USA Airport transits

[PITA]

Apologies for being a long time lurker/low poster but.....

Need to make an emergency trip to USA (family illness) will these transit times work? Have ETSA in place..

Arrive Chicago T5 10:14
Depart Chicago T2 12:10

Bearing in mind immigration/customs etc - can do hand luggage only (at a push!)

TIA

[Stupeo]

I landed at Boston yesterday and got talking to a guy in the line at Customs. He flew to Chicago last week and it took him hours to get through customs for his connecting flight.

He said it was that bad, that this week he flew to Boston even though it would mean an extra flight for him just to avoid Chicago!

I take it you cant fly direct to where you need to be?

[sneijder]

Make sure both segments are on the same ticket, then you're covered.

If you can't get them on the same ticket, it's for a reason !

[PITA]

LHR to Boise Idaho so nope can't go direct! Was looking at United Airlines flights so will be ticketed through but that doesn't always mean it's ok

And looks like hand baggage then (will be interesting )

[Ynox]

I reckon that ought to be alright. As long as you buy one ticket (so it exceeds minimum connection times) you'll be OK.

I fly United and connect at ORD a few times a year.

Come off the plane - run quick-ish. Longest I've waited at immigration is about 1.5 hours. Usually far shorter though, unless a flight full of Asian uni students has just got in from Narita...

Pick up bag, go through customs (easy - never stopped), drop bag at transit desk. Head off on transit tram to terminal 2. Back through security and into T2.

2 hours is tight, but easily doable.

Also if it's one ticket you'll be fine. I missed a connection in Washington DC in Nov and got rebooked immediately onto the next one. Piece of piss.

[fatboy b]

Check the arrival time of planes from places like India. That combined with Chicago immigration being the biggest jobs-worths I come across in America could mean a long time going through. My record was 2 hours.

[tr7v8]

What he said ^^^ Chicago is terrible, once did 1hr 45 minutes in immigration alone! And it was only that short because the sceptics realised they were pushing it towards a riot, with people trying to queue jump etc. Customs are equally bad there as well. You maybe OK I have done Chicago in 45 minutes or so, but on the example above quite a few on my flight missed their connections.

[fatandwheezing]

Bugger, we land at half 10, and are due to take off again at 12 ,so I guess we're stuffed?

[Targarama]

Collegaue used to fly out there a lot. He went via San Francisco - immigration/transfer isn't too bad. I know it means you have to fly back North but it works well in terms of transit/connecting flights.

[Kudos]

Can you go via Dublin or Shannon - you pass through US immigration there so saves queues at the far end

[Nickyboy]

I always allow an hour to get through immigration after scraping a connecting flight by 2 mins a few years back, quite why they allow such a short transit is beyond me. I'd say 2 hours will be fine though, hand luggage will save 15-20 mins

[worsy]

Flew into JFK last year and it took 3 hours to get through customs. Stuck behind a plane full of Indians. What pished me off more was my colleague got waved into a US bay before the head jobsworth stopped that. He then pished off in a taxi to manhatten whilst i had another hour wait outside. tosser.

But to OP, that's going to be tight. Doesn't matter about luggage anyhow as you pick that up past immigration.

[tinman0]

fatboy b said:

Check the arrival time of planes from places like India. That combined with Chicago immigration being the biggest jobs-worths I come across in America could mean a long time going through. My record was 2 hours.

We actually race planes to the gate in Charlotte! Usually it's the Gatwick flight vs Lufthansa vs Frankfurt flights all coming in at once.

One stewardess actually briefed the cabin one day as she had spotted the other two "Ok folks, the other two planes have just landed behind us, so you do need to get to immigration before they get in or you'll be in a long queue, so when we stop at the gate, get ready to leave quickly.".

When the wheels stopped you should have seen the cabin go into "busy" mode. In fact, she came onto the intercom and apologised for making it sound quite as serious as we did have a few minutes in hand

[neilsie]

did similar transfer times in Chicago last year - 2.5 hrs. We barely made it onto the next plane due to the slow security checks when entering the domestic terminal.

[fatandwheezing]

Just as contrast to others experiences, we landed at half 10 and were at the next gate for half 11. We must have got very lucky with other flights, and the immigration checks were the quickest ive had in the US.

[Victor McDade]

Kudos said:

Can you go via Dublin or Shannon - you pass through US immigration there so saves queues at the far end

If it matches with your ORD-Boise flight time then this is your best idea.

[tinman0]

fatandwheezing said:

Just as contrast to others experiences, we landed at half 10 and were at the next gate for half 11. We must have got very lucky with other flights, and the immigration checks were the quickest ive had in the US.

Could be to do with the times that the international flights are landing. From what I've seen, many international flights from Europe land in the US in the afternoon, so if you were at immigration before they all land, you have a fairly easy transfer.

[5potTurbo]

If you're travelling with hand luggage only, do as was posted earlier - get off the plane and run like fk to immigration.

O'Hare's immigration is very, very slow if there's any kind of a queue, so try your best to get ahead of the slow moving sheep to get in line as quickly as possible.

(Last July we waited for 2 1/4 hours and the 'Disney snake' queue wasn't that long.)

[blearyeyedboy]

I missed my ongoing flight to Seattle because the Immigration queues in O'Hare took too long. When I politely asked if anyone could help because I was going to miss my flight, I was shouted at by a (clearly stressed but still out of order) immigration official who told me she didn't care.

2 and a half hours later, I passed through. The next flight to Seattle was 6 hours later. Fortunately, United Airlines honoured the connection and put me on the next plane.

The lessons I learnt were:

(1) Always book a ticket with a single airline where possible.
(2) US Immigration services can be phenomenally long, though Chicago O'Hare is worst than most. I would allow at least 3 hours between two planes.