I only went and made the connection! I write to use from BA296 somewhere East of Canada. There was nothing to worry about in the end as the PHL-ORD arrived an hour early (compared to late in previous days). I had more than enough time to exit T3 landside, take the bus across, and reclear security in T5. There was very little open on the T5 side other than a Burger King closing at 8pm (actually, they closed before that). Many of the duty free shops are open still. I am confident I could have made it in the MCT using the landside bus even if we had not arrived early. BUT... would I want to worry about it? No. I couldn’t same day flight change because the AA flight was on a BA codeshare.

that is all a longwinded way of saying thank you for holding my hand and helping me work out what to do I hope that the lack of an airside bus doesn’t become ORDinary