Flight schedule change - would you keep it?

1) IAH is the airport that I fly in and out of internationally about 4 times a year.

2) If it were not United, I would say no sweat as 1.5 hours is an "okay" connection time at IAH.

3) I live a 3.5 hour drive West of IAH and my only flight connection to IAH is United.

4) United has screwed up so many times that I quit trying and now I drive to IAH.

Is it the local flight or the international flight that was changed?

If the local flight was the one changed, what options are available?

What was your original connection time and from which airport are you starting?

Two questions you need to ask yourself (and answer)...

1. What is the risk?

2. What are your options?

For a connection at IAH, in my experience, 90 minutes ought to be pretty safe for YOU to make the connection. Somewhat less safe for your checked bags. So, what happens, and how bad would that be, if you miss the connection; what happens and how bad would that be if you make the connection but your checked bag doesn't?

How frequent are United's flights from IAH to your destination? If you (or just your bag) misconnects, how bad would that be? Are you going to be in your destination city for several days before moving on, or would you be hitting the ground and zooming off somewhere (like getting on a cruise ship)? If your bag misconnects, it will often arrive -- and be delivered to your hotel -- the next day (maybe sooner of there are frequent flights, maybe later if the airline doesn't fly that route every day). Typically you would have to manage without your checked bag for 24 hours, maybe longer. If you're staying at your arrival hotel for several days, that's less risky (delivery of misconnected bags is often quite reliable). If you've moved on quickly, then the risk is much higher that your bags may not catch up with you for many days, possibly never. So take a hard look at what would happen to you (and your bags) if there's a missed connection.

Also take a look at your own options. Can you switch to an earlier departure for your initial leg, which may involve an inconveniently early departure, and a long layover? How early/how long? How awful would that be, versus the consequences of things going sideways? You need to weight the possible inconvenience of leaving early against the potential consequences of you/your bags missing that connection.

Personally, I don't mind killing a few hours in an airport lounge if it gets me peace-of-mind. I prefer the travel itself to be stress free. Of course, there are limits, but you gotta weigh the details of the risks, consequences, and trade-offs. Tolerance for those will vary.

I just had a notification from United Airlines that my flight had been changed, as well. In my case, this added a second stop on the way home, and more than three hours to my arrival time at SFO. If I had wanted to deal with getting on and off a plane three times just to get home after 11 p.m., I would have booked a cheaper flight. No thanks. I had a really difficult time getting help to make a change (waiting on hold for hours both online and on the phone, being cut-off twice), so I am not sure that I will ever voluntarily use United again. On my third attempt, I connected with someone who confirmed that I could reject the airline changes and book something else, but he advised me to wait until June. He said that in June, there will be even more changes, and they would likely add back more flights to the shedule. The reservation agent said that I might even be assigned back to my original flight. The strong message was that I was better off waiting until June. You may not have that option, but if I were you, I would look for flights with sufficient time to make changes. Arriving at your gate in a lathered sweat is no fun, and certainly having your suitcase miss the flight as well is even worse. I am a carry-on traveler, whenever possible, but I always opt for a longer connection time due to negative past connection experiences. I never assume that everything will go smoothly. Good luck!

I’ve also had bad schedule changes on United for international flights and even Southwest for domestic. Most of the time the flights were not the best available flights, but cheaper ones with more stops or bad connections... About half the time I don’t receive the United email notification of changes, so I now check my flights for changes. I check alternatives and then call United - each time they were able to put me on the flights I wanted. One time the flight changed by 5 min and they put me on a connection instead of keeping me on the nonstop. Personally, I’m not sure if I’d keep the new flights going through IAH if it’s a connection to Europe. What happens if you don’t make your short connection? Are there multiple options or will you be stuck until the next day?

Interesting topic petty-j. I too have a flight change from UA, the third one. It is now PHX to IAH, then IAH to LHR with an 1hr 20min connection between flights. I'm not comfortable with that little time in an unknown airport. I like long connections (3hr) for potty breaks and food, plus I can't run fast especially pulling a carry-on. However my flight is Aug 31. I won't be surprised if UA changes it at least once more. At this point I'm not (too) worried but watching the flights almost daily. If not, I can reschedule one time for free.

Anne, I just read your post about June changes. Thanks for the info.

We had our United flights changed pretty wonkily but it worked out in the end for our June trip. We were supposed to connect to Prague through Munich. They switched my husband and his mother to connecting through Frankfurt instead but left my sister and I on the original flight but canceled the leg to Prague from Munich. One phone call and my sister and I were put on the same flight as hubby and his mom through Frankfurt. We will be getting to Prague only an hour later than our original flight. I'll take it.

We fly out of IAH all the time for International flights. It's doable, as long as your original flight is not late. It takes about 10-14 minutes to change terminals. Are you arriving in Terminal C?
International departures fly out of Terminal D. They have sky trains that connect all the terminals, you can also walk it. At Terminal D, you may have to go back through security. Not sure. What time is your international flight, and destination? BTW, the United lounge is one of the nicest at IAH Terminal D. Are you connecting to another United flight internationally?

https://www.fly2houston.com/iah/interterminal-transportation

Thank you everyone for your replies and thoughts! I decided to contact UA and rebook my trip. Since I had used award miles, I was able to secure an even better route!

Similar scenario happened to me! The schedule changes to both legs of my flights cut the layover at AMS from 2.5 hrs to just 1 hr. Initially I was willing to put up with it since there're many domestic flights from AMS to my destination. But then came a third change involving plane type; and the PE seat I booked was not available. So I ended up rebooking my flights.
I think you make the right call to rebook; missing the international flight from Huston to Europe could be a big impact as there're likely few nonstop international flights from IAH to Europe.

I would consider carring your bag on, if you can.