Connections at Chicago O'Hare

Second new topic in a week so apologies for bombarding the board!

We've got a very good quote for some flights from Heathrow - Chicago - Tampa after 3 nights in Chicago, returning Tampa to London via Chicago. This seems to be a very cheap way of doing the trip especially using miles and PE upgrade vouchers for the Virgin legs.

However, on the return AA flight we'd land at O'Hare at 16.30, and connect to the Virgin flight at 18.00.

The member of staff I spoke to said it's well within their minimum connections etc plus our bags would be checked through and we'd be protected if we missed the VS flight in terms of costs.

To me, a 90 minute connection seems pretty tight, but I'd be interested to get your helpful V-Flyer take on it?

Coming into ORD 90 minutes should be no problem. Going out might be tight - all of the international flights go out at the same time and the security line piles up pretty quickly - the international terminal is not that big.

if your bags are checked through and you land on time, I would say you should be ok.

good luck!

What a great way to do the trip, especially a few days in Chicago on the way!

FlightStats suggests that Tampa to O'Hare is pretty reliable so even though it's a hop out of the AA terminal onto the shuttle rail and over to the international terminal, if your bags are checked through you should be OK despite expecting to queue for a while at security.

Presumably you're on one ticket and will get your VS BP in Tampa?

The international terminal at O'Hare is so dull you don't want to spend any time there anyway!

Thanks for the responses. We're currently looking at all sorts of options for summer hols, and the Tampa one came about because my folks have a 1 bed condo in that area that we could have for free for the week.

If we booked it then yes we'd be all on one ticket, and the Virgin people have said we'd be checked all the way through at Tampa (inc bags).

90 minutes should be fine at O'Hare, especially in summer when hopefully you won't get weather issues. We've had several delays at O'Hare but always because of weather in other places affecting arrivals into O'Hare.

With American you'll come into T3 so it's only one stop on the train to T5.

If you are on time and want something to eat before the flight home, be aware that pretty much everything in T5 is BEFORE security, there's very little after. In fact, if you have time, you're better off eating in T3 before heading to T5. T3 has an abundance of eateries and shops, whereas facilities in T5 are minimal.

[mitchja]

Every time I've arrived at ORD, it's been very quick. A/C to bags and exit in under 40mins (although I've never connected).

The VS flight usually arrives roughly the same time as one of the BA flights. I've done ORD 3 times now and VS have arrived minutes before BA every time.

It's actually probably one of the faster US airports I've arrived at.

I would also say 90 mins will be fine.

Regards

Hi All,

Just to bring this one up again as an update, we've taken the plunge now and booked LHR-ORD-TPA on 24 Oct, returning TPA-JFK-LHR on 31 Oct.

Our VS flights are in PE because we paid miles for an economy fare and then upgraded with our credit card vouchers. Pretty exciting as it'll be our first PE experience.

The connection on the outbound is 2 hours, Virgin to United, which seems better and when we booked the Virgin staff said we'd be checked all the way through anyway. On the way back it's 4 hours in JFK connecting AA to VS003, so plenty of time there!
Cheers!