Chicago O'Hare Airport

Arrived from Paris at O'Hare and everything went downhill from there. We had allowed 2 hours to connect to our flight to Calgary Canada. The plane was 30 minutes late from Paris and the immigration line is terrible. It takes forever to go through. Canadians do not require fingerprinting and photos yet we have to stand in the same line. The US residents cleared quickly but it took us 50 minutes. After that we grabbed our bags which were sitting on a non-revolving luggage carousel since we took so long and attempted to drop off our bags. All there was was United personnel yelling at people to move around to different spots and there was no queue. It shouldn't take 10 minutes to drop the bags off. Took the airport train to terminal 1. Not well thought out everything revolves around 1 escalator so people bunch up. Went through the United Priority security. Not sure why it was priority it took 20 minutes for TSA to scan 10 people. I'm sorry but it shouldn't take that long. We then had to do the run between terminal B and C. When we arrived at the gates the jetway was pulling away from the plane fortunately they put it back so we could get on. 2 hours should be sufficient. When we got to Calgary our bags and the bags of about 15 other passengers were missing. Apparently ours got hung up in TSA which doesn't have screening for transferred bags at the international terminal so they went off sight and then come back. Unfortunately ours never returned. Now we have to hope they are on the next plane and clear Canadian customs ok.

I would say that the experience varies greatly depending on the terminal you face but at least in general security wait times have dramatically improved over the past few years. United and American each have their own terminals more or less that can look somewhat grim but have a fair amount of services available. The United terminal has a tunnel that you must walk through to get to most gates (C Concourse) but at least they more or less synched together the audio warnings about reaching the end of the moving walkway. Walk to gates for American can reach 10-15 minutes if your luck is bad. Terminal 3 feels Soviet in design aesthetic but at least is being updated. Access to/from city center can be truly problematic - most hours of the day the drive (20 minutes no traffic) is at least an hour and without a car you are consigned to either an extremely overpriced (US$50) cab or an uncomfortable train ride. Delays are probably the worst aspect - part of a political game to make the traveller suffer so that Daley can get the airport expansion approved.

No problems arriving at Chcago o Hare. The immigration officer was very friendly. Queues were minimal and we got our luggage quickly. Leaving was equally problem free. Luckily we ate land side as there was almost nothing airside. Just a few stalls selling sandwiches. Is this normal or part of work being done?

Despite being one of the world's busiest airports and a hub for two major airlines O'Hare seems ill-equipped to process an influx of passengers at peak times. During the mid-afternoon international arrivals window the customs area was mobbed. Lines for US citizens moved swiftly but the processing of foreigners was glacial thanks to the multiple fingerprint scans and photographs that need to be taken. Baggage belts were also swamped with people to the point where it was difficult to elbow in and grab your own bag. Recheck was a mob scene with people becoming so frustrated at the slow service that they left their bags in a pile for the airline staff to figure out. In order to transfer to a domestic flight you need to take the airport transit system which ran so infrequently that it became dangerously overcrowded. At the terminal all passengers must squeeze onto a narrow escalator which effectively required everybody (and their rollaboard) to form a single-file line. Domestic departures proceeded more smoothly with only a minimal wait at security and an adequate number of shops and restaurants airside. One complaint about the departure areas is that many of them are too small to effectively contain the number of people when two flights board from side-by-side gates simultaneously.

It may look like a vision of hell but it got the job done. Arrived from Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic; Immigration done in fifteen minutes; bags ten minutes more; a well-organised taxi rank with no waiting at all. Coming back security like Immigration brusque but efficient. I was glad to have lounge access but it would have been bearable without.

We expected a surly welcome to America and were not disappointed. The immigration officer seemed to want to provoke an argument with his questions about why we were visiting Chicago and how we could afford to pay for our visit and with his negative comments about the city - I hope he does not apply for a post with the Tourist Board. The signage was poor for train transport to the city. The departure lounges in terminal 5 are disappointing with poor catering facilities once through security but at least the flight was on time and the baggage recovery on arrival was excellent.

It's the worst ever airport I have been to. The passport control took over 1 hour to go through having only 3 people to check International passports for thousands that were passing thru' - welcome to America! Why aren't the airlines doing something to correct this problem - they had to deal with the mess off missed flights due to poor passport control.Good luck travellers!

I've never had too many problems connecting through ORD. There are dedicated security lines for First/Business/elite FFs and those lines are never very long. At least in T3 there are a fair number of shops and restaurants to choose from and the AA Admirals Club is conveniently located between Concourses H and K so you have an easy walk to your gate. I've also never had to wait more than 5-10 minutes at immigration though granted the flight I use from DEL comes in very early in the morning when there aren't any other flights around. The main complaint I have about ORD is the utter lack of information concerning delays at least for AA flights. Flights are often shown as on-time right up to the scheduled boarding time at which point a delay magically appears with no explanation given by the ground staff. I guess they don't see the need anymore given the chronic delays that plague ORD these days. Overall though there are far worse places to transit through.

I had the misfortune to connect at O'Hare airport en route from San Jose to Copenhagen. It was my first time in Chicago and my considered impression is that O'Hare is a breathtakingly unfriendly place. From virtually the moment of disembarking where arriving and transiting passengers were prevented from leaving having to side-step high-fiving security types and obnoxious passport controls (please and thank you obviously never made it this far into the mid-West) navigating the terminals (gate M11 is in terminal 5 that's perfectly clear then) until the dingy airside international departure lounge with it's roped-shut kiosks and virtually complete lack of facilities... it was an abysmal experience.

Recently flew twice to Chicago FRA-ORD-MSN and MUC-ORD-MSN had absolutely no problems with immigration although there were other flights arrived at the same time to T5. I would say it just depends on a situation. Had no problems with re-checking my luggage for my connection flight or changing between T5 and T1. There was a queue at the T1 security check but it moved relatively fast. I consider one of the biggest ORD problems delays and changing of gates - my flight to MSN was delayed then the delay was shortened than again increased then again shortened and so on - gates were being changed three times people were going crazy. Going back to FRA and MUC respectively was nice and smooth. In general I find it very good and have no complains.