Hi. We don't travel outside the US much, so I wanted to ask please for anyone's advice on making a connection when traveling internationally.

We are going from IAH to Madrid. The outgoing flight has a 1 hour 48 minute layover in IAD (Washington DC). Is this enough time to make it to the IAD-MAD flight?

The return flight has a 4 hour layover in Toronto. I'm assuming this will be ok.

Any advice on what to expect would be very welcome. Thank you!

Assuming no flight delays then you should be good to go.

Yes good to go

Like others said, as long as there's no delays, that is plenty of time.


When I went to Spain last February, I had nearly a five hour layover in Houston and that was NOT enough time. You just never know. But normally yes, and I would book that for clients.

If your Houston to DC flight is in the morning you'll probably be fine. If it's in the afternoon or evening, it's kind of a crapshoot. It all depends on whether the first leg of your trip is on time. In 2023 we flew to Munich from DFW connecting in London. Our flight out of DFW was four hours late so I knew immediately we would not make our London connection to Munich. We were put in standby for another flight and missed it. Got the next one. Bottomline, we were 8 hours late to Munich. We were going on a cruise and were the last passengers to board. Long day…..

Yes, should be plenty of time. You will go through customs in Toronto on the way back. Download MPC app - mobile passport control for quicker service, especially if you don't have global entry.

Looks like there are 2 earlier flight from IAH - IAD on most days to hit that one nonstop IAD-MAD flight. You could always see if you can change to earlier flight our of IAH to make you less stressed about the connection throwing a wrench into the first part of your trip.