed mess from the adrenaline and still sweating buckets from all the running.

I found an empty row up the back, flopped into the seat and gave a couple of giant fist pumps then tried to chill out, with my heart still pounding through my chest.

Needless to say, I slept like a rock all the way to NAN!

 

[UP4014]

Less than 15 mins domestic to international at DFW.

I don't recommend it.

 

[UP4014]

Not a connection as such but in 1988 I was booked on a flight from Aarhus to London on SAS. Taxi got stuck behind a tractor for over 30kms in the Danish countryside and I arrived at airport 6 mins before flight departure. I ran inside and SAS said no problem as flight is delayed 5 mins. Checked in and straight onto plane. No recollection of any sort of security check but it was a different era then. Flight was last London flight of the day.

I was sitting on the plane and my work mate had not yet driven into the car park at Sydney T3. I kept him update on the boarding status.

We both thought it was beyond hope and he would be on the next flight but amazingly he made it.

 

[AIRwin]

Booked myself and +1 on VA's final E190 flight recently which operated BNE-NTL-BNE with a 35 minute turnaround. We still had time for some photos on the tarmac when we landed before heading out and straight back in through security... There were also ground crew taking pics at both ends!

 

[juddles]

.....

Is a 4 min connection from one airline to another some sort of record?

Cheers
DJ737

I hope so!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

About 30 minutes once at SYD, BUT the kicker was that I landed at SYD Domestic Terminal and was flying out of the SYD International and all on JetStar (It was the launch deal so it was only about $20 each to Bali in Starclass) and so there was a long run to the bus, wait for bus, and then another run to the checkin. Being Jetstar at that time you had to check in for each leg.

I was meant to be earlier but my wife left something in the car and so the airline agreed that the wife and 3 kids could fly out schedule with all the bags and that I could be on the next flight and would still make the flight out of SYD. Well the second flight was delayed little and so that made things tight.

If I had of been by myself I would have missed the second flight as the Jetstar Contract staff in SYD International wanted to close the checkin there even though they knew I was coming and that the previous flight had landed. The wife was kicking up a huge fuss and that delayed their leaving long enough for me to checkin and then board.

BUT they had given away one of our starclass seats!

Complained on return. Was ignored initially and so wrote direct to the CEO with the end result being they ended up giving me about $500 in flight vouchers.

 

[Himeno]

My first international trip in 2005 (before I joined QFF). FLL-SLC-SFO on DL. FLL flight was late. Made it from the end of one concourse to the connection at the end of another concourse in 3 minutes. I was in my seat on the SFO flight 5 minutes after exiting the FLL flight.

Then they delayed the SFO flight due to all the connections.

 

[Buzzard]

On a recent US domestic leg that required a connection, I heard my name being called as I exited the airbridge.
The connection was just opposite.

 

[harvyk]

My best effort was I was flying from PER-xSYD-CBR, the PER-SYD sector got seriouly delayed. On landing in SYD I ran from gate 11 to gate 17 (I believe those where the gate numbers) and boarded straight onto my CBR flight. So our connection time was probably measured in seconds.

QF held the CBR flight for me and one other pax. It did feel a little like a walk of shame walking past the already seated pax on the plane.

 

[atomik]

[1st post, hi!]

Two close calls I can remember, not 4 minutes but stressful enough!

- Air Berlin, KRK-TXL & TXL-OSL two separate bookings but despite their assurances luggage would go straight through, at KRK they actually weren't able to port luggage through to OSL so I knew the 45min connection would be a challenge - and it was. Landed in TXL on-time at Terminal A, of course connecting flight was at the furthest gate of Terminal C. Good thing I'm an excellent runner when needed and going through luggage collection/checkin (no fuss or stress from them)/security was all a blur, final call on the PA and I was the 2nd last passenger to board.
The last ones were a family that slowly waddled along and were earlier in my way, with all the time in the world >_<

- Qantas, MEL-PER upgraded to business, thankfully, as I left CBD a little too late, FlyBus did their best to get to MEL fast and checkin at first, rudely declared that it was too late and gate is closed. I reminded her that I'm in business class and this is a disgrace, nearby a far more competent lady from Qantas pleasantly and efficiently checked me in, straight to the gate and boarding had commenced

- Speaking of customer service, in 1997 on a family trip we flew Alitalia FCO-WAW and checkin staff were insisting we leave our items that are in the lockers because the gate's closing in 5 minutes ... No way we're leaving our stuff there, grabbed it, *bolted* to the other side of the terminal and boarding hadn't even begun for another 15 minutes after we got there....no surprise I haven't flown with them since.

 

[JohnK]

Back in 2007 I had a Oneworld award that started off on a bad note. It was SYD-MEL-AKL-LAX-DCA-STL-ORD and from there onto ATH and LHR and back home. I specifically booked the long way and maximised the Oneworld award.

The SYD-MEL flight was international flight and after a few false starts and lengthy delay I was not going to make the MEL-AKL-LAX flight so back to the lounge and put on direct SYD-LAX flight arriving roughly same time.

In ORD I had a status run booked ORD-LGA-TPA-MIA-DFW-ORD to hook up with the Oneworld award again. I had a 1 hour connection in LGA and 5-6 hours overnight connection in TPA.

As it turns out the ORD-LGA flight was delayed on the ground then delayed in the air and the whole hour was used up. Landed in LGA and I had to run from the end of one terminal to security of another terminal and then down to the end of that terminal to the gate. They were waiting for me.

That flight also delayed on the way to TPA and as I found out in TPA my luggage did not make it in LGA. Finally got to hotel after midnight and left at 4:00am for a 6:00am flight. Wasted US170 on hotel.

Stupidity on my part in MIA meant I missed the MIA-DFW flight and as I had a ORD-LHR flight later in the day I was put on direct MIA-ORD flight.

One luggage caught up in ATH 3-4 days later and the other about 7 days later. But that's another story.

I guess the schedule was too tight but if anything can go wrong it certainly went wrong. Looking back now and I see that as an adventure. Not sure I can do that again with a wife and daughter.