Chicago Airport Transit (mover, light rail, eat)

[mavechin]

Hi there,

I'm booking a flight ticket from Tulsa to Singapore and it will be transit at Chicago(ORD) airport.

The layover time is about 40minutes and I wonder as a Foreigner in US, is the provided time enough for me to get through all the immigrations and boarding on time?

Thank you so much in advance for your kind reply.

Cheers~

[JacksonPanther]

Originally Posted by mavechin

Hi there,

I'm booking a flight ticket from Tulsa to Singapore and it will be transit at Chicago(ORD) airport.

The layover time is about 40minutes and I wonder as a Foreigner in US, is the provided time enough for me to get through all the immigrations and boarding on time?

Thank you so much in advance for your kind reply.

Cheers~

I would think NOT. Just changing terminals from your arrival terminal to the International terminal will eat up significant time. Plus if your arrival is delayed, even by 10 minutes, you are in trouble.

Find anoher flight - give yourself 2 hours.

[Vlajos]

Forty minutes sounds tight at ORD if you are going from a domestic terminal to international.

[Chicago60614]

No, once you land you have to wait to get to the gate and then wait to leave the plane, then make your way to the airport train, then get to terminal 5, then potentially have to check in again (? who are you flying) then go through security and find the gate. 40 minutes before you take off is when many international flights like that will start pre-boarding....you'll still be landing on a different plane at a different terminal.

[chet everett]

Not sure if the official recommendation is two hours but the fact is that the International Terminal at O'Hare is rather distant from the domestic terminals -- assuming that you would be dealing with baggage when traveling from Tulsa to O'Hare (likely on American) then getting on the "people mover" which is a light rail shuttle to the International Terminal for the flight to Singapore this could easily consume over an hour...

[marothisu]

40 minutes is the minimum cut off for a layover for domestic that booking software will allow basically, and the minimum recommendation. However, this is flying domestic, not internationally.

I do think people on here are forgetting that American and United's international departures are actually out of terminals 1 and 3, not 5 (that's where their international flights arrive). I know for a fact that to get to Singapore from Chicago, you either go through Tokyo or Hong Kong, which AA and United fly direct to, which would be out of terminals 1 and 3. So if you arrive in the same terminal as you depart, then your 40 minutes will be more realistic (this is not saying much at ALL) than if you had to depart out of terminal 5 - which IMO would be impossible to do the 40 minutes thing.

However, even 40 minutes for domestic is really pushing it, especially if you have so much at risk with the fact your connecting flight is an international one. You should be allowing yourself at least 2 hours, especially if you have to depart out of terminal 5, then it should be more like 2.5-3 hours IMO. You should be allowing yourself time for things such as delays as well. O'Hare is one of the busiest airports in the world and delays of all kinds are normal.

[organic_donna]

You don't go thru imigration until you arrive in Singapore. 40 minutes is not enough. If you miss the flight you will spend the night in Chicago.

[mavechin]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

No, once you land you have to wait to get to the gate and then wait to leave the plane, then make your way to the airport train, then get to terminal 5, then potentially have to check in again (? who are you flying) then go through security and find the gate. 40 minutes before you take off is when many international flights like that will start pre-boarding....you'll still be landing on a different plane at a different terminal.

I will be flying with United.

[mavechin]

A big thanks to all of you, really appreciate it a lot.

I guess I will find another flight that has about 2hrs transit time just to make sure I get to my destination safely and predictedly...

THANKS!!!

[chet everett]

Originally Posted by mavechin

A big thanks to all of you, really appreciate it a lot.

I guess I will find another flight that has about 2hrs transit time just to make sure I get to my destination safely and predictedly...

THANKS!!!

I seem to recall that when I flew out of O'Hare to Japan the flight was for an "All Nippon Airways" operated by United Airlines. It was from the "regular" United terminal. That said I would certainly NOT want to assume that all such flights to Asia on United are run that way and it would be a mistake to cut things too close...

There are legitimate reasons to use a travel agent, they generally are able to get the SAME OR BETTER rates for airfare as one gets through DIY reservation systems AND will have have the details of what is the "standard procedure" for various kinds of travel. Should you be unable to locate a travel agent that can help I would recommend using the "customer service hotline" of the airline double check on the recommended procedure for these kind of domestic-to-international connection -- those of using O'hare as our origination airport rarely need to worry about connections like these...