Originally Posted by
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Don't forget you have to change terminals in ORD as the only facility capable of accepting international arrivals is T5, and UA connections will depart from B/C in T1. USCBP at T5 can also be pretty bad.
The good news is, that suboptimal situation is temporary. ORD is about to start a massive renovation / upgrade that will concentrate *A in T1, OW in T3, miscellaneous other international airlines in a new T2, and T5 will become the leftovers terminal for domestic carriers with less ORD presence. If NZ makes this route work and everyone has patience, transfers will become a lot easier in a few years.