2hr15min Connection Sufficient for SQ22 to AA Flight at EWR?

[DefN]

Need to connect to another flight (separate itinerary) at EWR. For my November flight, SQ22 is scheduled to land at 5.30am at Terminal B and I am wondering if I can make it to an AA domestic flight at 7.45am in Terminal A? This will give me a 2hr 20min connection including clearing immigration and customs as a PEY passenger and non-US citizen.

What are my chances? The next flight out on AA is only at 1.30pm and this will be a loooong wait. Am only planning to take AA as I need to clear pre-Covid flight credits.

Thinking of taking my chances as my previous experiences have it that EWR immigration is quiet at that time in the morning, and with the lower passenger count on this flight, all the bags roll out pretty quickly. But all these experiences are during pre-Covid times.

[yflyer]

Hi DefN! If I were in your shoes, since this is a separate itinerary where the airline has no obligation to get you to your final dest, I would just book the later 1.30pm AA flight. On paper, a 2 hrs 20 min looks possible, but not a sure thing, esp if you have luggage. Any delay of the inbound SQ flight, or even a long immigration queue, might mess up your plans. Of course I am very risk averse, not a daredevil when it comes to connections.

In general, when I travel, I pad out my plans with very generous connection times (Some say overly generous). On the occasions in the past when I did arrive early enough to catch an earlier connection, I would go to the gate and ask to get on an earlier flight, and often, they let me switch without any additional cost, although with some tickets it might not be possible.

[WBT]

yflyer makes good points here, so bear those in mind. I think f the official MCT for EWR international to domestic is 3 hours, so you're not that far off. Based on my previous experiences landing at EWR, 2h20m should be enough especially as most of my EWR flights landed early. My last flight to EWR was in June, and I cleared immigration in less than ten minutes. On some other occasions, pre-pandemic, the wait was longer. If you happen to come right behind one of the arrivals from Latin America or the LY flight from Tel Aviv, the wait can be even longer. And your SQ flight may be delayed in the first place.

My connecting flights at EWR typically depart after 9am, and I have always found that to be a long boring wait... EWR is not the most exciting airport.

In the end it depends on your level of risk aversion. It's doable I would say but with a non-negligible risk of things going awry.

[DefN]

Thanks for the sound opinions.

There will be risks involved, especially in the unlikely event that SQ22 gets delayed. My AA flight is on domestic first, so that may probably ease the queues at check-in and security for the 2nd flight. But the risk is that I am travelling as a family, so although my kid is old enough to carry his own bag and run with us, it is still making me think long and hard about making the switch. The odds of not making the connection is quite small, but the repercussions if it happens are quite disastrous.

Waiting in EWR for 7 hours for the next flight is definitely not something I look forward to, especially after flying for 18 hrs; and taking a train into Manhattan is probably too inconvenient with all my carry-on, hence the very great temptation to switch and take the risk.

[WBT]

Ah yes, traveling as a family does make things more complicated! I agree that going into Manhattan is not a good idea. One alternative would be to go to an airport hotel (there's a Marriott very near by, free shuttle every 15 minutes), have a meal there, and return to the terminal. Or even try to get a day room if they offer it (I only did overnight there) to shower and relax after the long flight from Singapore.

[Short Final]

I did SQ22 this past August and I was also contemplating a short connection. I decided to go with a connection with a gap of 3.5 hrs, instead of one with under 2 hours. I had looked at SQ22 flight history and found that flight is frequently late in arriving. I also know from previous experience that you can get lucky and have an empty immigration line, or you can get unlucky and arrive just 10 minutes after two other flights and all of a sudden you are in an hour long line.

I ended up happy taking the longer connection: the flight arrived late by about 30 minutes. Immigration was empty, but I also had Global Entry. But then the hold up was at baggage claim. I got from the plane to baggage claim in less than 15 minutes. But then I waited at baggage claim for 40 minutes. Then after rechecking my bag for the connection and taking the train to a different terminal, it took me another 30 minutes to get through security.

I agree waiting 7 hours at EWR would suck, but it's easy to take the train to the city from the airport rail station. I've done it when I've missed my connection and it was a breeze and cheap to get to Penn Station in NYC.

In the end, how did it turn out DefN ?

[DefN]

I did SQ22 this past August and I was also contemplating a short connection. I decided to go with a connection with a gap of 3.5 hrs, instead of one with under 2 hours. I had looked at SQ22 flight history and found that flight is frequently late in arriving. I also know from previous experience that you can get lucky and have an empty immigration line, or you can get unlucky and arrive just 10 minutes after two other flights and all of a sudden you are in an hour long line.

I ended up happy taking the longer connection: the flight arrived late by about 30 minutes. Immigration was empty, but I also had Global Entry. But then the hold up was at baggage claim. I got from the plane to baggage claim in less than 15 minutes. But then I waited at baggage claim for 40 minutes. Then after rechecking my bag for the connection and taking the train to a different terminal, it took me another 30 minutes to get through security.

I agree waiting 7 hours at EWR would suck, but it's easy to take the train to the city from the airport rail station. I've done it when I've missed my connection and it was a breeze and cheap to get to Penn Station in NYC.

In the end, how did it turn out DefN ?

Hasn’t happened yet - will only be there in late November. If the flight makes it there in good time, and the stars all align at immigration and baggage claim, I may just hop on a train to Penn Station after checking in my bags for the connecting flight. A nice hearty breakfast at a diner should make the trip into Manhattan worthwhile.

Will update here on how it turned out…