Advice needed: Bounced by Delta Airlines

mickrory

We're not going to the live game Shaun, we're having a long weekend in Las Vegas and attending a Big Game Party on the Sunday afternoon.

pennylane99

Probably staying in Vegas for Super Bowl, be very very lucky to have gotten a ticket for Santa Clara

Plenty of massive game watch parties going on in Vegas

duchy

jackieblack wrote: »

I was wondering why OP was flying into LAS if not taking another connecting flight.
Surely SFO would have been easier/the closest major/transatlantic arrival airport?

The joy of flying via a hub

I've routed through ATL to get to places that make little sense to do so geographically because the obvious connections were much more expensive.

The craziest was a domestic connection though Vegas to Idaho via Denver - I ended up arriving 20 hours late -It was pointed out that my friends who had driven up from Vegas got there quicker than I did !! (I drove back with them as at that point I never wanted to see Denver airport ever again LOL)

Despite that I still like flying indirect and if in the OP's shoes (and assuming Immigration isn't too bad (the new machines have made a big difference- half the alien visitors ignore them and still queue so using them gets you through quicker) I'd grab some ribs and some fresh air before flying onwards.

To be honest I'd have booked the 4 hour connection and refused the 90 mins flying on such a popular weekend - mid week out of holiday time when the next flight was more likely to still have seats I'd have booked the 90 minutes but accepted it was a risk that I'd misconnect. That's based on having flown Delta often enough that I had Gold frequent flyer status with them for several years.

jackieblack

duchy wrote: »

The joy of flying via a hub.

I assumed from the OP that they were going to the Superbowl, which is being played at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara.
Turns out they're just travelling to LV that weekend.

stewie_griffin

jpsartre wrote: »

You won't be stuck for 4.5 hours as you need to clear immigrations and customs and then reclear security. If your times are correct you want a connection of just 90 minutes which is very short and may well cause a misconnect and a much longer layover at ATL since there's no guarantee there will be enough seats of the next flight for all of you. Even if I could I wouldn't change the connection time in your case.

Hi

Sorry to hijack the thread! I'm interested to know why the OP would need to go through immigration and customs when he's on a connecting flight? I've only been on one connecting flight in my life (at Hong Kong) and we simply dropped off our bags in Osaka and picked them up at Manchester and only needed to go through immigration at Osaka.It only took us about 15-20 minutes from getting off the plane at Hong Kong to being back in the departure lounge.

The reason I ask is because we're flying to Costa Rica in a couple of months and have a connecting flight at Newark NJ. Do things work differently in the US? There's 3 hours between our flights but I was assuming we'd have about 2 hours to kill at the airport.

Voyager2002

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Hi

The reason I ask is because we're flying to Costa Rica in a couple of months and have a connecting flight at Newark NJ. Do things work differently in the US? There's 3 hours between our flights but I was assuming we'd have about 2 hours to kill at the airport.

Yes: things are different in the USA. Even if you are catching an international connection (eg London to Costa Rica via Miami) you have to pass US immigration and provide a convincing answer to the question "why do you want to visit the USA?".

richardw

stewie_griffin wrote: »

...Do things work differently in the US? ...

Yes, at your international point of entry to the US you have to go through immigration and then customs.

Are you flying United to Costa Rica from Newark?

stewie_griffin

richardw wrote: »

Yes, at your international point of entry to the US you have to go through immigration and then customs.

Are you flying United to Costa Rica from Newark?

Yes all our flights are with United (technically the outbound flight from LHR is a code share with Lufthansa). Our return flight is via IAH.

Is there anything else I need to know that I might have missed i.e. any additional forms to complete?

stewie_griffin

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Yes: things are different in the USA. Even if you are catching an international connection (eg London to Costa Rica via Miami) you have to pass US immigration and provide a convincing answer to the question "why do you want to visit the USA?".

Would "to get to Costa Rica" be convincing enough?

shaun_from_Africa

stewie_griffin wrote: »

Is there anything else I need to know that I might have missed i.e. any additional forms to complete?

Assuming that you qualify for the Visa waiver program, have you applied for an ESTA for everyone that is travelling?
Even though you are not staying in the US, you still need these if you are transiting through.

You will find all of the details here:
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/

If and when you apply, make sure that you do so from the link provided above. There are loads of "lookalike" websites who will do the application for you buy will charge far in excess of the $14 normally charged.