lounge access chicago - arriving LH J, departing UA domestic F
 

I am flying domestic in F from ORD to BZN. which lounge can I use in chicago and am I allowed to take a guest ? or is there an arrival lounge in chicago that I can use coming from ZRH in business ? information on united website is not clear to me, they mostly talk about international flights

Are you flying UA or LX to Chicago? Do you have *G status?

UA doesn't fly ZRH-ORD (except summer schedule) so I'm assuming LX.

An LX business class arrival does not grant UA lounge access, nor does a UA domestic F departure, unless you are Star Alliance Gold on LX or some other carrier (not UA).

Not sure whether LX grants arrival access to its own passengers at the T5 lounge. But even if they do, that's not going to be particularly convenient for a UA departure.

I think if the OP booked on one ticket, the UA ORD-BZN ticket might say INTL on it, which then allows any *G to enter the UA lounge.

If you’re arriving into ORD on Swiss, you have no lounge access unless you have Gold status or better. If you arrive into ORD on Swiss (in either business or coach) AND have United Gold status, you get access to United Club. If you are arriving into ORD on United, you have access to UC or Polaris Lounge if in Polaris Business. If you have United Gold status, you have access to UC if arriving into ORD in coach.

If you have Gold status from an airline besides UA, you gat access to ORD United Club based on your F flight to Bozeman.

That should cover all the options 🙂

*G gets lounge access on any international *A same-day routing, regardless of carrier.

*G status from an airline other than UA does not provide arrival access.

OK, but there's no United Club at Bozeman. OP is flying ZRH-ORD-BZN. If ZRH-ORD is on LX, then there is no lounge access at ORD unless OP has *G status. If OP does have *G status, they can access the United Club at ORD.

Yes. If OP has *G status from other than United, they get ORD based on F departure to BZN, not based on int’l arrival on SWiss. If *G status from UA, OP gets access at ORD based on int’l arrival, not based on F departure to BZN.

OP's best bet would be re-clearing security at T5 and heading to the LX lounge which he should have access to as a frequent traveller member of the Lufthansa Group of airlines frequent flyer program. It also has way better food and facilities than the UC's at ORD. One thing that is less clear is whether the airside inter-terminal buses at ORD will pick up passengers from T5 to take them to T1.

In any event, aside from the Polaris Lounge there's not much to write home about in terms of lounges at ORD.

Safe Travels,

James

I think it's pretty clear. There isn't an airside bus that picks up from T5. It only operates one way between the domestic terminals to T5. The assumption being that if you arrive in T5, you have to clear customs and immigration and will end up land side. The general sentiment around these parts is that there is NOT a lounge in T5 that would be worth re-clearing security at T5 if you weren't flying out of that terminal.

As you can see by the responses, this is not a simple question. If you could provide
1) Carrier of the flight from ZRH?
2) Do you have any status with UA or other Star Alliance carriers?
3) How long do you have between flights at ORD?

Domestic F by itself does not get UA lounge access
There are no arrivals lounges at ORD (Star Alliance)
If eligible for lounge access, the guesting privileges will vary based on answers to the above.

1) Even if it was open and accorded arriving pax access, the LX lounge at ORD is never worth clearing security for (plenty of T1 options such as Tortas Fronteras and Wicker Park Sushi are much better places to relax/recharge). There are no showers and no worthwhile food and beverage options at the LX lounge.

2) As mentioned, there is no T5-T1 airside TTB.

https://www.loungebuddy.com/ is a great tool for helping to answer these types of questions. You enter your airline ticket/fare class, where you're flying, what airline status(es) you have, and which credit cards you have and it tells you where you can enter at each airport, what the fees are (if any), what time the lounges are open, and where to find the lounge (which is not always easy).

The Star Alliance Lounge Finder is also pretty good.