Change of schedule - by 10 minutes!

Hi folks,

I got a text and e-mail from VS today, to tell me that our return flight from MCO to LGW in October (VS16) has been rescheduled. They went on to apologise for the inconvenience, and advise connecting passengers to contact them directly. I was a bit concerned, as we're travelling back to Belfast with EZY, and while the stop-over in LGW is fine (3 hrs), I wouldn't want to be cutting it much finer...

However, the schedule change is a whopping 10 minutes! A 2050 departure from MCO is now scheduled for 2100...so why the drama? I'm surprised they bothered telling us! Any ideas why they have shifted the flight by such a small amount?

For some people it might not be the later departure that causes problems but a later arrival.

If 10 minute later arrival means a connection is less that the Minimum Connection Time for the airport then they will have to be re-booked and that could have consequences.

Your own onward flight is not affected (as it's not even a connection as it's not on the same booking) but someone else's could well be.

I'm sure the system is automated and sends the same message whether the change is 10 minutes or 10 hours.

Look at it this way: if they hadn't told you, and if the flight had been retimed 10 minutes earlier and you were told you couldn't board because you cut it fine and missed the cut-off for check in, you'd be livid.

And as tonty correctly says, even the smallest of retimings may affect someone with a tight connection on arrival at LGW.

My change for my return next November from Antigua was 5 mins

[honey lamb]

American airlines have flight times such as 5.29pm or 7.23am. I have received notification of changes of one minute!

That fits in nicely with my message.
My outbound flight has changed. I had to check twice before I noticed we are landing at MCO 10 minutes later.
Take off from LGW is the same 1300.
So I should get an extra 10 minutes in 6A
Dick D

If 10 minute later arrival means a connection is less that the Minimum Connection Time for the airport then they will have to be re-booked and that could have consequences..

How can we find out what the minimum connection time is for various airports?

(I'm looking for ATL and nothing seems to tell me an exact number, but it would be good to work out how to get this info!)

If 10 minute later arrival means a connection is less that the Minimum Connection Time for the airport then they will have to be re-booked and that could have consequences..

How can we find out what the minimum connection time is for various airports?

(I'm looking for ATL and nothing seems to tell me an exact number, but it would be good to work out how to get this info!)

I'm not sure you could specify a time for ATL as it is massive and they have a nasty habit of changing the gate and sending you on a 20 min walk.
Dick D

Ok, so I get that 10 minutes might matter if you have a connection (although if you can't afford 10 minutes, maybe your connection is a bit too tight!), but why would the schedule be changed by such a little amount?

Ok, so I get that 10 minutes might matter if you have a connection (although if you can't afford 10 minutes, maybe your connection is a bit too tight!), but why would the schedule be changed by such a little amount?

Take LHR as an example. It advertises a minimum connection time of 90 minutes. So if your original flight from JFK was due to arrive at 0900 and your connecting flight to EDI was due to leave at 1030, the system would allow it as it's a 90 minute connection (which is perfectly doable). But if the JFK flight was then retimed to arrive at 0905, the system would flag it up as too tight a connection (even though it's still perfectly doable) and you should be rebooked on to a later EDI flight.

Some LHR terminals (5, certainly) have "conformance" whereby if you haven't scanned your boarding pass at the entrance to security by a certain time before departure (35 minutes maybe?) the barriers won't open and you won't be allowed through even though in practice you could probably still make it to the gate before the flight closes.

Why do schedules change? Airlines have to draw them up well over a year in advance so inevitably there'll be some tweaks as the airports juggle their slots.

If 10 minute later arrival means a connection is less that the Minimum Connection Time for the airport then they will have to be re-booked and that could have consequences..

How can we find out what the minimum connection time is for various airports?

(I'm looking for ATL and nothing seems to tell me an exact number, but it would be good to work out how to get this info!)

I'm not sure you could specify a time for ATL as it is massive and they have a nasty habit of changing the gate and sending you on a 20 min walk.
Dick D

I've seen people on flyer talk post from a tool called KVS

All airports have them and are set on what is a reasonable amount of time to process passengers and move luggage etc

There can and Is some variation from the MCT but it is better just to think of it in blanket terms.

At lhr it varies from terminal to terminal depending where you're flights arrive and depart and international to international or domestic and combinations thereof.

It can be varied eg the day flight from jfk to some of the late lhr departures (I think CPT) is 60 minutes rather than the usual higher figure but it is a risk VS are willing to take in denying boarding to late passengers from the connections and having to compensate them. But if your onward is with another airline the usual MCT would apply

My other half has just received an email from Air Berlin notifying her of a change of schedule that involves being flown to a different airport....

You should think yourself lucky that you are not in my position. We are flying Singapore Air LHR-SIN-CHC and the connection was tight to start with (but legal) and now it has just shifted to the minimum conection time at Changi of 50 minutes. what struck me was, like you, it was a 10 minute change and we went from "oh we've got an hour" (which seemed ages) to "s***, it is only 50 minutes" (which doesn't seem ages). It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I am told that they hold the plane as a stack of people make this connection all the time. Hmmm.