Scouse Express

Hello Ladies & Gents,

Went to O'Hare to pick up a Group, arriving from France, this afternoon.

Their flight arrived at 3:27pm and they did not clear Customs & Immigration until 7:00pm, some 3.5 Hours after landing.

It was the same with other flights, too. Absolute fricking nightmare for all involved.

Jim.

Edit: To kill time, I took a load of Plane Pics, whilst I waited at Terminal 5.

yellowroom

That sounds hideous - was the delay all in the passport control queue? I generally want to scream if the wait is longer than an hour, I can't imagine what 3.5 hours must be like.

I've been through there a couple of times but the only impression it made was that the Immigration guys seemed slightly more human than their East Coast colleagues.

Scouse Express

Immigration apparently - Connecting flights were missed etc.

In my experience, the Staff at O'Hare have always been nice and friendly.

The Line was way back with several flights having arrived at about the same time, compounding the problems.


jim.

SultanOfSwing

I wonder what happened? I've been through there a few times but never had longer than a half an hour's wait.

Anyway, come on then - let's see yer pics ...

GeoffM

Not as if those flights were unscheduled or not known about though! Of all US airports IIRC we flew (sorry) through immigration last time there.

N1cky

I came through Chicago on Friday with no problems, apart from the prat of an immigration officer I got who kept me at the desk for 20 minutes. I was only in line for 15 minutes.

They did have officers checking forms in the line though, there were at least 30 people having to complete landing cards at the side of the line. Maybe they didn't have these checks on when your friends came in, and people were filling out forms at the desks

avanutria

We flew through Chicago once from Heathrow, with a connection to Houston. We had the bad fortune to be in the immigration line when all the computers - for the entire nationwide immigration system - went down. US citizens could get through, but no one else. I think it was about two hours.

The only upside - our pilots for the next leg of our flight were British, and were held up as well! Almost everyone missed their connections, except for our plane (DH and I were some of the last to board, though). By the time the computers were up there was a small team of airport staff trying to rush us through the customs and re-checking of bags procedures.

kimilseung

Horrible for them, but nice for you, I know you like your planes.

FinnDiego

Chicago seems to be complete hit-and-miss. I've spent up to a couple of hours there, including one complete computer shutdown, but I've also been through immigration in five minutes, even with a visa. Thank deities for the green card though!