Anyone flown to US from UK via Dublin?

[Stroopwaffels]

Looking at a city break to New York next spring, one of the options is to go Scotland - Dublin - New York rather than the usual Scotland - Heathrow - New York. Not much difference in price (less than £30) and you can clear US immigration in Dublin. Has anyone done this and does it really save you 2 hours as they claim on the Dublin airport website?

The flights are booked as part of the overall package - out Glasgow to Dublin to JFK with Aer Lingus. So yes, same carrier, no need to collect bags or check in again in Dublin. It wouldn't have been offered as an option if it was too tight, I'd hope. Depending on the wind direction planes from Glasgow usually take off to the south and it's such a quick flight to Dublin - 45 minutes ish. Looking at the previous flights on Flightradar they have all been on the ground 10-15 minutes early. So 90 minutes for a transfer.

There is another daily JFK flight from Dublin later in the day, we'd lose 5 hours of holiday worst case scenario.

And both the incoming flight from Glasgow and outgoing flight to JFK are T2 at Dublin. Think it's definitely worth it to avoid US immigration.

You will need to go straight to immigration, no time to stroll through the terminal.

I’ve been from Dublin a few times (we’re in NI so only an hour away from us) and although it’s generally quicker than going through immigration in the US, the queues can still be lengthy depending on the time of day and the other US flights scheduled.

Have a great time, and I'm sure AerLingus have the timings covered. I've done the Dublin/US run a few times, and yes there can be queues, but it moves and the atmosphere is just, well.... kind of pleasant in comparison to other places!

Anyway, what about the queues? Better to have it over and done with, settle in your seat and enjoy the journey knowing you will be straight out the door when the bags are picked up at JFK. Can't beat that IMO.

My husband does it every year with Aer Lingus. It's basic but efficient and good value for money

In my opinion that time between flights is VERY tight. We've done it twice from Scotland. First time was perfect, very smooth. Not stressful at all. But a good 3.5 hrs between flights. The 2nd time was I'm afraid to say horrendous. With the same time between flights as you. We made the plan with literally seconds to go and I've never bolted through an airport as fast as I did that day. It was a horrible start to the holiday and the guy at immigration was a total arsehole which didn't help.

Trip was sold as a through ticket though so Aer Lingus must be happy we can make connection.

If Aer Lingus operate like other airlines they’ll happily sell as long as timings meet the published Minimum Connection Time (MCT), which according to Dublin airport website is “75 minutes to connect a short-haul flight with a transatlantic.”

Obviously there are no guarantees and on some days a connection on or close to MCT might not work out. That’s not the end of the world if there’s space on a later flight to the same transatlantic destination.

almost every time I have been through the US immigration in Dublin, the lines are short and quick. Once I think there were long lines so it can happen.

Having now seen a previous comment with I maybe should have mentioned connection time is usually measured from time of arrival of aircraft at gate inbound to time of departure from gate outbound.

Take off times and landing times aren’t relevant and Flightradar can be misleading.

Far too tight a connection IMO. I'd recommend changing to an earlier flight from Glasgow. Or go the night before. Airlines will sell you flights with the minimum 90 minute connection, but I would never go less than 3 hours, especially with luggage. The airline will put you on the next available flight if you miss your connection, but how many flights a day are there? Consider also if you're travelling at a busy time there might not be spare seats on a flight for days. I'd definitely recommend going via Dublin. Immigration queues in the States can take hours. Really tedious after a long flight.