ORD, will our bags make it?
 

Hi we're a family of 4 traveling from BOS to ORD and then onto Tokyo.
We arrive at ORD at 10:39am(on a Thursday)on AA. We need to get ourselves from Terminal 1 to Terminal 5 for a 2:10pm JAL flight out to Tokyo. Recently my husband's co-workers have all had flight delays going through ORD (although he just went through it yesterday without a hitch). He's concerned that if there's a delay, we haven't left enough time to get our luggage, get ourselves over to Terminal 5 and do check-in/security all over. Now we're thinking we should all just take carry-on bags to save time. This will be tricky. Before I try to get our stuff to fit into carry-ons, I thought I'd ask here for any advice. What do you think? Will we make the connection with checked bags or is it too risky? Thanks

This really seems like enough time to me. Time is way beyond what you would need for traffic or weather delays. Of course, no way one could predict equipment problems.

Of course this is what I originally thought when I made the reservations! I think my husband is just starting to think about what could go wrong! So checking bags sounds fine?

Call American and ask if it has an interline agreement with JAL (I'm not that familiar with AA's operations these days, so I don't know what it's various partnerships/agreements are). If so, you should be able to check bags all the way through from Boston to Tokyo and not have to worry about claiming/rechecking them at Chicago. You will simply have to get yourselves from Terminal 3 (AA is in T3, not T1) to Terminal 5, and that should be plenty of time.

Wow thanks! That of course would be fantastic!!! Thanks I'm going to call right now!

You will check your bags in BOS and not see them again till NRT.

You have plenty of time. 4 HOURS!!!!! You BOS-ORD flight is only about 2 hours. As a matter of fact, if this was me, I would have a nice lunch in terminal 3 before heading over to terminal 5 (not much there).

If there are some serious weather issues, mechanicals, etc., then even a 10 hour layover won't help. Folks, relax. I usually try to do no more than 1.5 hour connection. I've learned through my frequent flying that 95% of the time the schedules run on time without any hitches. I'm not going to waste my time at the airports on the chance that the 1 out of 20 times something may(may is the main word here) go wrong. If it does, so be it. Never missed my connection last year (~125K miles total), and so far this year (~80K miles total). I fly through DFW, MIA, ORD, JFK and LAX for international.

I agree with what AAFF says.

But let me add that two things:

1. It depends on the nature of the trip. If one has a million-dollar contract to sign, then one should schedule to arrive at his/her destination with plenty of time before. Can't take that 1/20 chance. But if it's a leisure trip, there are other things to worry.

2. For an overseas trip that has perhaps only a couple of flights per day, one should prepare for what happens if the luggage is lost, period. Regardless of connection time. So, high blood pressure medicine should be in carry-on, as well as one set of clothes, etc...

Thank you all! We are indeed going to check our bags in BOS onward to NRT. Personally I hate it when I think everything is chugging along smoothly (due to my impeccable planning) only to have my husband or kids, bring something like this up as a possibility! Although, if my husband hadn't, I wouldn't have inquired about an interline agreement... (ok so maybe the planning is impeccable only in my head until flaws in the plan are pointed out! lol)We're all set now. We will definitely not rush over to terminal 5 if terminal 3 offers more in the way of refreshment! Thanks for that heads up AAFrequentFyer!

Everything should be just fine. I must say, I've flown through ORD on AA the past 6 weeks and this weeks trip was the first on time in 5 weeks. I've been subjected to at least 4 hour flight delays the proceeding weeks. With the frequent Spring storms over, hopefully things will flow a little smoother through this very busy airport.

By the way, I always like eating at Wolgang Puck in terminal 3. If kids are among your party of 4, they might not be too hip on this suggestion, but there a couple of Chili's and many fast food selections. Best of luck and enjoy your trip!

When we travel internationally as a family we usually switch some clothing between suitcases - that is, my husband carries an outfit or 2 for me, I for him. This does not help if luggage is late because of delays, but it is reassurance if one piece of luggage gets lost.

And if luggage ever does not fly with you because of delays, airline will get it to you. Rarely does luggage disappear forever. (With my sympathies to those who have actually lost luggage permanently - I often wonder if that is because of ground theft at baggage belt in airport rather than airline losing luggage)

Although I'm feeling confident about checking our bags through to Tokyo, my husband can counter this with a story of a colleague who recently went and his luggage was misplaced until he arrived back home! Of course, it seems that there are always these types of stories! We travel alot but we've never lost our luggage. Our plan right now is to simply have a change of clothes in our carry-ons, in the assumption that they might be what we'll have for the entire trip! Should be interesting with 2 teens who like to change clothes at a drop of the hat!

I'll simply say this. You're worrying WAY TOO MUCH. Millions of travellers check their baggages with an interline connection - most of the time with much less time then you do. 99+% of them get theirs with no problem.

As long as you prepare for that 1%, like with one set of extra clothes, necessary medicine and no valuables, there's really nothing you should worry about still.

If you're spending that many brain cells on this, what about hotels losing your reservations, one of your teens left his/her passport, traffic jam enroute to airport, etc?

So, please relax, and frankly, stop reading and posting in this thread! ;)