Chicago O'Hare Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Likely the worst airport I have ever been too. The staff are truly useless. The slowest moving and dumbest people you will meet on your journey. The seating is awful. The outlet placement is awful. It’s a terrible design. If you can avoid this airport please do. Ohare and Laurie Lightfoot take pride in being the best airport in the United States. I have looked into that ranking system. They are not the best, obviously anybody who has been here can verify that. Ohare is the busiest. Way too many people. Constantly understaffed. Truly a terrible experience every single time.

Not Verified | This airport is filthy! The bathrooms were dirty and in ill repair. There was nowhere to hang purse or coats. Toilets were not clean and there was a strong smell of urine. A little bleach would go a long way. There weren't many places to plug in devices to recharge. TSA was dirty and there were way too many people in one place. One area of the floor was filled with water which we had to walk through. For an International airport, it's a disgrace.

Not Verified | One of the most horrible airport experience my family had. Concerning luggage, We checked in all our baggage for transfer to Philadelphia and they were all in good shape. However, when we claimed them in Philadelphia we were shocked that couple of the bags were opened that the entire zipper was ruined that it was put together by a tape by whoever that person to keep parts of it closed but still you can see the contents inside. When we opened it at home some of the stuff were missing, and the contents were in a shamble. And one of our bags is missing.

✅ Trip Verified | I frequently fly out of Chicago, and the first time I experienced customs here, I thought maybe it was a fluke. Maybe they are understaffed or don’t know better. Nope. As a US citizen returning to my own country, customs should not take 3 hours. It has happened to me three times in the last two years. Why can they not figure out to put returning citizens and other visas into separate lines? This is an absolute joke. Arriving in other countries is easier than going home. I don’t know if other airports have this problem, if all of the US is this bad, or if it’s just Chicago. I hate this airport, and would stop using it if it wasn’t my best option without traveling 5 hours.

✅ Trip Verified | I was here on a 2 hour layover. By far the dirtiest airport I have ever experienced. Bathrooms were disgusting to say the least. And finding feminine hygiene products was almost impossible. I visited 3 stores that sold them but had none in stock, before luckily finding a vending machine. The Reuben I got at the Blackhawks bar and grill was delicious and the bartender was great. I also picked up some Chicago mix popcorn at a Nuts on Clark kiosk. Maneuvering the airport was pretty easy, no problems there. Just would have liked to have had a cleaner experience. The entire airport seemed unsanitary to me from the bathrooms, to the restaurants, down to the seating areas.

✅ Trip Verified | I arrived in Chicago O'Hare at 6:18 pm and had to make a connecting flight which required me to recheck my bag. My connecting flight wasn't until 9:10 PM. I designed this so that I would have plenty of time to go through customs, recheck my bag, and eat dinner before my next flight. That might be true at most airports but not at O'Hare! The customs line was inefficient and took way too long. I think O'Hare needs to look at how other airports (such as Atlanta) manage customs lines. They have a lot to learn. Once through the line, everyone was callous, rude, and unhelpful. I was moved back a significant number of spaces (Maybe 10?) in the baggage recheck line, simply because one of the workers changed the queue line while I was in it so that others could go ahead. Then I had to go back through airport security, which is apparently always a disaster in the evenings at O'Hare. Not a separate security line, but the same security line someone who has just checked into their flight for the first time has to go through. The line wasn't moving, the workers were extremely rude, and I had olive oil I purchased in Croatia confiscated because it was "suspicious" even though it was in the proper marked bag for customs. Not to mention, the worker took an extraordinarily long time to check the marked bags, and cut them open. I missed my flight (even though I had a 3 hour cushion), never got dinner because all restaurants closed, and had to sleep in the airport overnight or risk having the rest of my items confiscated since she cut the customs bag open. Absolutely horrible experience from start to finish. I will make extra efforts to fly through Atlanta from now on. They seem to know what they are doing there.

Not Verified | ORD is an abysmal airport with respect to customer service, signage, and efficiency. Our flight from Paris arrived late to ORD and we were in a panic to get to our connection to Atl. The long walk to customs was ridiculous! We asked a person about MPC and she pointed us to the ridiculous line which took almost an hour to get through, with only one person “helping” travelers. When we finally got to the customs agent he said we could have gone to a shorter line. So basically we were given bad info from the one worker facilitating the line. Then, we had to collect our bags, but none of the carousel signage had our flight on it. Again no one was around for help, but when I finally saw someone she was very rude and no help at all. After we finally found our luggage, we had to try and find info on how to get to Delta. No signs! Someone at AA told us we had to go back out to take the train to the designated terminal. And then check bags and go through security again. What a complete joke of an airport that is a prime example of a nightmare. Needless to say we missed our connection. We did get another flight so we went to the tiny Sky Lounge in 2E. The bathrooms were dirty, the ladies room had a broken soap container, and TP all over the floor. Avoid connecting through this airport at all costs. Or allow at least 4 hours if coming from an international flight. It’s too bad the airlines don’t plan for longer connection times.

Not Verified | Without even a close contender, this was the worst airport experience of my life. I arrived from Spain and had a connecting to LAX with just over two hours between. The instructions for navigation between customs, immigration/baggage, recheck baggage, security, transition between terminals and gate location were nearly non-existent and posted directions offered no meaningful help. Asking for help was equally non-productive as most airport staff seemed uncaring, unhelpful, distracted and most aggravating, poorly trained. I approached one "information desk" to inquire as to how to get from the arrival terminal to Terminal 3 - with my bags. The instructions were basically "go outside, turn left and go upstairs." I had left Santiago de Compostelo, Spain nearly 18 hours previous, I am 70 years old and have Addisons's disease. I replied, that I just didn't believe that physically I was able to make it. The young man simply turned away, not to help someone else, simply turned his back. I was finally able to get assistance by tagging along with someone in a wheel chair who had an airport attendant. My flight boarded late apparently due to airport congestion preventing the plane from approaching the gate. Repeatedly having the boarding/departure times changed resulted in virtually all passengers standing for more than 45 minutes. There are no "queue" lines and passengers just grouped - congesting the walk ways. I might have been able to put up with all of the incompetence were it not for the "canned" voice of the mayor of Chicago (I assume it's an election year) coming on the PA system more often than the meaningful and necessary announcements to brag on O'Hare as an excellent, award winning airport. It was like shining a spotlight on the poor design, untrained staff, non-existent directional signs, and just plain lack of caring for tired travelers.

✅ Trip Verified | International departures - terminal 5 is very poor. Going through security I was asked to unzip my top - for an under wired bra search. Unbelievable. Once through security, there is barely any seating. The majority of shops are closed. Restaurant/food choices are minimal and ridiculously expensive and airport staff were generally rude. Signage around the airport is also poor. I ordered a Burger King meal and Pepsi without ice. When the drink arrived, it came with ice which I don’t like. I requested one without ice per my order and was told I couldn’t change my order. I explained I wasn’t changing my order, I simply wanted to have what I had ordered in the first place. I was then told I had to have ice in my drink as it was allegedly ‘airport policy’. Customer service couldn’t have been more disinterested and I’d love to know why an airport is dictating whether or not I have ice in my drink. Utterly ridiculous.

✅ Trip Verified | Chicago O'Hare in 2022 is not the airport it once was. I wouldn't know the airport it once was, because I'm 33 and it's been on a downhill trend for my entire life. Yes they're trying to make improvements and I've even heard rumors of a major terminal construction project, but the airport doesn't feel like it belongs in the first world. TSA staff are rude, the terminal (5) is crowded, the seating is falling apart. As I write this I moved seats three times to find one that wasn't dirty or broken (Gate M20, TAP Airlines). They recently re did the train between terminals but it took a ridiculous number of years to complete, and terminal transfer was hell for that entire time. Chicago deserves a much better airport than O'hare. I would recommend flying through Milwaukee if at all possible, or if your traveling internationally, arrive in NY, Houston, ATL etc and connect to your final destination.