connecting at ord

**frapos** · 25-Oct-2005, 05:23 AM

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

**BRITSKI99** · 25-Oct-2005, 06:02 AM

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

**frapos** · 25-Oct-2005, 07:37 AM

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".

**frapos** · 25-Oct-2005, 07:45 AM

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.

**randyrandy** · 25-Oct-2005, 08:29 AM

If the gods are smiling you should have no trouble with 2 hours.

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.

**BRITSKI99** · 26-Oct-2005, 03:21 AM

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

/ non-US passports .. 2 desks for 200 pax

.

**randyrandy** · 26-Oct-2005, 05:43 AM

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.

**randyrandy** · 26-Oct-2005, 06:54 PM

My absolute worst experience was July last year coming into EWR. A full CO 777 arrived from GIG to greet 1 customs agent.

Yes, that's right 1.

One total, not just for US passport holders, but just one for everyone!

**BRITSKI99** · 27-Oct-2005, 05:53 AM

My guess would aldo be that he was fluent in Spanish as the flight came from Brazil.

**randyrandy** · 27-Oct-2005, 10:21 AM

LOL! That's funny. That would be about right, we are talking about the US government.

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