United transit in Chicago

[Trinity 09L]

I have a flight connection of 1hr 21 mins at Chicago from LHR inbound on UA 959 to get outbound Las Vegas flight UA110, is this enough time to clear customs, immigration, security & change terminals, and hope the baggage makes it as well? The next flight will be the next day am. My last trip into Atlanta from LHR had to go thru security,immigration & customs, just to get out of the terminal.:ooh:

[tb10er]

A short transfer @ ORD is definately "do-able"- I have done it on a couple of occassions.

Unless things have changed for the worse, I can only recommend ORD as a point of entry - polite and quick immigration, no customs hassles, etc.

[wowzz]

I am sure this is a stupid question, and I wait to be shot down in flames, but why you not flying direct ? {I suppose cost}

[cjhants]

i did LHR-ORD-LAS with united last month. we had about 2.5 hours if i remember correctly, but spent over 1 hour getting through immigration. then the transit train to the B gates. took about 1.5 hours in all. so it`s all going to be down to how many immigration gates are open, and if you arrive just behind several far east flights, as we did.
good luck!

[manintheback]

Tight, very very tight. Do your best to sit as close to the exit door as poss, then run. That puts at least 200+ people behind you instead of in front at the immigration queue

[radeng]

I was in a line for 55 minutes at ORD last May. Three immigration gates open as one 777 and 3 747 arrived. Sounds tight to me, but you could be lucky. What time of day are you arriving? Late morning seems pretty bad.

[Trinity 09L]

Many thanks for the repies and information, it is part of a holiday, no choice of flights on late booking:ouch: arrive around evening, so will get near the front escape and hope for the best, will know the outcome if we are late inbound:*:*

[cjhants]

Trinity - travel agents normally allow plenty of time for transfers, so i checked your flight times on united.com. it seems to indicate 959 arrives 6.18 pm local and 110 departs 9.25pm local. are you sure you have the timings right?

[Trinity 09L]

I have UA959 arr 1839 UA110 dep 20:00 on 5/11/09 from my agent:ugh:

rgds

[cjhants]

we had several changes in flight times in the weeks leading up to the flights. at the moment 110 is scheduled for a 9.25 departure, but maybe this is due to change for the winter season. perhaps have a word with the booking agent to see if you can get the earlier flight from LHR which leaves about 1230 local. the agents know what a pain a transit can be and normally leave you plenty of time to make the connection.

we had 6 flight sectors with united over a 10 day period, and all were on time with no connection issues.

[ghostrider1]

I flew LHR-ORD-LAS last September. Arriving at ORD at 11.00. we ran to immigration even though our connecting flight was 2 hours later. However at the same time, Korean Airlines and Japan Airlines landed at the same time. The queue was horrendous, we took an hour and 20 mins to get through, we missed the flight at 1300, the next one at 1600 only had 3 seats left and we were a party of 4. so they booked us on the 1830 flight. We rechecked the bags in and went for a train ride to ORD. This took an hour each way as we got on a slow train, had a McD's, did a bit of shopping and back by 1700. Then it got even more fun. Plane was delayed as it was coming in from Portland and was schld to land at 1930. Then they changed the gate 3 times. then it went tech and they had to wait for another plane from Seattle. We took off at 2200 arrving in Las Vegas just after midnight. Got to the hotel and had 2 and half hours sleep before being picked up at 3.15 for a grand canyon trip. Not bad for my 35th birthday !

[tb10er]

Touched down ORD last week, 2.30pm via. UA from FRA @terminal 5.

We were in terminal 1 by 3pm - the immigration is a breezee.

[Scumbag O'Riley]

Even if you miss your connection, which isn't likely, United will just put you on the next available flight.