Connecting Through O'Hare

lostman

lostman

500+ Posts
Has anyone here come into O'Hare from overseas, gone through customs, and connected with another domestic flight recently?

At Dulles, you have to get your baggage, go through customs, and then recheck your baggage. Do you have to do this at O'Hare also?

Lostdaughter is flying out overseas from Houston, and when she flies back the round trip brings her back to Houston, connecting through O'Hare. She will turn right around and fly home to Chicago. If you have to collect your baggage and recheck it, then she will just deplane at O'Hare and skip the rest of the trip. If your luggage is sent on automatically at O'Hare, then either she flies to Houston and then back to Chicago, or we collect her luggage and ship it home for her.

Does that make sense?
 
If you are going to go through immigration in Chicago, which is probably going to happen, then you have to retrieve your luggage and then take it through customs. Most airports ( i have personal knowledge that IAH, Newark, Atlanta, LAX) have bag check lines immediately after you go through customs. You just walk through customs and put it on a conveyor belt if you have a connecting flight from that airport. Or, you could just walk straight out the door if that airport is your last flight into the country.

Bottom line is if you go through immigration, you then go through customs at the same airport. That has been my experience.
 
I guess my first post was not too clear. Not enough coffee this morning. Sorry.

Daughter lives in Chicago, we live in Houston. She is flying out, internationally, from Houston where she will be visiting us before she leaves. Return flight has her connecting back to Houston (since it is a round trip) at O'Hare. At this point, if her luggage goes straight through to Houston, like it does in a domestic flight with connections, then either she also flies here to Houston, collects her luggage here and then flies (one way) back to Chicago, or she deplanes and we collect her luggage here in Houston and ship it back to her. If she has to collect her own luggage in O'Hare, to recheck it for the connecting flight to Houston, then she will just deplane and skip the connecting flight.

What we need to know is are you required at all airports to gather and recheck your baggage when coming in from an international flight and connecting elsewhere, or is it different for each airport? She has flown in and out of Dulles internationally and you do collect your own baggage to recheck for the connection flight when returning to the states. Is O'Hare the same?

Thanks.
 
I flew back to the US through chicago last year and had to pick my bags up and recheck before continuing.
 
Thanks all. It sounds like she can deplane, then, in Chicago, gather her things, go through customs, and ignore the rest of her flight, going home to her place. And we will not have to go up to the airport to get her stuff!

Once again, HF is the font of all wisdom!
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Sounds like both she and her luggage can abort the trip in Chicago... She may want to let the airline know that she's not planning to continue on with the last leg, as she will already be checked in for the flight and will be paged throughout the airport...
The scenario of her luggage going on and her not is not wise in this post-911/ TSA day and age. Supposedly the passenger is supposed to have to fly on the same plane as their luggage. If the passenger doesn't board, they are supposed to pull the luggage. I can only imagine if a flight has to get delayed b/c the luggage had to be dug out that the airline might try to penalize the passenger. That, and the inconvenience to the rest of the passengers who get delayed...
 
I came through O'Hare only a few hours ago. After collecting the luggage and going through that last customs check, there was no other security. I had my large duffel that I carry-on and I just walked straight passed the baggage re-check, out the door and into terminal 5.
 
I've connected many times at Chicago. After you go through immigration, you collect your checked bags then proceed through customs. If you are continuing on to a connecting flight, you are supposed to drop your bag off (like any airport in the US when coming in from overseas), but if you want to skip your connection and just stay in Chicago, that's not a problem from a practical perspective.
 
Not related to the original post, but bags fly without people all the time. There are some loopholes that allow it.
 
I recently was in PHL trying to get back to Orange County SNA. Missed my original flight at about 4 PM.

AA didn't have anything else, so I'm stuck in Philly.
I ask if I can get to DFW, so it will be a shorter easier flight the next morning. They say "sure", but tell me I cannot have my checked luggage in Dallas, so I should grab what I need. Checked bag would proceed on earliest flight to SNA., I would take a flight a bit later that morning (8 am or so).

Of course, my bag ended up in SEA, and I didn't go with it.
 
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