Dallas Fort Worth Airport Question

[Nnlsbin]

hi

I am on a flight that lands in Dallas at 13.45 on a Thursday, and am trying to book a flight through to Cancun. There is a flight that departs at 16.45, would the 3 hours be enough time to get to this flight, I would need to recheck in my luggage- or would this be cutting it too fine?

I have never been to Dallas airport so dont really know how busy it is or the time.

thanks in advance

 

[SeatBackForward]

hi

I am on a flight that lands in Dallas at 13.45 on a Thursday, and am trying to book a flight through to Cancun. There is a flight that departs at 16.45, would the 3 hours be enough time to get to this flight, I would need to recheck in my luggage- or would this be cutting it too fine?

I have never been to Dallas airport so dont really know how busy it is or the time.

thanks in advance

I assume you are flying with Qantas to DFW. If your onward flight is with Americna Airlines, then Qantas should be able to check your bag right through from Sydney.

As for the three hours, that should be plenty of time, you will have to clear through immigration at Dallas, collect your bag and if it has already been checked to Cancun, you just take it to a drop off area.

 

[serfty]

...
As for the three hours, that should be plenty of time, you will have to clear through immigration at Dallas, collect your bag and if it has already been checked to Cancun, you just take it to a drop off area.

3 hours is the minimum time I would allow.

 

[Nnlsbin]

thanks for the info

 

[NM]

3 hours is enough time, providing your inbound flight is not delayed by an hour. Anything more than an hour delay and you are likely to be toast if you have to re-check bags.

If it was on a single ticket with bags through checked, I would be comfortable with 3 hours. If on separate tickets, I would be allowing a lot more, such as an overnight stop at DFW - but I am very conservative when it comes to such risks, especially if its my money that is at risk.

 

[RooFlyer]

hi

I am on a flight that lands in Dallas at 13.45 on a Thursday, and am trying to book a flight through to Cancun. There is a flight that departs at 16.45, would the 3 hours be enough time to get to this flight, I would need to recheck in my luggage- or would this be cutting it too fine?

I have never been to Dallas airport so dont really know how busy it is or the time.

thanks in advance

Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) airport is very large and very busy!! Five terminals connected by an airside train.

DFW layout

Being on separate tickets, and needing to re-check and re-do security, I'd be with NM; definitely get more than 3 hours.

 

[SeatBackForward]

I think knwoing whether it is a single ticket, and whether the bags can be checked through (and so having the onward boarding pass also) is a big factor in this.

 

[RooFlyer]

I think knwoing whether it is a single ticket, and whether the bags can be checked through (and so having the onward boarding pass also) is a big factor in this.

OP says they are flying into DFW at 13:45 (so they have this ticket), and are wondering about what time they should seek a flight out (don't have that ticket). So 2 tickets, and then best strategy to book on same airline and get the PNRs merged if possible.

 

[Grooba]

I think knwoing whether it is a single ticket, and whether the bags can be checked through (and so having the onward boarding pass also) is a big factor in this.

I don't think it's a single ticket as the OP saying he is on a flight into DFW and he is looking to book a flight to CUN.

So 3+ hours gap would be highly recommended.

 

[vetrade]

Now you people have got me worried...........we're flying AA as part of a RTW trip NRT - DFW in August landing at 9.00am and then transferring to another AA flight which departs to CUN at 11.10am
Is 2hr 10min going to be enough time ? Both flights on the same PNR and both on AA.

 

[serfty]

Same ticket on AA? - you'll be well protected ...

 

[RooFlyer]

Now you people have got me worried...........we're flying AA as part of a RTW trip NRT - DFW in August landing at 9.00am and then transferring to another AA flight which departs to CUN at 11.10am
Is 2hr 10min going to be enough time ? Both flights on the same PNR and both on AA.

That's a significant difference to the OP's situation but you will have time challenges.

Your bags will be checked through but you will need to clear immigration, reclaim your bags, clear customs then put them on a transfer belt.

I haven't cleared customs at DFW (I do USA pre-clearance at my Canadian departure port), so others might better comment on the connection time. At least being AA to AA I think you will OK getting another AA flight if you do mis your connection (but that's cold comfort, I know).

 

[Grooba]

Now you people have got me worried...........we're flying AA as part of a RTW trip NRT - DFW in August landing at 9.00am and then transferring to another AA flight which departs to CUN at 11.10am
Is 2hr 10min going to be enough time ? Both flights on the same PNR and both on AA.

Yup no concerns whatsoever. If you miss a connection it's AA's responsibility to get you to CUN. The difference is that the OP will be on separate tickets so if the connection is missed it's the OP's responsibility, not the airline.

 

[PMHI]

Addressing connection time, last week I arrived in DFW on QF7 about on time at 1325 and had an AA/QF code share at 1525. This one hour and forty minute connection is really one hour and ten minutes if boarding the AA flight 30 mins before departure. Anyhow, on deplaning QF7 they handed out orange express connection cards to at least thirty people including me and this accesses short queues at immigration and customs. Other queues were fairly long and even the airport train between terminals takes a while.

Summary - If you do not get the orange express connection card then allow at least three hours.

 

[vetrade]

Yup no concerns whatsoever. If you miss a connection it's AA's responsibility to get you to CUN. The difference is that the OP will be on separate tickets so if the connection is missed it's the OP's responsibility, not the airline.

But we're on a Oneworld RTW award itinerary (the 280,000 pt one) in J and I understand that if we miss any of the segments the rest of our itinerary is scrapped, irrespective of whether it's my fault or the airline's.
Can you clarify whether I would be safe from this possibility if both flights are AA?

 

[SeatBackForward]

Addressing connection time, last week I arrived in DFW on QF7 about on time at 1325 and had an AA/QF code share at 1525. This one hour and forty minute connection is really one hour and ten minutes if boarding the AA flight 30 mins before departure. Anyhow, on deplaning QF7 they handed out orange express connection cards to at least thirty people including me and this accesses short queues at immigration and customs. Other queues were fairly long and even the airport train between terminals takes a while.

Summary - If you do not get the orange express connection card then allow at least three hours.

Was this because you had both flights on a single ticket? or were they simply handing them out to anyone who identified they had a short connection?

 

[Skyring]

As it happens, I have just this moment slotted last month's DONE4 itinerary into my Trip Report binder.* I arrived AA51 LHR-DFW (awesome flight on a brand-new 77W) at 1354 gate time, delaid half an hour past the scheduled arrival of 1325. My next flight was AA1943 DFW-SEA at 1525, so it was a bit tight. Luckily there wasn't much queue in immigration, and at bag-recheck I farted around unsuccessfully trying to get the bags added to the next days flight, wasting twenty minutes. There was also a terminal change, from D to A on the AAirtrain, but I made it to the gate in time.

To discover that there was a delay of an hour. I wandered up to the Admirals' Club, had a shower, a coffee, a bunch of salty snacky things, and a bit of internet. I also had time to get a Starbucks Dallas souvenir mug before eventual boarding at 1625.

So I managed to make the transfer including immigration in well under three hours.

Granted, it was AA-AA on a single AA ticket, a terminal I'm reasonably familiar with, and a breeze through immigration. Plus the bonus spring in my step just for being in Texas.

Pete, honorary Texan


*Yes, I'm going to complete it.

 

[JohnPhelan]

But we're on a Oneworld RTW award itinerary (the 280,000 pt one) in J and I understand that if we miss any of the segments the rest of our itinerary is scrapped, irrespective of whether it's my fault or the airline's.
Can you clarify whether I would be safe from this possibility if both flights are AA?

No problem, because you're not missing a segment - it's just that AA would change that segment from one flight to another flight.

 

[drron]

But we're on a Oneworld RTW award itinerary (the 280,000 pt one) in J and I understand that if we miss any of the segments the rest of our itinerary is scrapped, irrespective of whether it's my fault or the airline's.
Can you clarify whether I would be safe from this possibility if both flights are AA?

We have had Aaward tickets NRT-DFW-xx_ on a few occasions.We have not yet had long queues when coming off the NRT flight.We usually have ~ 2 hours between flights and have not missed one yet.
If the NRT plane was late then on the same PNR AA would just put you on a later flight and no problems with missing a segment.
We have had an experience with a RTW QFF award and missed flights.We were booked on AA CDG-JFK.The French as they are inclined to do put on a general strike that day and our flight was cancelled..As you can imagine CDG was a shambles that day.The Aagent got us booked on flights CDG-MIA-LGA for later that day,told us to go to the lounge and she would inform the staff there as to our problems as this was a QFF award.The lounge Aangel spent considerable time but finally got us on the later CDG-JFK flight,had emailed QF and got a reply that she printed out for us saying our future segments were OK.

 

[oz74]

Sorry to hijack the thread but I have a similar question and don't see the point of starting a new thread.

My wife and I will be arriving from Buffalo NY to JFK on delta and connecting to an AA flight to MIA.

My question is 1 hour 30 enough time to change terminals and recheck our bags?

Thanks for any advice.