HKG1111

Flying from Europe to US on Star, which is the hub to arrive in the US with the best onward domestic connections wihtin the US?

SunLover

Generally the United Airlines hubs at EWR/ORD/IAD/IAH. For some smaller US airport destinations:

The west cost might be SFO/LAX
The southeast might be a *A airline into ATL/CLT
The midwest might be a *A airline into MSP/DTW
The northwest might be a *A airline into DEN/SEA


SunLover

gabrielz

Based on my experience, if you're going to go international --> domestic in the US, SFO and IAH are the best connection points, especially if you are global entry.

ORD, JFK require terminal changes by train
IAD is a mess, and can be fast or super slow, plus inter-terminal transfers are now a colossal hassle
EWR is reasonable under certain date / times, but frequently slow on the re-entry side.

If you are going the other way (US-->international), then:

IAH, ORD, IAD are best as they have low delays and consolidated departures.

-G

Kacee

Where are you trying to connect to?

In general, EWR is the worst and should be avoided if possible. Which is best of the other UA hubs (IAD, ORD, IAH, DEN, SFO, LAX) depends on where you are going.

JimInOhio

My admittedly limited experience would say ORD. Better than EWR or IAD. The train from T5 to T1 or T2 adds very little time to the transfer.

bwiadca

I've done ORD, EWR, SFO and IAD with UA.
At ORD I had to take a train which took forever. At EWR it took forever to clear the immigration. At IAD its hit or miss. If you are not US citizen or GC holder it might take an hour to clear immigration. SFO was the easiest one, however I didn't have checked laguagge with me so customs was a breeze.
YUL and YYZ are also pretty easy to transfer to US.
I will never ever do JFK as my entry point to USA.

Richym99

A lot depends on the time if day and other arrivals. IAH is normally reasonable quick, unless you arrive at the same time as the LH A380. That day immigration took an hour.

Getting through immigration at IAD is normally pretty quick, but getting back through security can be a nightmare. Then, if your connection goes off the high D gate numbers, you have a 1km walk.

ORD is easy, if you have only carry on luggage. The one stop speeds things up. I have done "doors open" on an arrival to getting to B terminal gates in 30 minutes before now.

EWR. Don't go there.

SFO, relatively painless every time I've gone through there, and along with IAH, probably my favorite entry point.

LAX, can again be a pain because of the very small immigration hall. Two flighrs arriving similtaneously and you coukd be queuing out the door.

SFO777

I would avoid DEN unless you enjoy a lot of uphill walking.
Also with only two GE kiosks, DEN effectively does not have Global Entry.

HKG1111

Thanks for all your answers and insides. I have the global entry and therefore immigration time is not really a concern. The same with luggage as I hardly check-in any. The main points for me are connections to as much locations as possible (main on the east to middle part of the country) and delays.

Based on what I read EWR seems not an option. IAH might be a far west for my taste which leaves it to ORD and IAD. So far I had little problems into and out of ORD. I have little experience with IAD. Which of the two has more connections? The usuall arrival from Europe is around afternoon.

dvs7310

Both ORD and IAD have a lot of connections but depends on where you actually want to go. Why don't you tell us your final destination or at least the state you want to visit and you'd probably get more useful advice.

IluvSQ

Where are you flying to? YYZ is actually quite good for transferring intl - US.

SunLover

This interactive link might be useful in your planning: http://cgi.ua.flightlookup.com/route...ullscreen.html


SunLover

mahasamatman

I have to wonder why it matters. An airport can have 1,000 connections, but if your ultimate destination isn't one of them, does that make it a good choice? The only connection that should matter is the one that gets you where you want to go.

Of course, you could be a non-planner like my brother. Assuming he could afford the walk-up fare, he wouldn't make the decision as to where to go until he was at the connecting airport, so the number of connections might be something useful in that situation.

Kacee

ORD has more flights than IAD. It's also a nicer airport. But you're more likely to have a delay there.