martinfoss

Hi!

At the moment, I'm planning to book next years holiday trip to the US on co.com, and I was hoping someone on here might know a few things..

The first city we plan to visit is Chicago.. Flying in from Oslo, means transit at EWR.. I notice that CO fly to ORD from terminal A.. The earliest flight from EWR to ORD, has a connection of 2h 45min.. That should be ok shouldn't it? Last time I flew i from Oslo there was no line at immigration, and I've heard that flight 39 is about the only intl flight to arrive around that time..

How does the transit work? I know you will go through immigration, then collect your luggage. Will we have to take that over to terminal A, or can we re-check it in terminal C? I do also read about a bus between terminals A and C.. Can we then re-check our baggage at terminal C and jump on the bus? Does the re-check-in happen airside?


The next leg will be ORD-SFO via IAH, with either 1h 36min, or 2h 55min connection time.. What will you reccommend? I know we don't have to deal with luggage here, so it's basically walking from one gate to another: It looks to me like all CO domestic flights are within terminal C, but how big is it? I'm the kinda person who also likes to look around while I'm there, maybe have lunch before the next flight.. Will 1h 36min be enough? And what are the chances for a flight at 11:00 AM out of ORD will be delayed on a day in July?


Sorry if I ask too much, but I really appreciate any help or advice

Brgds

Martin

OPFlyer

You re-check the bags in terminal C and then proceed to the bus to get to terminal A. If you are in BF or a PC member you will have access to the PC in terminal A. A 2hr 45min connection is fine in EWR. For transiting in IAH, 1hr 36min is more than enough time. Terminal C is not too big but does have an area with shops and food Also, your domestic flight can also leave from terminal E at IAH. This terminal has much more options for dining and shopping.

rkkwan

Plane arrives. You go through US immigration. Pick up checked bags. Go through US customs. Exit customs, leave bag to CO agent at exit. Go upstairs to ride AirTrain from C to A. Reclear security at A. Go to gate.

2:45 is more than enough time.

For ORD-IAH-SFO, 1:36 is plenty.

martinfoss

Thanks. Although, I'm a bit confused.. Do I actually leave airside at C, or can I remain airside and jump on the bus to terminal A?

I suppose it's plenty of time, but on the one single transit I've ever done on CO my entire life, we had a 4 hour connection, and still missed the flight back to OSL.. keywords were "weather", "fuel" and "Pitsburgh"

gary_nj

After going through Customs, you are basically landside - even if your connecting flight left from Terminal C, you would still need to go back through security. So the easiest thing to do is re-check your luggage (which you can do at Terminal C) and take the AirTrain (monorail) to Terminal A. The whole AirTrain is landside, so you will need to clear security again in A.

If you are connecting TO an international flight, then a longer connection time is wise. That is because once the air traffic over Newark becomes congested, the controllers will ground flights coming into the airport, and typically the worst-affected flights are the shorter ones. But the incoming international ones are seldom delayed, so the 2 hour connection from international to domestic is fine.

rkkwan

When you exit customs, you're always landside. Therefore, take the train to A, and then reclear security at A.

Paulo

Arriving international passengers in the US must always clear immigration and customs at their original port of entry (in your case EWR). This is because many connecting points do not have immigration and customs facilities.

Upon exiting customs, you will be outside of security (i.e. landside). So no chance to use the airside bus from A to C.

Rough conservative estimate of the parts of your transfer:
- immigration queue = 10 minutes
- waiting for checked bags - 20 minutes
- waiting to re-check luggage at transfer desk = 20 minutes
- transfer to Term A = 10 minutes
- clearing security at Term A = 10 minutes

So conservatively, that is 70 minutes for the entire transfer (typically less, but I am assuming longer than average waiting times).

So unless your flight is more than one hour late on arrival (you might want to check the historical delays to be certain), you will have no problem at all.

sbm12

It isn't just that the secondary airports don't have ICE facilities. Also, the USA doesn't offer sterile transfer, even for International-International traffic. The EWR C3 pier was designed to support this, as was Terminal E in IAH, but thus far the DHS will not allow it, so everyone has to "enter" the USA. It makes the USA an undesirable connection point and is costing US airlines money, but that doesn't seem to be sufficient to drie a change in the policy.

To the OP, I think that both of your connecctions will be fine, though the 1:36 in IAH will not leave much time for wandering nor snacking. If you really want those two events take the longer stop. I wouldn't, but you can.

hughw

After clearing customs and getting your luggage, you'll be landside. And after that, you're confused because you can get to Terninal A either of two ways:

(1) Check your luggage at C (or A if you prefer) and take the AirTrain which is landside to A where you go through security.
(2) Check your luggage at C, go through security at C, and take the airside bus from near gate C71 to Terminal A.

Method #1 will usually be somewhat faster, but if you get in on time and can check your luggage promptly, you'll have plenty of time. In that case, you may opt for method #2 and spend most of your time in Terminal C which has more shops and food options. Then take the bus over to Terminal A about 45 minutes before your flight.

gary_nj

I don't want to confuse things further, but hughw raises a good point about re-checking luggage.

At times, the luggage re-check at Terminal C can become quite a mess. This is especially true when several international arrivals occur simultaneously.

If the OP doesn't have toooo much luggage and finds the baggage re-check to be crazy, there is always the option of taking the luggage along and checking in at Terminal A. Just be aware that some of the folks at Terminal C will be trying to direct you into the re-check line.

martinfoss

I do remember hearing once that CO39 from Oslo is about the only intl flight to land at around 2 PM.. Is that true? I also noticed when I flew it last year, that there was litterally no queue at immigration, so there should hopefully not be too many people in terminal C at that moment.. The re-check area: That's a seperate area, right? You don't have to use the "regular" check-in desks?.

And thank you for all your advice.. Looks like we will re-check, and ride the train to terminal A.. There will still be time to explore terminal C when flying home from NYC one week later..

sbm12

Correct. There are a few counters as you leave the customs area.

worldwidetraveler

In transiting EWR this past September arriving from overseas, it took only a couple of minutes to hand the customs cleared bags to the Continental personnel after clearing the customs area. Bags should already have destination tickets on them.
At the recent DO it was mentioned that the area where CO receives the on-going baggage was/is to be renovated/enlarged.