Hi all,
How long for a connection time is the minimum I should look for flying from Madrid to either JFK or Chicago in early Jan..flying Iberia if that matters...also which airport is easier to get from terminal to terminal?

Thanks,
Angela

Once you get to JFK or ORD, what airline are you connecting to in order to fly to what city?

mrwunrfl,
I will be going AA to San Francisco...
Thanks

Figured that whoever can answer the question (not me) would want to know that.

also will I need to pass customs at one of those airports or when I get to my final destination in San Francisco?

Thanks,
Angela

Yes, you go through US immigration and customs at the first point of entry.

The process in general is:

- get off plane
- go through immigration (much longer lines for visitors)
- baggage claim
- customs and agriculture (usually, just hand in form; unless you have stuff to declare or get picked for further screening)
- recheck bags
- go to your domestic terminal (via train at JFK and ORD)
- go through security (lines may be long)
- go to new gate

That's assuming that the IB check-in agent properly tagged your bags to SFO and have printed your AA boarding pass.

If you're not a US citizen or resident, 2 hours minimum. 2.5 the better.

Both JFK and ORD requires a train transfer. Both fast and frequent. At JFK, you'll be going from Terminal 7 to 9, one stop. At ORD, you'll be going from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3, also just one stop.

Oh, winter weather can be a factor for both airports in Jan. ORD may be worse than JFK, though we're talking weather here, so nothing is certain.

Other times of the year, I'll pick ORD, but for Jan, I may pick JFK.

AA has about equal frequency ORD-SFO and JFK-SFO, so no clear advantage in terms or mis-connect rebookings.

Add another city to the mix - Boston. Iberia now flies nonstop Madrid to Boston. Dtr just took this flight and had no complaints. And as a smaller airport, Logan is relatively easy to get terminal to terminal (still requires shuttle bus, but runs very frequently).

As far as customs and immigration, from time plane touched down in Boston (she got luggage, did the immigration and customs thing) took about 20-30 minutes.

The minimum connecting times are always built in to connecting flights as long as you search and book the entire journey.

IB has flight connections MAD-SFO via either ORD or JFK. Presumably there is a cost saving (or FF advantage) by splitting it down into separate bookings. In which case, the minimum connecting time at JFK when arriving on IB and connecting to AA is 2 hours and at ORD it is 1hr10mins. These are minimums so would try to leave a bit more time between the flights.