Chicago O'Hare Airport

I am a British citizen and have visited Chicago many many times over the past 20 years and usually felt welcome. However this fine city is now totally let down by the incompetent management of arrivals procedures at O'Hare Terminal 5. The reality that I experienced on arrival into O'Hare T5 on September 24 was anything but welcoming. There was a 2 hour line for immigration followed by indifferent/rude airport and airline employees in the baggage claim area. Ironically in the weeks before this visit Chicago was being promoted as a welcoming tourist destination in commercials on UK TV networks. I fully understand that the Mayor's tourism dept. does not control the activities of Dept. of Homeland Security or airline employees and while I can respect that immigration procedures are very necessary for the security of US borders it is completely ridiculous to use resources to promote the city in overseas TV markets but then not adequately resource immigration procedures to facilitate those visits. Right now flying into O'Hare T5 = undesirable experience.

This is by far the most disorganized airport visited in my life long lines everywhere slow and rude officers no air conditioning dirty bathrooms.

Flew DUB-ORD-SNA and on this occasion ORD was a breeze to connect to onward flight as I had already pre-cleared Customs/INS at DUB (AA Flight) so it arrived at T3 (Domestic) and only had to walk about 6-8 gates for next flight also from T3 whole process only took about 15mins which beats hands down the 3hrs plus you can normally expect at ORD for INS/Customs/Transfers etc.

Good points: Automatic toilets - seat covers change automatically. Conveniently located. More flights compared to midway airport - more options and flexibility. Bad points: Very rude careless anti-social airport staff. TSA agents as someone said bark at you. International ticketing agents are mostly good. Confusing directions to terminals ticketing areas and parking lots. Insufficient announcements on gate changes and inadequate seating in front of many gates. Insufficient charging outlets. No free Wi-Fi and customer service for missed flights and cancellation inadequate. Have to wait hours to re-book flights. Delays to go through immigration and catch connecting flights. Chaotic. Parking close to terminals $50 a day. Old and smelly underpasses connecting terminals.

It has got to be the most disorganised airport I have been through. We landed at the international terminal and went through immigration and customs and made our way to the domestic terminal to catch our next flight. It was only because we had a rough idea of where to go from a previous experience that we got to the front of the queue to go through security into the domestic terminal. Two lines were open of about 15 lines checking passports and hand luggage. Shortly after we got to this stage there must have been at least 150 people behind us. I am certain some of these poor people must have missed their connections. 3 years previous we had 1.45 hours to do the same thing and missed our connection because there were not enough security lines open. We sat in the airport for 8 hours waiting for a flight. Allowing time for immigration customs trekking to the other end of the airport and going through the inefficient security gates you require at least 4 hours. The last flight to come home was very disorganised we changed gates twice and no one seemed to know what they were doing. After all this I don't suppose any one will take any notice.

Flew into ORD July 5 and returned to UK on 13 July. Was pleasantly surprised by speed of customs/immigration at T5 around 10am as I was able to use the 'Green Card' line as a Canadian citizen. Very quick connection to Blue Line and into Chicago. On way back flew out of T1 very disappointed with the sole duty free shop - ridiculous!

I have flown internationally many many times but only through San Francisco. This week my wife and I had to go through Chicago's O'Hare and it was horrible! For some reason the people that run the immigration and customs have decided to automate the process yet they still had bungling fools directing people and checking documents. The people checking documents who we assumed were immigration officers had no clue. The immigration people took our customs paperwork which are usually taken by the customs officers after you get your baggage. Several immigration officers had piles of them on their check-in desks. At immigration they make you go to a computer that scans your passport then takes your photo. If you are travelling with someone it takes theirs along with yours. We then get a major surprise: one officer is checking everyone's baggage all 300 of us from the flight from Germany! The line is very long and very slow. I can only imagine some older couple getting extremely stressed out by this process.

The lack of outlets for charging accessories is absolutely ridiculous in 2013 every location to grab a drink had no availability. Airport needs a serious update.

Just flown international out of Terminal 5. The facilities in the departure lounge are almost non-existent. There is a small Korean cafe a Mexican cafe with small bar and two bar carts. Apart from buying sandwiches and soft drinks from shops these are the only means of eating and drinking. Nothing warns you about the lack of facilities before you go through security. When you complain you are just told that other facilities will be available at the end of the year. This is of no help when you are looking for a meal. The two small cafes are so busy that they are now doing take-aways. It says it all when there are very limited facilities for eating and drinking but there is a large duty free shop.

We recently flew into O'Hare airport when we arrived from Charlotte NC. We had a late night arrival. So late that nearly everything was closed. The restrooms thankfully were not and they were spotless. We were able to Locate the Blue line to get to our destination. A man helped us to figure out what to do once we got there. On our departure from Chicago we were able to print our boarding passes pass through screening and the ticketing area in about 15 minutes. There were many food vendors and stores we could buy food from and we even saw that you could get a massage. We had to wait about an hour but it was not an unpleasant wait. The NSA staff and airport staff were all pleasant and helpful.