Any advice on making tight connection of 1 hour and 20 minutes on flight from Chicago? I’m hoping if I miss my flight, United will put me on the next flight. Any ideas or experience welcomed. Thinking I could look for a train option or shuttle to Ljubljana.
During the last few years, we’ve had this type of connection time several times on United going thru Zurich from San Francisco with no problems.
Are both your flights on the same ticket? As has been noted in many posts on the forum,
if your flights are ticketed together, then the airline(s) are obligated to get you to your final
destination with no further cost to you.
Zurich is a pretty efficient airport, so if your flight is on time, 1:20 is not a tight connection if
your flights are ticketed together. If your inbound flight is late, Swiss will rebook you on a
later flight to Ljubljana.
However, if your flights are on two separate tickets and you have to retrieve checked bags
and recheck them for your second flight, then you most likely won't make it.
Yes on the same ticket, I guess I’ll calm down.
Funny story. In May 2022 we booked tickets on Air Canada and the returning flight was on Swiss Air (as a partner) from Florence to Montreal with a 50 minute layover in Zurich. We knew it would be tight but because the flights were all on one ticket we weren’t worrying very much. We also had checked luggage! Well the flight was delayed in Florence enough so that we only had about 30 minutes in Zurich to catch the next flight. Right before landing, a flight attendant came up to my husband and I and six other people on the flight and told us they had made special arrangements for us. As soon as the flight landed, they had us disembark the plane before everyone rose. They loaded us into a minibus and zoomed across the tarmac to a “secret” door where an immigration official was waiting for us, stamped our passports, and we were on our way back to the minibus where they zoomed us to a back door leading to the gate of our next flight! Sort of the Disney world tunnel system. I was so amazed! I imagine it’s how the rich and famous travel. The icing on the cake was that our checked luggage also made it onto the plane. I’d fly Swiss Air through Zurich anytime!
I have a one hour and 20 minute connection in Zurich as well, later this year on my way to Paris.
I’m not worried.
If my first flight is late in, they’ll put me on the next one to Paris.