jacobus

I am flying to ORD Terminal 5 with JAL in a few months from HND arriving 9:30AM give or take a few minutes on a Saturday; then transferring to Terminal 1 for a United Domestic Flight leaving 2PM the same day. I am not a US Citizen. Is this transfer doable?

TWA884

With 4 1/2 hours to make the connection there should not be a problem.

Take a look at the following thread:

jacobus

Thanks. I am just worried about reading delays with CBP at Terminal 5. Thank you by the way. Should be a Terminal 5 to T1 air train land side connection be good.

JimInOhio

Most recent posted day (Friday), the average time for immigration processing between 9 AM and 10 AM at T5 was 50 minutes for non-US citizens.
That’s actually a heavy hour with multiple INTL arrivals.

ords

During last week there's been CBP staffing issues which has caused significant delays. ORD's peak week for international activity just passed, so I'm wondering if this has anything to do with it.

Nothing publicly available and even so, it's like a revolving door with which ones service which carriers.

jacobus

So in theory with a 4.5 hour transfer from landing to departure would it would be possible?

JimInOhio

Yes, absolutely.

jacobus

thank you

goodeats21

Agree with TWA884 - 4.5 hours should be fine for the transfer.

Regarding the underlined question - correct, you will not stay airside during your connection. You will exit Terminal 5, going thru Immigration and Customs, exiting to landside area.

If you checked luggage, you need to pick it up at the luggage carousal prior to Customs.

As you are arriving on JAL, and continuing on United, is this on 2 separate tickets? If on the same ticket, and JAL tagged your bag thru to final destination, then you can drop off the luggage immediately after exiting customs at the bag drop area.

If on separate tickets, and/or JAL did not tag your bags to final destination, then you will need to take luggage with you to Terminal 1 and check it in for your United flight.

You can reach Terminal 1 via the landside train.

TWA884

Even if the bags are not tagged to the final destination, it may be possible to check them in to the final destination at the United recheck desk at T5.

goodeats21

Oh, interesting, Didn't realize the United re-check desk offered this. I have not ever had this scenario in my travels.

cheltzel

My experience with the UA service desk at T5 arrivals is all pre-pandemic. But you used to be able to do check-in there, check your bags and get boarding passes.

jacobus

Thanks for letting me know. Maybe I can try and ask when I arrive.

I hope that has not changed. If anyone has experienced this recently it would be good. These are all on different tickets.

cheltzel

Even if no one responds to your question t won't cost you much additional time as you will walk directly past the UA counter on your way out. The worst thing is you ask them if you can check in there and they say no. If they check you in then you just take the land side rail to T1 and find the shortest security line.

GUWonder

It was still being done there at ORD T5 for UA flights too as of a few weeks ago. Not sure about how busy the UA one gets at the worst of times for those wanting to do more there than just handing over the already tagged bags, but the equivalent AA T5 facility nearby for the full check-in experience — and not just handing over already tagged bags for the onward flights — was so ridiculous busy when I was coming off my SK flight that I decided to just not deal with checking in there either. [I was already dealing with a delayed flight that caused me to miss my flight back to DC on UA, and the AA line there was so bad that I gave up on the idea of dealing with an AA alternative destination instead and decided to overnight at the house in Chicago.] I had never seen the AA crowd so deep there before, and I’m often having to re-check-in luggage there or wanting to get checked in there while on separate tickets. With UA, I more often already have my bags tagged for the onward UA flights even before I arrive at ORD T5 from abroad, but I’ve never seen it as massively backed up as what I caught an eye of with AA there.