Question about connect times Chicago

[yardbird]

Looking at a flight BUF to FAI. One stop in ORD.

Right now the schedule shows an hour and 9 minutes between flights in ORD.

 

This is on United. BUF to ORD would be on RJ145 and ORD to FAI on 737-800 is that makes a difference.

 

Is an hour and 9 minutes (assuming everything goes to schedule) enough time to get our luggage from one flight to the next in Chicago at around 2:45 on a Thursday?

 

I've flown in and out of ORD several times but never really payed attention enough to know if this connection is perfectly fine or not.

 

Looks like my wife would rather pay more for a one-stop, that leaves BUF at 2pm and arrives FAI about 7:30pm, than to get up for a flight leaving at 6am, stopping in ORD and SEA and arriving FAI at about 4:30pm. :)

[6rugrats]

If your first flight arrives on time, that's plenty of time to make a connection at ORD. Would advise you though, if you are booking for next August, I can guarantee your flight will have schedule changes.

Edited September 15, 2015 by 6rugrats

[yardbird]

If your first flight arrives on time, that's plenty of time to make a connection at ORD. Would advise you though, if you are booking for next August, I can guarantee your flight will have schedule changes.

 

That's kind of why I'm waiting a while.

BUF to ORD is pretty easy as there are a lot of flights throughout the day. If that 2pm out of BUF gets changed to sometime later then I'd be in trouble. I could easily catch an earlier flight, but I'd almost certainly need to use another airline. I'd have to check United's schedule for BUF to ORD on Wednesdays. I used to have a way to check how schedules changed historically, but I can't remember how I did that any more. :)

 

But let's face it... even on the cheaper itineraries that have more stops... if any one of them changes you could be up the creek.

 

Another reason to be patient. It's just too far out .

[elycelynne]

Try to limit any carry-ons to bags that can fit under the seat in front of you. ERJ145's have smaller overhead bins with limited space, so you might have to gate check anything that won't fit under the seat which you would have to retrieve upon landing at ORD, thereby adding to your connection time.

 

Secondly, I don't know if this is still the case, but I know that the smaller regional jets (like the 145's) used to take off and land at Terminal 2 (as opposed to Terminal 1, which is UA's main terminal). If the gate for your flight to FAI is located on the B concourse of Terminal 1, the walking distance isn't too bad. However, if you have to go to the C concourse, you then have to go down the escalator and use the people mover to travel down a very long hallway to get there. It would add a bit more time for your connection. (However, there's a slight chance that your FAI flight could also depart from Terminal 2, which would be the luckiest scenario.)

[yardbird]

Try to limit any carry-ons to bags that can fit under the seat in front of you. ERJ145's have smaller overhead bins with limited space, so you might have to gate check anything that won't fit under the seat which you would have to retrieve upon landing at ORD, thereby adding to your connection time.

 

Secondly, I don't know if this is still the case, but I know that the smaller regional jets (like the 145's) used to take off and land at Terminal 2 (as opposed to Terminal 1, which is UA's main terminal). If the gate for your flight to FAI is located on the B concourse of Terminal 1, the walking distance isn't too bad. However, if you have to go to the C concourse, you then have to go down the escalator and use the people mover to travel down a very long hallway to get there. It would add a bit more time for your connection. (However, there's a slight chance that your FAI flight could also depart from Terminal 2, which would be the luckiest scenario.)

 

Yeah, we did the gate check thing when we went to Savannah. I thought it was handled well but it did add another 5 or 10 minutes to pick up the gate check bags and move on.

 

There's another flight from BUF to ORD leaving at 10:45am instead of 2pm and even though it means 4 and a half hours in ORD between flights, I'd be tempted... EXCEPT.... it's $250 more than the other one. For that difference I could go first class on the other flight :)

 

Right now I think it's still a crap-shoot. It's like predicting the weather several months in advance. I'll sit tight and watch for a while (like.... a few months maybe)

[skf]

Not to be a Negative Nelson, but we have never, ever gotten thru O'Hare on schedule at any time of year.