Massive taxi times at ORD
 

I believe this is just the new normal at ORD. Didn't it start when they opened the new runways a few years ago? I don't think I've had a taxi of less than 15 minutes since then.

It all depends on the runway lottery. If you get the new one on the north side of the field, it's going to be longer. The new one on the south side, maybe even longer yet but that one is used pretty rarely (high volume with eastbound operations). I've had anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes but in fairness, I'm finding taxi times from that far north runway to be improving... typically 15 minutes or just a little longer.

I have no doubt it was that long but I think it's the exception now. I know the last three or four times my flight landed on 27R (far north runway), taxi times were noticeably shorter than they used to be. It can happen anywhere as my flight to SFO in December had at least a 30 minute taxi time due to a gate being blocked. I would not be surprised if that was a contributing reason behind your long wait.

That could have been your gate was blocked and holding areas nearby were full or something.

The gate was not blocked - we just taxied at what seemed like 1mph. There's still a lot of construction out there - I've been guessing that all the taxiways aren't built and that this won't go on forever?

It might be related to ongoing runway construction - there was something going on in 2014 or 2015 that meant that AA flights had to make a lengthy detour to get to T3.

If you think taxi times at ORD are bad, don't ever fly to DFW.

If you landed on the north side, then yes it's a long taxi time. With the construction of 27/9C on the east side of the field and the TAP related projects on the west side, 30 minutes is possible.

The better of the two arrival configurations would be landing in Westflow.

There was a Trib article about it a couple of years ago. I seem to recall the average taxi time was 25 minutes, with some taking up to 45 minutes.

Last night's experience:

Landed on 27R (far north edge of field)
Started timing as soon as aircraft left the runway
Taxied to gate E12 with three stops along the way for various reasons

Total time to gate: 16 and a half minutes

If not for the stops, it would have been about 12 minutes or less.

Just a data point. My son arrived this morning at 08:35 and arrived at the gate at 09:10. So somewhere between 30 and 35 minutes of taxi time early on a Saturday morning.

I personally think it's getting better. I fly semi-monthly out of ORD. Last year I got stuck in the "penalty box" all the time (30+ minute delays). But 2019, all of my taxi times have been under 15 minutes. With all the construction, it only makes sense that there will be major detours, especially at peak times.

A week ago Friday night, we landed on runway 10C (?, south of T3). It looked like a quick taxi to our gate at the H concourse. Instead, we ended up somewhere near runway 9R/27L, where we were stopped for a few minutes before backtracking to T3; we definitely did not go around T1 and T2. The total taxi time was 30 minutes. That was followed by a 15 minutes wait for the valet checked bags on the jet bridge, at least mine was the third one out.

The flight was already delayed for almost two hours due to a late arriving inbound on account of ORD ATC hold where it originated. We blocked in 24 minutes later than the revised arrival time.