Connection time in Abu Dhabi (page 2 of 3)

Whether it's 20 or 40 minutes, it was your tone that bothered me, saying "I don’t know who said that" when you know perfectly well. Condescension or contempt—you’re not the teacher, and I’m not the student.

No, I knew I had read it in the discussion, but I was replying to someone else and couldn’t remember who had written it.

And yeah, I was too lazy to open another window to display the whole discussion in one and the reply I’d already almost finished in the other.

Have a good evening. Michel

So, at 90-95%, there’s *objectively* no problem.

That’s not enough to be reassuring.

Someone who’s heading off with time to spare and a carefree attitude can take that option.

Best case, their flight goes as planned. Worst case, they lose a day on arrival and gain 600 €.

But someone who’s only going for 15 days and has their trip all planned out can’t afford to lose a day.

I’ve dealt with too many delays and cancellations that ruined part of my trip to settle for your statistic.

I’ll also add that not everyone has the physical ability to sprint through an airport...

Hello,

We don’t scare people, we don’t undermine confidence—we provide objective information!

It’s really not doing anyone a favor to promise them the moon when the path to get there isn’t guaranteed.

For some, a trip is a major investment—the savings of a few months or even years. It’s also limited time; not everyone is retired or financially independent. Five weeks of paid leave isn’t much if unexpected obstacles disrupt the trip.

Travelers dream for months before departure, so it’s best to ensure that dream goes as smoothly as possible by avoiding the most obvious pitfalls.

When it comes to flying, the pitfalls are delays, cancellations, or missed connections. It’s also about the airline or the third-party seller where the ticket was purchased.

For my part, I recommend:

- Always buying your ticket directly from the airline’s website - Avoiding separate tickets without allowing a 24-hour buffer during layovers - Forgetting about tight connections, especially on the outbound flight - Never planning anything non-refundable or expensive in the first two days - Never returning the day before an important event (job interview, exam, etc.) - Mixing everyone’s belongings across different suitcases if traveling in a group - Packing a change of clothes and essentials in your carry-on - Never booking a low-cost flight if you can’t afford a last-minute return ticket in case of cancellation (or don’t have the ability to adapt on your own)

It’s just common sense.

I 100% agree with every word you said. I’d add a few examples:

- SmartTags on checked luggage—those have already come in handy for me. - Spending at least one night in the city of your return flight to avoid a long trip and any potential issues (traffic jams, mechanical problems, etc.) - Booking a first hotel that’s cancelable without fees up to the last minute in case of flight-related surprises.

Hello,

A 1-hour connection anywhere means you’ve got to be a bit of a gambler. And when you gamble, you’ve got to accept some constraints sometimes. It all depends on a few factors:

If you miss your Etihad connection, they’ll put you on the next available flight, which could be the next day, with another airline, or via another city. In that case, the airline covers accommodation, meals, and transfers. Would you be okay losing a day, or is your schedule tight?

Don’t plan anything important within 48 hours of your theoretical arrival time.

Sometimes, you might catch your connection thanks to dedicated staff waiting for you when you get off your first flight. However, your checked baggage might not make it and could arrive 24 or 48 hours later.

If you’re okay with these three points, then go for it. As a safety net, pre-book (even if it costs a bit more) a seat as far forward as possible on your first flight. That’ll save you time when disembarking.

I’m also heading to Australia in a few months, and I’ve opted for a 4-hour layover in Qatar. That way, I can handle a potential 2.5-hour delay on my first flight. And most importantly, no stress. I’m not a gambler, and my time is precious.

You can make a mistake with a hotel where you’re only staying a few nights—it’s not the end of the world. But air travel and car rentals are two *very* important things you shouldn’t overlook.

Airlines try to set the MCT (Minimum Connecting Time) as short as possible because professional booking systems are configured that way. On most websites, you can usually filter by trip duration, price, and departure or arrival time. The shorter the trip, the higher it’ll appear in the results—where people tend to click first. This can be misleading because the MCT is purely theoretical and only works when *everything* goes perfectly. Airports like Frankfurt, Munich, and Vienna, for example, have *very* short MCTs that can be tricky at the slightest hiccup.

Make the right choice.

My connection was canceled because it was below the MCT

Well, no, it was canceled because they had closed the gates before you could reach them.

l

Hello,

It seemed to me that I had expressed myself clearly (I quote):

"So, my connection was canceled, with re-routing on a later flight (+ over 3 hours later), even though I was still in the air on the first flight segment, which had no delay."

To be even clearer, when I disembarked from the first flight segment, I already had a message from Iberia on my smartphone canceling my connection and informing me of the re-routing to Paris a few hours later.

Anyone with an Iberia connection in Madrid knows that Iberia sends every connecting passenger a message on their smartphone indicating the next steps as soon as they’re known. This could be a cancellation message as soon as the connection is canceled (possibly, as in my case, before the first flight segment lands, since the connection time was below the MCT), or it could be the terminal and boarding gate for the next flight segment as soon as that’s known.

I’ll come back to your "few dozen euros." For a couple with one child on a long-haul flight, that’s 1,800 € in compensation. Are you that wealthy to consider 1,800 € as "just a few dozen euros"?

Just to clarify, I’m a frequent traveler, and most of the time, I travel alone. For me personally, those "few dozen euros" are:

- August 2025, Swiss International Air Lines, 1,300 €. Time spent: 1 registered letter (one page), then filling out a form with the arguments I drafted during my long wait for the re-routing flight (several days), then a simple one-page letter, then another form for the court with nearly the same arguments. The biggest time commitment, aside from drafting the arguments (which actually helped pass the time during my long wait), was attending a hearing a few kilometers from my home—so, a morning. Roughly, all in all, about one day after my return.

https://retardimportantavion.wordpress.com/2024/01/12/reacheminement-catastrophique-droit-indemnisation-meme-circonstances-extraordinaires-2/

August and September 2025 (payment split into three parts because the airline was stubborn) Lufthansa, ordered to pay me 807.89 €. Time spent: 1 registered letter, then filling out a form with a few pages of arguments. No court appearance ("European Small Claims Procedure"). But I had to go to a bailiff a few kilometers from my home because the airline didn’t comply with the court decision, then 3 very brief emails to Lufthansa’s lawyer, showing a bit of firmness, to get the full 807.89 € + 80 € in bailiff fees. Roughly, all in all, about a day and a half.

https://retardimportantavion.wordpress.com/2024/10/23/lufthansa-championne-du-refus-des-droits-des-passagers/

- October 2025, Air Caraïbes, 600 €. Time spent: 1 registered letter, then filling out a form with a short one-page argument, then a brief email to Air Caraïbes, and that’s it. Roughly, exaggerating a bit, half a day.

https://retardimportantavion.wordpress.com/2025/06/13/vol-air-caraibes-saint-domingue-paris-12-06-2025-annule/

In total, counting generously, 2 days for 3 cases (and a lot of patience) for a total of 2,707.89 € (not counting the 80 € in advanced and reimbursed fees), from which you’d subtract the few costs for registered letters and some metro tickets. And above all, the immense satisfaction that airlines can’t always consider themselves above the law, disregarding passengers.

Are you that wealthy, earning over 1,350 € per day, to think that 2,700 € isn’t worth 2 days of work?

Best regards,

Hey, Just a few quick questions that matter for your "layover": Do you have a SINGLE ticket from Paris to Melbourne? Did you buy that ticket DIRECTLY from the airline’s website?

It’s not enough to be reassuring.

Someone who’s heading off with time to spare and a carefree attitude might go for this option.

At best, their flight will go as planned. At worst, they’ll lose a day upon arrival and gain 600 €.

But someone who’s only going for 15 days and has planned their trip carefully can’t afford to lose a day.

You know, I sometimes fly out of Rennes, and occasionally from Brest too. In Rennes, it’s KLM—they use an Embraer 170. If there’s over 30 knots of crosswind, especially from the south, the flight likely won’t come, and rebooking gets complicated. If things go wrong, I either lose the trip or have to jump in the car, race to Paris, and try to salvage the plan. I’ve done it before—once, a flight from Brest was canceled with no serious rebooking options because the staff needed to repair lightning damage were unavailable over the weekend.

When I say it’s a question of mindset, I mean you always have to accept some risk, even if that’s not really in our culture anymore.

Missing the connection in Abu Dhabi feels like a pretty low risk to me—just a few percent. There are other risks along the way that travelers, thankfully, don’t even think about.

I’ve experienced too many delays and cancellations that ruined part of my trip to settle for your statistics.

To me, that’s a common attitude in our aging world, but it’s not reasonable. No matter which flight you take or what connection you have, there’s always some risk—usually around 3%—that things won’t work out. The rules already protect you well in terms of refunds and rebooking, and I don’t see what more you need.

Michel

Hi, Yes, full-fare Paris–Melbourne ticket bought at a travel agency. Best regards,

You know, I sometimes fly from Rennes, and rarely from Brest. In Rennes, it's KLM—they use an Embraer 170.

I rarely fly from Clermont-Ferrand—I don’t want to miss my connection. Even less so by train, actually... I prefer pre-traveling by car—it’s way more reliable. Or spending a night near the layover airport. As a Breton, I’d leave from Nantes or make my way to Paris by car or train (those routes are much more reliable than Paris-Clermont...).

No matter the connection, there’s always some risk.

True, but you can *greatly* reduce that risk by taking the precautions I mentioned in another post. Then it just becomes bad luck. That’s different.

To me, it’s a common attitude in our aging world, but not a reasonable one.

Like Jojoone1, you’re equating getting older with becoming set in one’s ways. But gaining years means gaining wisdom and learning from mistakes.

No need to take avoidable risks!

The main thing is this: you have a single ticket. The airline will sort things out if you miss your connection. Just make sure to book something cancellable for the first two days and pack some extra clothes. Also, don’t plan any new travel to another destination in Australia within the first 2 days.

I think you might’ve sent this to the wrong person. 😉

I rarely leave from Clermont-Ferrand; I don’t want to miss my connection. Not to mention by train, even less so... I prefer pre-routing by car—it’s much more reliable.

Yeah, me too, most of the time, but that means 550 km to Paris or 950 to Amsterdam. At some point, it still adds up heavily on the car’s annual mileage.

Breton here, I’d leave from Nantes or get to Paris by car or train (those lines are way more reliable than Paris-Clermont...)

Nantes is pointless—it’s basically a charter airport, packed and with no services, mostly low-cost flights. The parking is super expensive too. Bad deal.

Tomorrow I’m doing Tbilisi-Istanbul-Warsaw, arriving at 8 PM and leaving on another flight the next day at 11 AM. There’s a risk. I’ll take it. Besides, I’ve got an even tighter connection a few days later. This generation wants everything risk-free; they’ve pushed for zero risk, the precautionary principle, mandatory insurance. Let me see that as a certain weakness—one that also shows in our global standing, something you really notice when traveling. Don’t you agree?

Michel

Like Jojoone1, you equate getting older with becoming set in your ways. But gaining years means gaining wisdom and learning from your mistakes.

No need to take avoidable risks!

Absolutely. That’s also called experience 😉

Hello, Yes, full Paris–Melbourne ticket booked through a travel agency. Best regards

If the ticket’s already booked, it’s a bit late to ask your initial question. Stack the odds in your favor with the info and tips shared in the other replies.

I think you sent that to the wrong person.😉

The problem when you read on your smartphone 😅 I deleted the message 😉

Good evening Jérôme,

Absolutely. That’s also called experience

That seems a bit simplistic to me; experience also means understanding that we’ll never think of everything, and that our precautions depend on our own priorities. For the textbook case we’re discussing here, I’m optimistic, and I think I would’ve taken the risk—unless I wanted to visit the hub lounge and enjoy it a bit, or make a stopover. It’s possible that at Etihad’s hub, there’s also a bypass that lets passengers with very short connections skip security. There might be something like that behind this tight connection. I also learned since that Abu Dhabi’s MCT is 45 minutes.

Michel

Hello Michel,

That does seem a bit simplistic; experience is also about understanding that we’ll never think of everything, and our precautions depend on our own priorities.

We all have different priorities.

For the textbook case we’re discussing here, I’m optimistic, and I think I would have taken the risk

Yes, me too—but only if I accepted the three conditions I mentioned in my post #25. That’s not my case right now. So personally, I try to stack the odds in my favor, even though something unexpected can always happen.

, unless you feel like visiting the hub lounge and enjoying it a bit, or making a stopover.

A lounge visit and a shower between two flights are always nice. A stopover is also a great solution to quickly discover a city you hadn’t necessarily planned to visit. It’s just a matter of time.

It’s possible that at Etihad’s hub, there’s also a bypass that allows passengers with very short connections to skip the security screening. Maybe there’s something like that behind this short connection.

Security screening isn’t always required between two flights, depending on the airport’s layout. Since I haven’t been to Abu Dhabi in years, I don’t know how it works now.

I also learned since that the MCT in Abu Dhabi is 45 minutes.

As I mentioned in my post #25, the MCT is theoretical, and everything has to go perfectly. Does Etihad offer an escort for short connections? That’s an interesting question to ask them. It would be very reassuring.

I just checked out of curiosity, picking a random date—November 19th, in this case.





In this case, EY is using an A380 for the first flight. If the flight is full and you’re seated at the back, it takes a while to disembark. That’s why I recommend pre-reserving a seat as close to the front as possible. If the flight is full, it’s a real time-saver.

This generation wants everything without risk; they’ve promoted zero risk, the precautionary principle, mandatory mutual insurance.

Which generation are you talking about?

(So many generalizations in just a few words...)

Zero risk doesn’t exist. It’s up to each person to know which risks they’re willing to take with full awareness.

What’s annoying, in my opinion, are the people who come complaining because they played and lost even though they knew they were taking a risk. If you say okay to the risk, you own it.

Not those who try to avoid trouble.

Hi, all the better, so if there’s ever an issue in Abu Dhabi you’ll be rebooked on another flight (I see from a quick search there’s a possible “option” via Sydney). Still, picking a seat on the Paris–Abu Dhabi leg (as another VF member suggested) might be a smart move!! Safe travels