Is 1h30 enough time at Chicago O'Hare for transit between 2 international flights for a non-US citizen with ESTA?
I am planning a trip for 2019, and the absolute best result on all points (price, duration, hours of departure/arrival) means taking an international plane landing at Chicago O'Hare only to get 1.5 hour later another one leaving out of the USA.
I am wondering if this amount of time is enough or if I should just choose an alternate route.
I often used the Miami airport in the past for similar cases, and I know that at this airpost it is safer to count at least 2 hours to pass immigration and customs, due to various factors. I am not an US citizen, but will have an ESTA (a new one, my current one will expire before this new journey).
I am really hoping that maybe things could be better at Chicago O'Hare airport, which I never visited yet.
The page at https://www.flychicago.com/ohare/myflight/international/pages/default.aspx does say: "There are many factors that impact how long it may take travelers to complete the immigration and CBP process, but on average it takes no more than two hours.", so 1.5 hour seems risky.
I may even need to change terminals, as http://www.flychicago.com/ohare/myflight/airlines/pages/default.aspx is not completely clear to me: I would arrive with United Airlines on an international flight (so that should be Terminal 5), but I leave with an ANA flight, and it seems Terminal 5 is only for arrivals, so ANA would take off from Terminal 1 I think, which is confirmed in fact if I check there: https://fr.flightaware.com/live/flight/UAL7911 (which also shows that at least recently this flight leaves with 1 hour of delay or even more, which would help me but I can not count on it).
The itinerary will be bought as one (the bags should be checked through but based on previous link, I may need to collect them nevertheless - which is not the case when through Miami), so I know that if the connection is missed I would be rebooked to another flight or the day after, but that would really diminish the usefulness of this choice, so if it is almost guaranteed that 1.5 hour is not enough for transit, I may book something else.
The next best choice involves instead a change at Houston Georges Bush Intercontinental (and I could choose either 1h40, 2h50, 3h50 or 5h10 for my layover time there) and then Los Angeles International before the final flight out of the US. But this makes the whole journey 7 hours longer than through Chicago.
Best Answer
As a US citizen I would be very reluctant to book such a ticket. I have had such a booking through a California airport (Los Angeles IIRC) that a travel agent made and I yelled about when I saw it--and got it changed.
We cleared both immigration and customs reasonably quickly. While in theory we could have made the flight it would not have actually been possible because we would have missed the baggage check time by 5 minutes.
You also don't say where you are coming from but from your description I'm guessing Europe. Very long flights like that are always a bit variable on time because of variations in the jet stream. (Going between the US and China I see variations of an hour in the actual time in the air.) This is completely unpredictable, you get a strong jet stream that day and you no longer have an hour and a half to make your connection.
Pictures about "Is 1h30 enough time at Chicago O'Hare for transit between 2 international flights for a non-US citizen with ESTA?"
How long does it take to go through customs at Chicago O Hare?
There are many factors that impact how long it may take travelers to complete the immigration and CBP process, but on average it takes no more than two hours. Passengers connecting to another location must recheck their luggage (Skip to Step 5).How much time do I need for a connecting flight in Chicago?
Short Layover In Chicago Try to schedule domestic connecting flights with at least 1.5 hours cushion time. For international flights, leave at least 2.5 hours. Planes almost never arrive as scheduled.Is 1 hour enough for connecting flights in O Hare?
The only thing you need to know is that 1 hour connection times are indeed doable! There are four main terminals at ORD: Terminal 1, 2, 3, and 5. Terminal 4 doesn't exist yet, so that makes things just a little confusing. Anyway, all you really need to know is that terminals 1, 2, and 3 are connected.Is 2 hours enough time for international flight layover?
International flights require longer connections as you will often have to go through immigration and customs upon arrival. For international layover flights booked on one airline, two hours is often recommended to make your connection.Moving to Chicago?! Here's Your Monthly Cost!
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