Lion in Winter

It does sound a bit tight for the return flight:

a) In my experience, flights back form the UK can be delayed by headwind.
b) Are you sure your Man - Chicago flight is arriving in Terminal 3? Customs and immigration are all in Terminal 5, and as far as I know all international flights have to land there. You will need to take the shuttle train to another terminal for your onwards flight. It doesn't take long, but it is longer than just walking to another gate.
c) I don't know your immigration status in the US. If you have a green card or citizenship then you can go through the faster lanes, as opposed to the very, very slow lanes, but even so I have had to wait in line up to half an hour at times.

It's probably doable, but I would be a bit nervous.

Ooh, just noticed that you have to collect bags on the way back too. Yes, you will have to take them through customs and lug them over to your next terminal. It can take 30 - 40 minutes from getting to the gate for your bags to get through, but on the bright side you are doing immigration while that is going on. All the same, I have often had to wait a good 20 mins for bags.

tonrob

Good thinking. Maybe just a little bit hammered?

GeoffM

You shouldn't need to do that. Just outside the customs hall should be the bag transfer area - for all terminals. It's certainly what we did last time when we arrived at one terminal, collected the bags, dropped them off a minute later, and then made our way by foot/train to another terminal for a domestic flight.

SanDiegogirl

90 minutes to get to another flight and go through immigration is much too tight. I have tried that and it failed ........

Now I always have at least 2 hours for connection. I'd rather wait at the airport than miss the connecting flight.

cindyabs

As a pro= 2 hours minimum on intl flights.................

Lion in Winter

Oh, right, well that's a plus.

Still, on the time thing you still have to get yourself to the other terminal. It's a bit tight.

Take Cindy the Pro's advice, I say.

penguinsix

I think this is correct. American handles domestic arrivals/departures from terminal 3, and some international departures from terminal 3, so your flight out should be ok. But my understanding is that ALL international arrivals are at Terminal 5, the international arrival facility at O'Hare. Only flights from airports that have pre-clearance facilities (like Shannon in Ireland) can go to other terminals as only Terminal 5 has customs and immigration booths.

You might want to double check that bit with the airline. If you are coming to 5 and then transferring it's a shuttle train and possibly a second security review (not sure on that)

Lion in Winter

From Heathrow American def. comes to Terminal 5. I do it all the time.

penguinsix

Do you have to stay 'airside' or to move from T5 to T* at O'Hare do you have to go out to the tram/buses and thus back in again through security lines?

GeoffM

The latter. Any international arrival* in the US means going through immigration, collect bags, through customs, bag drop (if connecting), then going back through security again. Apart from the bags, this seems to be common through many parts of the world now (Dubai, London, Manila, Santiago, Sao Paulo that I've experienced recently) with some exceptions, not that I can think of any I've been to recently!

* may be some exceptions I guess. Air New Zealand through LAX?