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Any day
Friday, October 9 · typical odds for a Friday (too early for a weather forecast) · issued Sun 4:00 PM ET · connections flying that day

Fri, Oct 9: Delta via Salt Lake City, leaving 12:30, is the safest bet: 80% chance of reaching Dulles on time; the tightest one-ticket connections make it only 60% of the time.

Best connections that day, one ticket

Ranked by chance you reach Dulles on time, from each leg’s forecast for the day. Total trip = scheduled departure to arrival (Dulles is 3 h ahead of Oakland). Layovers up to 4 hours. Pick a connection for its 12-month details.

DeltaDetails → OAK 12:30 → SLC 15:22DL 4134 · flown by SkyWest 2h 08m Salt Lake City SLC 17:30 → IAD 23:29DL 847 7h 59m 99% 80%
AlaskaDetails → OAK 10:22 → SEA 12:26AS 705 3h 35m Seattle SEA 16:01 → IAD 23:59AS 406 10h 37m 99% 78%
AlaskaDetails → OAK 06:49 → SAN 08:25AS 2288 · flown by Horizon 2h 09m San Diego SAN 10:34 → IAD 18:45AS 506 8h 56m 98% 68%
Tight connection: often missed
AlaskaDetails → OAK 06:22 → SEA 08:26AS 491 47m Seattle SEA 09:13 → IAD 17:11AS 737 7h 49m 60% 47%
How these are worked out. Each flight’s odds are our forecast for that day (typical odds until the weather forecast covers it); flights of airlines we don’t forecast yet use their 12-month record and are marked. Makes the connection: the first flight’s 12-month lateness curve, scaled so its chance of arriving 15+ min late matches the day’s forecast, at the layover minus the 45-minute minimum (90 on separate tickets). Arrives on time: first flight not cancelled × connection made × second flight not cancelled × second flight within 15 minutes, each from the day’s forecast.

About this data: forecast odds from our model for Fri, Oct 9 (newest published update); 12-month records from US DOT on-time data, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026, all US airlines; regional flights count under the airline that sells them. JSON