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Hello to one and all,
especially the Chicago correspondant. question; is two hours enough for an international to international connex at ORD. Taking into account immigration and customs lines then re-check-in for the onward flight. And as a stand-by at that. I plan to fly in on LH then try for the UA flight to GRU. I wouldn't do this at JFK or IAD because of my experience with the time it takes. I know its a convoluted way to get down to Brazil, but hey thats about the only routing where I'm 90% sure of getting on. Feedback welcome.
Regards from Frankfurt
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I think you would be pushing it for an international connection. We transferred UK Int-Domestic at ORD in March this year and cleared the immigration and customs in less that 30 mins but I think we were very lucky. Unfortunately getting into the US nowdays is much of a lottery and the INS seem to know very little about manning the appropriate number of desks for the volume of passengers arriving. You could be very lucky and clear quickly like we did or you could be stuck for ages ( we were nearly 3 hours in Denver last year ) and so much depends upon how many international flights are arriving at the same time. If you only have one possible connection then I would suggest checking to see if there are other alternative routings especially if you are travelling standby. Its also worth taking into account the cost of all the US immigration/departure taxes just to transit the US versus the cost of a ZED ticket via somewhere else.
Just my thoughts ..rgds
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Hey thanx Britski for your advice. I wanted to take the 2nd LH flt to ORD as that would have given me an entire day to clear up a couple things here before heading out. But I'll probably go for the morning flt. That gives me a tremendous amount of time to kill at the airport. As for alternatives, yes the cost is tad more (actually not so much more than a direct flt) but its all but impossible as a nonrev to get a seat out of Europe to any South American destination at the moment. At least not without lots of tension and anxiety at the gate. Return north bound legs look good on the other hand, so I'll probably try a drect flt on the way back. Plus the LH-UA combination should give me a good priority status. Thanx again for your "two cents".
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By the way I understand fully what you mean by luck of the draw when it comes to entering the US internationally. I've had one hour , two hours , two and a half. I've also had fifteen minutes at JFK 1! (even faster if the finger print machine was functioning properly). But the record was IAH with three hours.
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If the gods are smiling you should have no trouble with 2 hours. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif Having flown internationally to and from ORD numerous times over the years I can honestly say I've never had a problem at all. I've never seen a problem with ORD's customs staffing levels either. From the point I exit the plane until I walk out the door of the international terminal I don't think its ever taken me more than 45 mins. Of course, all this assumes that your documents are in order and you're not randomly selected for search and questioning. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif
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Randy,
I'm not surprised that you haven't had too much trouble .. I am assuming that you hold a US passport. Its not the staffing levels that is the problem its normally the way they are allocated ... e.g. Denver last year .. US passports and Green Cards .. 5 desks for about 50 pax http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif / non-US passports .. 2 desks for 200 pax http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif.
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That's a fairly accurate summary. However, at ORD on more than 1 occassion when the relatively few US citizens are cleared I've seen an agent come out onto the floor and direct everyone else to step over and fill in all open lines regardless of citizenship. But then, I can't offer any promises.
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My absolute worst experience was July last year coming into EWR. A full CO 777 arrived from GIG to greet 1 customs agent.http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif Yes, that's right 1.http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...on_redface.gif One total, not just for US passport holders, but just one for everyone!http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif
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My guess would aldo be that he was fluent in Spanish as the flight came from Brazil. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...on_biggrin.gif
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LOL! That's funny. That would be about right, we are talking about the US government. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...n_rolleyes.gif
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ok, so I've developped the itinerary. FRA-IAD, five hour stopover, then IAD-GIG. Oh, the geographical gymanistics we nonrevs do to get to our holy grail destinations. Both flights are still very nicely open (fingers crossed). Now prepare for a dressing down from an INS agent, "why this route to go to Brazil", "how come your tickets have no return dates", "and what happens if you don't get on, where do you plan to stay here". I just take the peppering in stride with honest answers, then get the six month stamp in my passport. More pressing things to worry about, like getting on the flight! Speaking of which, I know that no standbys were accepted on any of the three flights going down to GRU from FRA last night. Actually two jumps on an LH. Probably some relation to the pilots or flight attendants (yikes, 12 hours on a jump)
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I was told a few years ago by a friendly INS agent to always show my airline ID along with my passport when entering the country as it pre-empts a lot of the questions they normally ask with odd routings/tickets etc .. mind you that was a few years ago before the more recent INS approach that anyone not a US Citizen must be a potential terrorist and should be treated accordingly!!
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Be careful
3 weeks ago on my way true customs at LHR with my ID card visible, a female customs officer threatened me. She told me that when not on duty, the only ID I was supposed to bring was my passport. She actually threatened to confiscate my Airline ID card, if I didn’t put it in my pocket.
Hopefully she only had a bad day…
Good luck with US immigrations http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif
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Vegar
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ok, so I´m now finally in Brazil. Thanks for all the tips and comments. In the end I transited thru ORD, or rather sailed thru ORD. It was a breeze. Was out in thirty minutes. Actually the immigration officer immediately recognized my non rev ticket and made a joke of my itinerary. Very polite and efficient. All the counters were manned.I opted at the last minute (again) as the FRA IAD was suddenly booked solid. Getting on the UA to GRU was also easy pickings. This was my first time at ORD (was there more than 20 years ago as a child so that doesn´t count)but I´m quite impressed with it. Especially terminal one. Great combination of style and function. And very easy to navigate. The eight hours I had between flights passed quite fast (but thats perhaps me, I like airports)So let me get back to my capairinha. Best regards
