I flew out of O'Hare, Terminal 1, United on this past Monday in the a.m. I arrived at 8:00 to catch a 10:45 flight. I checked right in at the curbside checkin which took me no longer than 10 minutes. Was through security in less than 20 and ended up with gobs of time on my hands.

I don't know if I was just lucky or what. I was really nervous because I knew O'hare was supposed to be one of, if not the busiest airport in the country.

I really couldn't believe how quickly I got through.

I've only flown out of O'Hare a few times, but despite the horror stories I've never had a problem. I was always able to check in and get through security within about a 1/2 hour total, even for an international flight. Same at Midway. The problem is I then have a couple of hours to fill because I get there so early. I'm always tempted to get to the airport no more than two hours before my flight, or even a bit less at Midway would probably be sufficent. But then I'm concerned that will be the day when I encounter the 2 hour wait at security I always hear about.

Hello from RI!
Checking the bags was easy once we found the right line. Security took a bit longer. We arrived at the airport around 5am and were at the gate at 6am, most of that is some pretty long security lines. Unfortunately our flight was almost 3 hrs late taking off, so any info you want about life at gate C22 I'm your person.

Ouch, that was exactly what happened to me last time I went east, but at least I had a good book.

Ditto to sfowler. I arrived at O'Hare at 5:30 this morning and was at the gate by 6:09. American was trying hard to keep things moving.

Key observations include:

The burden seems to have shifted to the people who xray the checked bags. They must have had 200 waiting to be screened. How they keep track and get them to the planes on time is beyond me.

It was quick at security b/c there was nothing to screen BUT the big thing was how quiet it was past security b/c no one was pulling a loud, squeaky roll aboard.

Very interesting!

I had a 6:30 a.m. flight out of ORD yesterday. I arrived at 5:20 (w/ a boarding pass, no luggage) and was through security in 10 minutes, even though the line looked very long.

I've flown domestically 7 times since the London arrests and have figured out that you simply do not need 2 hours for the security line. But I agree with others that the actual ticketing lines are outrageous.