Originally Posted by
wrp96
Ah, that makes more sense. And I suspect it was when the train was out of order at ORD and the airside shuttle was inoperable. There is now an airside shuttle from T123 to T5 at ORD, which lets you at least skip the go outside, shuttle or train, reclear security bit, if you have to make that transfer. Also, BA is now using T3, the same as AA eliminating the need to make that transfer on an AA-BA connection. Of course you sadly still have to do the T5-T3 shuffle when arriving from outside the US.
It's off topic but the existence of the airside shuttle at ORD really is a helpful thing to know about if you need to get to/from T5. Last month I arrived at ORD T5 from LHR and needed to get to T1 for my connection but discovered that the train was broken (again). You can't walk to or from T5 so everyone (hundreds of people, of course) was directed outside (landside) to wait for an infrequent emergency bus service. No one mentioned the airside shuttle and an internet search on my phone for "how to get from T5 to T1 at ORD" didn't reveal it. Still, it could have been worse: it could have been January.