Chicago O'Hare Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Arrived from LAX for a transfer to LHR from Terminal 5. This was my first time at ORD, and hopefully will be my last. Thankfully I had a reasonable transfer time as the airport experience was a total hideous ordeal and frankly an embarrassment to the operators. Signage is useless, the transit train was rammed - with the door inexplicably opening and closing without reason, but the worst part was the ridiculous security queue. There seems to be no priority queue for those holding a premium cabin ticket, but the guy who was ‘directing’ the queue should be removed with immediate effect. There is signage in the cattle pens that indicates the requirement to be polite and courteous to TSA staff, but that deal should work both ways. The big guy who was on duty in T5 on Sep 9th was shouting at passengers like animals. He was rude and quite frankly a bully. I suspect he may have been bullied as a kid and was venting his frustration at tired and annoyed passengers. An awful experience and hopefully I will never have to experience that hell hole again.

Not Verified | Worst airport experience ever. I had a 3 hour connection at this airport, but I spent more than 3 hours waiting in line just to get through customs! There were no fast lines for connections, but just one line. The people near customs were shouting at us to get in line, but were no helpful at all and the wifi was barely working. I missed my flight, the airline said it was not their fault and they could not do anything to help me except for rebooking me on the next flight, that was 17 hours later. I had to sleep on a bench at the airport waiting for my flight. The temperature was really freezing, I had to put on 2 jackets. Really bad experience.

Not Verified | Worst airport ever. We had a 2 and a half hour connection at this airport, but we spent 3 hours waiting in line just to get through customs! First of all, why do we even need to go through customs if I am literally leaving the country 2 hours later and won't even get out of the airport. We missed our flight, the airline said it was not their fault and they could not do anything to help us and the next flight was 24 hours later. We had to rent a terrible motel near the airport and wait for our flight. There were no fast lines for connections. The people near customs were shouting at us to get in line, but were no helpful at all and the wifi was barely working. Really bad experience.

Not Verified | Flew in to terminal 5 more or less on time and the plane was made to taxi around the entire length of the runaway to get to the gate. The pilot wasn’t impressed over the intercom. That was the first delay. Finally got to the terminal to be met by massive queues. I had 1 and half hours to get through to my connecting flight so I thought I might be ok - from point of landing to crossing the border it took 2 hours! I kept asking staff if I could skip ahead, no one had any interest in helping what so ever and wouldn’t help. Half the border control posts were unmanned so that didn’t help. I of course missed my next flight. Got to the American help desk and no flights available and no help what so ever. Only way to get to my next destination was to get a hire car and drive. All I can say is what a joke of an airport. If you can’t handle the volume of traffic coming through then they shouldn’t be allowed to sell tickets with transfers. Either that or sort out the infrastructure and staff. Let ticketed transfers in to another queue or utilise what you have and actually man the desks! Looking at other reviews this isn’t a one off. I won’t use this airport again. As an international traveller having been on the plane for over 8 hours was also very disappointed by lack of food and drink and no working wifi

Not Verified | The line to get through customs at Terminal 5 was about a half a mile long. There was one long line with very few customers employees on duty. There were plumbing issues with the ladies restrooms while waiting in the customs area for 2+ hours. The conditions of terminal five are very poor and appear to be understaffed.

✅ Trip Verified | August 9th my 9yr old, my husband & I arrived at Chicago O'Hare after a 4hr flight, a 3 hr layover & a 14hr nonstop flight from Dubai to Chicago & soon after we exited the plane we saw signs for US citizens & visitors to follow right side of the rope & Universal passport holders on the left side. This led us down a 2 hour excruciatingly tiresome long line that probably spanned the entire length of the airport to the Customs & Immigration counter. There were tired little kids fussing, including my daughter who got sick on the airplane. There was couple who had a connecting flight & they politely asked one of employees monitoring the flow of passengers if they can skip ahead as their connecting flight was boarding in 20 minutes, they were allowed to skip further up but I don't know if they made their connecting flight & they were still 5 people ahead of them. The Immigration officers take their reviewing documents while masses of hungry & tired passengers are waiting in long lines. After we finally made it through customs, we couldn't figure out where the baggage claim for our airline was since the TV screens were showing only most recently arrived flights & not the ones that arrived 2 hrs ago. The employees were not helpful, so we looked around for other passengers from our flight & followed them. We found 2 of 3 luggages rather quickly but there no carts to be found. Many passengers including us ran around looking for carts & after 20 minutes we finally found one, we still needed to follow another line to handover the Immigration declaration card at the exit, thankfully this took only 20 minutes. They need to do a better job of making more groups or categories at the Immigration lines to speed up the process for people who have connecting flights, people traveling with young children etc. They need more officers to speed up this process. It's atrocious! Even when we left for Dubai couple of weeks ago the security check in took almost 2 hours. So yes you do need to be at the airport at least 3 hours ahead of your flight & God Bless you if you have a connecting flight at O'Hare.

✅ Trip Verified | Arrived at Terminal 5; mixed reviews. I was pleasantly surprised at the cleanliness of the bathroom and ease of getting through to baggage claim but then it went downhill fast. It was quite a long wait for the bags to come out and then everyone from all the belts had to get through customs check but there was no organization to that at all- just many lanes of people having to condense into one lane where there was only one agent collecting global entry or customs forms. He wasn’t checking anything. Once through that mess, it was not clear how to get to the trains- very poor signage. For a major international airport it was a disappointing experience that could easily be fixed with a little more organization and a few signs. Thankfully all staff we interacted with were friendly and helpful. I would suggest if you are coming in on an international flight and have to make a connection, plan a 3-hour layover or you will likely miss your connecting flight.

Not Verified | I fly internationally for a living. Terminal 5 at Chicago o'hare is absolutely the worst experience in my entire career. An International wing with only one Burger King restaurant and other options open during the mid morning. This would be fine if you were traveling out a new to pack a lunch before you came to the airport. No charging stations at the gates. Horrible experience from beginning to end.

Not Verified | Security employees were great at the international terminal but otherwise the terminal is a disaster. Half of the stores/restaurants closed, seating is terrible and in bad shape, overall disappointing.

Not Verified | I cannot believe how difficult it was to locate the ride share area. I fly all the time and have had an easier time locating the ride share area in other countries/languages. Additionally, when I attempted to go up the wrong elevator in my confusion, the man that addressed me was incredibly rude. This obviously only heightened my frustration with this airport. To be honest, if that man had just kindly helped me, I probably wouldn’t have cared how hard it was to locate my pick up area.