I will be arriving United Airlines at 7:45AM.
NO checked bags and I have an Alitalia flight at 10:00AM separate ticket. Do you think I have enough time to clear customs and check in for my next flight? I think I go from terminal 3 to terminal 1.
Can anyone please explain what I need to do once I get off the United Flight.
Thanks for your help.
Probably but it could also be maybe and it could be very tight. Just depends on how fast you can get through immigration. Sometimes I have been through in less than an hour. On a Saturday, last May, it was two and half hours. It is a dice roll. Customs is a walk through. Many times the cut off time for checkin is 45 minutes so you need to checked in by 9.15. Better if you could print your boarding pass prior to leaving the US. Then you could go directly to the gate. Security should be OK at that time of morning.
Off the flight, follow the flow to immigration, keeping going to customs - Green door, Nothing to Declare, and to the front of the airport check in, through security and to your gate.
Personally I would book at least an hour or more wider time frame. If I was running on a single ticket, I would try it but with two separate tickets there is a fair amount of risk. What is the back up if you miss the 10am plane?
Thanks for your reply. I didn't think I needed to go through Immigration and leave the secure area and than go back through security being I have carry on ? I thought I would just go through passport control and stay airside from non-Schengen arrivals to T1.
My flight to Rome in February and my husband's in March each landed about an hour late. This is unusual for us but it can happen.
I thought I would just go through passport control and stay airside from non-Schengen arrivals to T1.
If your next destination is non-Schengen you may avoid passport control. You will always have a security check when transferring. Check the FCO website. Some airports give you very good information on where to go and what to expect.
If your destination is a Schengen country, then you will have to go through passport control when you land and enter the Schengen zone. If you
I probably should of originally said I was coming from the USA to FCO on United and than FCO to Naples on Alitalia. Separate tickets. Can I stay airside and avoid immigration and just go through passport control.
Thanks.
"Can I stay airside and avoid immigration and just go through passport control."
Immigration and passport control are, in this case, the same thing. You cannot stay airside, because you are not on a "connecting" flight but two separate flights. Therefore you must "enter" Italy (and the Schengen zone) in the Rome airport before going anywhere else.
In April 2014 I did the same thing you are going to do, except I had checked luggage, and had three hours to make the next flight. I made it with time to spare (even though I had to claim my luggage at T3 and recheck it in T1), but of course the time it takes to get through immigration can never be predicted.
Since you will not have checked luggage, here's the procedure. You land at Terminal 3, then follow the herd into the terminal building (usually requires a shuttle train, as flights from the US land at a distant part of T3). You go through immigration, then make your way to Terminal 1. I did this outside and it took about 10 minutes; I don't know if there's a way to do this to avoid going outside (which would only be necessary if it's raining). Assuming you've printed your boarding pass, you then go through security and go to your next flight. You should be able to print your Alitalia boarding pass before leaving the US (I think you can do this 24 hours before your flight, so if you're flying at 10 AM on, say, June 15, that means anytime after 4 AM Eastern time on June 14).
Harold is absolutely correct. Passport control and immigration are exactly the same. And you cannot stay behind security because you have to go through both immigration (first) and customs (second) since you are arriving in Italy and your flight terminated in Italy. You next flight is a domestic flight. And you are now dirty (security terms) because you have had or could have had access to checked luggage. The fact that you didn't check does means anything. Hopefully you will have the board pass in hand so you can by-pass the check-in and go directly through the security for your departure flight. To make that flight schedule, you have to a on time arrival, fairly quick through immigration/passport control with board pass in hand. l
