One hour connection between flights - will they wait?
My boyfriend is arriving on Sunday to San Francisco International airport at 9:20am. Problem is, his connecting flight bound for San Antonio, TX will be leaving at 10:45am that same day. He's not a US citizen so I imagine he has to wait in a longer line to clear inspections and immigration. I've passed by this airport before without much problems, but I'm a US citizen. My question is, if he's running a bit late in customs, do the attendants wait for him? I know when I flew to Japan, they waited on one passenger who was clearing inspection. What do you think?
Air Travel - 6 Answers
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1 :
normally if a passenger doesn't have enough time to clear customs they just bump him into the next flight. it's within US and airlines normally have more than one flight flying the same leg so they can do this.
2 :
No, they won't wait. He should let the flight attendants know he has a quick connection so he can do a quick departure from the plane. If he misses his plane, he can be put on another one; there could be a small fee.
3 :
no they will not hold the flight for him
4 :
Nope. They will not wait. Best thing to do is have no checked baggage. Last time I was going through immigration in SFO, the lines for aliens was shorter than the one for citizens! Immigration and customs can be fast. The part you have the least control over is waiting for the bag to come out of the carousel.
5 :
It's entirely possible that he will not be clearing customs in San Francisco at all, depending on where he is flying in from. While most flights from foreign countries to the US will clear customs at the arrival port in the US, there are some flights (mostly from Canada) that will clear customs and immigration directly at that airport. In other words, the 85 minute connection may be sufficient if your boyfriend already cleared customs before he got to San Francisco. (If you tell us where he's flying from, it will definitely answer this question as to whether he will have to clear customs there in the first place) If he does have to go through Customs in San Francisco, though, it's cutting it close, particularly if Customs has a delay or is particularly busy.
6 :
I just arrived last Sunday at SFO. That really isn't enough time. The bags take forever to come out! This is an airport that handles A LOT of international traffic, especially packed big aircraft coming in from Asia and Europe. The Flight Attendants have no control over the situation. It's the ground agents and to some degree, the pilots who decide. We would wait if there were a large group of passengers and/or if there was only one flight per day. Especially for a morning flight, he has all day to get to San Antonio. Be aware that some airlines "pad" their schedules so if his incoming flight is on time, he might actually arrive ahead of the published schedule and have time to make his flight. Also, it really depends at SFO who else is arriving at the same time. I remember if we were late into SFO, it was a disaster because there were two other flights coming in from Asia and immigration and customs would be packed! If nobody else is arriving at 9:20am, he might waltz on through... Not being a U.S. citizen/green card holder doesn't necessarily mean he'll be any slower getting through. Sunday, we were in a much longer line as U.S. citizens at SFO. Also, and this is a technicality, when you flew to Japan, if it were out of the U.S., there is no immigration check. That customer was probably only getting through security. Disregard if you were flying to Japan outside the U.S. Good luck and just keep checking!
