JFK connection time; same-day earlier flight vs. change fee?

Greetings.

I'm on the VS45 to JFK on 2nd August. I connect at JFK to a DL flight to DTW, with 1h50m between the scheduled VS arrival and scheduled DL departure. That strikes me as a little tight for JFK, but VS sells this itinerary as a single ticket, and so nominally expects passengers to be able to make the connection. The difference in my case is that I purchased the two legs separately, as doing so was drastically less expensive than the single-ticket booking with the same JFK connection.

I understand, of course, that as a result, I'm not protected by DL or VS against missing the connection. I'm considering my options for minimizing the chance of missing the connection. I have Global Entry (and therefore TSA Pre), which ought to cut down on customs and security delays nicely. But I believe I'll need to take a "jitney" between terminals to make this connection, which isn't all that quick.

One option is to carry on my bag, to avoid the delay at baggage claim at JFK. I am FC Gold, so in principle my bag ought to come out early, but there is still *some* delay for the first bag to arrive, and I can't say that the baggage handlers always respect priority tags at JFK in my experience.

Another option is to take an earlier flight to JFK the same day (VS45 departs at 2 PM, and there are several earlier JFK flights from LHR). A question to all: has anyone found they've been able to change to an earlier same-day flight without paying a change fee when holding an O fare basis ticket (as an FC Gold member, if that helps at all)? Does showing up early in the morning at the LHR CH and speaking with the flight arrangements desk there ever yield an otherwise unused seat on an earlier flight without a change fee? Or does VS consistently apply a change fee for even same-day changes on a "standby" basis?

Thanks very much,
Brad

And as you have 2 separate tickets you are not on a connection. VS certainly won't help if you miss your DL flight though DL might be more flexible.


It's quite simple if you want to change to an earlier VS flight then you will have to pay the change fee and any fare difference. There is one proviso to that is if there are major ops issues on the day such as weather then if it is in VS's interests to get passengers out earlier then they might move you for free but they aren't obligated to.

In theory if there are no delays, you should make that second flight. Once you exit out of arrivals, turn left and there is a Delta counter to obtain the ticket for your second flight. Then there is a lesser-known security checkpoint at the arrivals level for connecting flights which I hear is a lot quieter than the one up on T4 departures. Once through that you're then at the A&B gates.

The JFK-DTW flights seem to chop and change between T4 and T2, so as you've seen if it's T2 you'll need to hop on the shuttle, which is actually not too slow, maybe five minutes at the most. If it's T4 you'll need to walk up the B gate concourse which is quite long.

Unfortunately an O class ticket is totally inflexible so you'll likely need to pay up to a full Y to get any changes, which is £££.

I've always found the US airlines are very accommodating when it comes to same-day changes.

Their hub-and-spoke system means millions of passengers depend on connections each year, often very tight ones, which are inevitably sometimes missed. And with their complicated standby system usually guaranteeing there's someone waiting to fill any empty seats, gate agents always seem happy to shift people on to the next or previous flight if there's space available.

So personally I wouldn't be too worried, as DL are far less likely to have the "tough, pay for a new flight" attitude you'd get if you missed a flight on BA or another European short haul airline.