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time between connecting flight at JFK, arriving from Europe?

I'm looking at a return flight Rome-JFK-Seattle, but there's only 1hour 50minutes between flights at JFK, will that be enough time to make it through immigration/passport check coming from Rome? I'm planning to carry-on my bag (a Classic RS Back Door bag of course!), so I won't have checked luggage to deal with.
The flights are on Delta, I'm assuming I won't have to change terminals is that a bad assumption?. My outbound flight would also go through JFK, I'm going Seattle-JFK-London, and it only has 45minutes between connecting flights, but I'm assuming without the passport-control check outbound 45 minutes is a little tight, but should work. Is that too risky?

Posted by
693 posts

I would really worry about the outbound - what if your plane has to circle a while before landing at JFK or is otherwise delayed? Before leaving home, I'd have all the information about later flights and seat availability to London on your carrier and it's partners. I'd also try to sit as close to the exit as possible and tell the flight attendant about the very close connection, even though I'm not sure what they could do to help you get off the plane quickly. Be alert for gate changes, too.

Posted by
3580 posts

In general, I would not assume that a connection, using the same airline, in the USA from abroad would be close or even in the same terminal. You are transfering from an international flight to a domestic flight (or vice/versa). For me this meant going thru security again and moving to a different part of the airport at Dulles. Fortunately, the airport is small enough that great distances were not involved. The 45-min connection sounds too close for comfort.

Posted by
2876 posts

In September we went through JFK with similar connection times and had no problems, even though we had to retrieve & recheck our bags on the return flight. We were actually surprised as to how efficient things were at JFK contrary to stories we had heard. On your outbound, you won't have to retrieve bags and you'll already have your boarding passes, so you should be OK. I also believe you're right that you won't have to change terminals. If you look at your itinerary online, it will usually show you the terminals your flights are using. If the Delta website doesn't give this info, try Expedia.

Posted by
23626 posts

We came back from Prague on Delta through JFK on New Years Eve and the weekend after the big snow shut down. We had to change terminals for the domestic flight to Denver. We had three hours but an hour and half would have been sufficient. We actually had time for dinner. And the airport was a zoo with a lot of the back up still around. Assuming everything is on time, you should be more than OK.

Posted by
1167 posts

Another way to get an idea about connecting gates is to look at todays arrival departure information for the flights you will be taking. In most cases you will be able to see if a terminal change is necessary and how far apart the gates are.