Connecting from Continental to Virgin at Newark

On an upcoming trip I'll be arriving at Newark on an international Continental flight and then connecting onto VS 002.

Two hours and twenty mintutes seemed like plenty of time to make the connection, before I realised they use different terminals.

Virgin and Continental have given conflicting information about connecting airside and therefore avoiding having to pass through US immigration and back through security. Continental says it's possible, Virgin that it's not. This trip is booked as two separate tickets, to max elite miles/tier points, so if I miss the Virgin flight I'm stuck.

Anyone have any experience/advice?

[mcmbenjamin]

(kicking myself for a comment a week or so ago)

If you are coming from Canada, the Bahamas and other places you will pre-clear at the departure airport and arrive like a domestic (internal if you must but I hate that word) flight. This would normally work out fine but I would allow four hours to connect.

Otherwise you will have to get your passport stamped, claim your bags, pass customs and recheck and check your bags. This could take time.

Newark's VS checkin area is small. In fact I have not been to an airline's checkin area at Newark and felt good.

On a similar vein (hence I figured best to avoid starting a new thread ) we are connecting in LAX at end Sept - from VS007 to a United flight to PSP. VS007 is scheduled in at 14:50 and the UA flight is scheduled out at 18.13. The UA flight was booked separately, not my preference but it was loads cheaper to book it direct on united.com than for VA to ticket it.

Is this enough time to disembark 007, clear Immigration, collect luggage..etc and get over to Terminal 8? My reckoning is that it should be but, looking at recent 007 history, it has been regularly arriving 40-60 mins late. If, say, it arrived an hour late it could be 17:00 by the time we've got our bags and are making tracks to T8! The good news is that we'll be able to check-in on-line for the UA flight before we leave home and it seems like we'll be able to dump our cases at EasyCheck-in Curbside at T8.

Any advice welcome

James

After you collect your bags at LAX you will recheck them at the transit check in on your way out after customs.
You will then catch one of the free airport terminal buses that keep going round in a loop (Bus A IIRC). Going to terminal 8 may take around 10 mins with normal traffic.
One thing to remember though is that apparently LAX is notorious for delaying peoples luggage on int-domestic flights. Mine was delayed by 12 hours and the airline told me that this happens very often indeed. You may want to pack a change of clothes in your carry-on.

Thanks for that Dunbarm.

The only thing is that our bags will not have been pre-tagged to PSP at original LHR check-in (as Virgin have only issued us with a ticket as far as LAX). Therefore, as far as the system is concerned, we are terminating at LAX. I thought you could only take your case to the transit check-in if it is pre-tagged with your final destination, or do they have every conceivable tag at that desk for all flights departing LAX?

Thinking about it, we will be in posession of a boarding pass for the UA flight as we'll have self printed these at home before leaving. Maybe the transit desk would then see this as proof of having checked in, but how would UA know that our cases are on the way to the PSP flight, does the transit desk have a system to tell UA?

Cheers,

James

I'm coming in from Mexico, so I guess I'll have to clear immigration, but have a US passport. I'm not planning to check a bag to speed things up and will check-in to the VS flight online, but it would only take a small delay on the CO leg to throw things off. (I don't quite see the point of VS online check-in as unlike CO you still have to pick up a boarding pass at the airport. I had a scare recently when an UC limo failed to show and I got to the desk 59 minutes before departure. Although already checked in the guy at the desk insisted I'd missed the flight until I got a supervisor involved)

Anyone have any experience with the VS team at Newark? Wondering if they strictly enforce the 60 boarding pass pickup and what's likely to happen if I do miss the connection?

My bags were marked all the way through to PHX so that's how the transit desk knew were they should be going. The transit desk was just a guy loading the bags onto a conveyor belt. I did not notice a facility there for you to get the bags tagged for another destination. I don't know for sure, but I reckon you're going to need to go to the UA check-in desk. This is not a problem though, just hop onto one of the terminal buses and you'll be dropped off quite near to the UA desks.

Many thanks Dunbarm, appreciate the advice I may just ask a question on the ask a guru board as to whether or not VS may just be willing to tag our luggage to PSP!