Travel advice please
 

We were scheduled to leave for an 8 day tour to India tomorrow (3.24). Just got a call from American Airlines (11pm 3.23). Flight has been canceled since we're having a heavy winter storm here in Denver. AA rescheduled us for a Thursday departure Denver--Chicago--Delhi. I'm skeptical of the new schedule. Only 45 minutes between flights in Chicago and initial flight leaves Denver late afternoon making it more likely to be late.
But more than just the bad connection times, I'm not sure what all our options are. Plans are thru a tour company. Left them a message. Don't know if it's possible to join the tour one day late. Even if it is possible, 8 days to and from India was an extremely short trip to begin with. 7 days seems too short.
Anybody been in this situation before and can offer advice? We usually travel on our own and aren't familiar with the protocols of group tours.
I'm tempted to call it off if the trip gets reduced to 7 days but I'm not sure how refunds work in these kind of circumstances. I'd be tempted to continue if our return flights were pushed back a day so we got the 8 days, but that would put us out of sequence with the rest of the people on the tour.
Damn.

I wish I had any knowledge to help you out.

When I saw your mention of going to India I wondered how that would be possible during the school year.

I probably would lean toward going ahead and hooking up with your tour late. Making your connection another way would be explored as well. Refunds, it would seem to me, to be dicey to obtain.

Going ahead late would create a great adventure which would richen the story for later!

Good luck!

Been there in an almost identical situation.

Deal with the airline direct. Make sure they are not limiting the first leg of your flight choices to their discount/regional partner. Explain the situation to a live agent and ask for help. Don't hesitate to ask for a supervisor.

Agree that 45 minutes in Chicago is too little time to change terminals/flights Very high chance your bags won't make it, even if you did.

Good luck.

45 minutes between flights should be fine. I travel all the time, and it is pretty common.

If they didn't think you could make the connection, they wouldn't have booked it for you.

On the 45 minutes. Everything is screwed up at the Denver airport due to the snowstorm so I'm not convinced all the delays will be resolved by tomorrow. But my main concern is that I've made the domestic to international switch in Chicago before and it required , taking the train to a different terminal, and going thru security again. Don't think that's possible in 45 minutes even if the flight is on time.

Having been through ORD a number of times for international flights, I wouldn't wish anything less than an hour between flights on my worst enemy. I would call and see if the DEN ---> ORD flight can be bumped up at all. You are right that getting from the domestic to the international terminals at ORD is going to take a bit, and the security lines are often quite ugly there.

Good luck!

Looks like it's almost sorted. Leave a day later. Mad night time dash on Indian roads to Agra to catch the group. Stay an extra day in Delhi once the rest of the tour heads home. Diciest part is the 45 min. connection time in Chicago but there is no terminal change. Waiting for a confirmation phone call.

Even if you make it, its highly improbable that your luggage will, and since you'll be on the road in India they will have a hard time catching up with you. Make sure you have your essentials in your carry-on.