DEN or MSP in February?

My stepson and family are cruising with us from Ft Lauderdale on Sun, Feb 17. They will fly in from Billings the day before. Two flights arrive before 3 pm the day before. One connects in Denver with 58 minutes and the other connects in MSP with 1 hour, 9 minutes. The only other reasonable option I see arrives at 10:22 pm with a 2 hour, 52 minute connection in Dallas. What would you do?

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Denver

Denver or Dallas

I'd go with Dallas. Even in good weather months I wouldn't be comfortable with such short connecting times in any major airport. If I had to chose between DEN or MSP I'd go with DEN.

I agree. I always favor longer connection times. I would choose Dallas for me. I just hate for my family members to be getting to the hotel so late. [emoji20]

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This is where we like to use the "what if" scenario. The flights into both Denver and MSP have relatively tight connection times although they both meet the minimum connection time requirements. But making these tight connections mean your original flight must be running on time or only with a very short delay. So what happens if you miss your connection? Are there later flights (on the same airline) that are likely to have available seats? If not...then what? Just fruit for thought.

Personally we don't like any of the options :(. While we do agree that the Dallas flight seems to make the most sense we are never comfortable with flights later in the day....especially during the winter. Argh!

And remember that an ice or snow storm will affect DFW far more than the other two.

Personally, I would take MSP. They really know how to handle snow and have the systems in place to keep ops running. Have been through there when the snow is falling and you'd never know (aside from de-icing) that it wasn't a normal sunny day.

Besides, Joe Patroni is there (though no longer working for TWA).

Just a follow up: a Delta schedule change took MSP off the table. I went with Denver with a slightly longer layover (1 hour, 10 minutes). I’ll keep my fingers crossed. (But, I have a plan B, just in case.)

Thank you so much for your input!

Is there anyway your step son can fly on Friday.

I say this because while the connections can be a problem the originating flight can be a problem with weather out of Bilings.

Just something to look at.  

As to connections I prefer longer connections regardless of weather.  Things happen.

If your grandson cannot come earlier I would go with the connection in DFW because of the connection time.

Keith

You'll likely be fine. But DFW certainly would have given you more "what if" options with plenty of flights between DFW and FLL and MIA. DEN not as many. But if weather is the concern, well then it would not matter much how many flights there are out of the airports. 

DEN is used to the snow too. Unless it is a massive storm you should be fine. And if it a massive storm or weather looks bad the day before, maybe see what the airline can do to avoid DEN and go to another airport if possible. Though with DEN I don't think United goes anywhere else from Billings.