Questions about changing planes going from Dulles to O'Hare to Amsterdam and back

On the outbound trip your bags should be checked through to Amsterdam. You should see AMS on the luggage tag.

It has been a long time since my return trip required a change of planes in the US, so I'll let others address the question about what happens on the inbound flight.

Hi, acraven is right on the outbound.

As someone who always has to change flights on the way into the States, I can advise the following: upon arrival in your first U.S. airport (in this case, O'Hare), you indeed have to come through U.S. immigration and get your bags back -- then you recheck them, but they have a special place for continuing passengers to do this, you don't have to go back out to the regular check-in desks.

Then at O'Hare you have to change terminals from the International arrivals terminal to where you get your domestic flight for IAD. Over the past few years, this has been a particular difficulty at O'Hare, because the Air train or whatever it is called was under construction, but I think it is operating again now (and by golly, for all the work they did on it, i presume that it is spectacular!) If everything is working and on time, two hours is just enough.

I don't know any more if this change at ORD requires you to go through security again. You certainly had to while the AirTrain was out of order. Maybe now that it's working again, it keeps you airside ?

Confirming all of the above and adding that yes, on the return trip you will have to go through security at ORD terminal 1 after you get off the airtrain.

No help to offer--just commiserating. United seems to have canceled their non-stop flights from Amsterdam. We, along with some friends who are flying on a different date, had our non-stops from Amsterdam to Dulles re-routed through O'Hare. Really? There was nothing closer to DC than Chicago?

We have a 2 hour 10 minute layover and will be doing carry-on and have Global Entry, so we are hoping that will be enough time.

We could fly into Reagan National Airport and hour later, with a 3 hour layover. Both would get us home about the same time.

But thank you for posting, I have gathered some important information.

The more I think about this writing this post, the more complicated it gets in what I am pleased to call my mind.

Your level of concern about your luggage suggests you might be a candidate to join the canyon-only group. You've got plenty of time to figure it out.

The website for O'Hare should have terminal maps, recommendations for your pathway to make your connections, as well as updates about the inter-terminal transport systems.

My wife isn't letting me travel till next year so I wish you the best of luck and enjoy your trip.

The above info is correct, upon return you will go outside Terminal 5 and take a train to the last stop (United). You won't know if it is 1B or 1C until flight day. 1C is the farther remote concourse.

Since you live in Arlington, I would explore flights from/to DCA for convenience, United will change this for you at no fee. Or you could consider a connection at Frankfurt or Toronto instead, they will probably change that also at no charge.

We have a 2 hour 10 minute layover and will be doing carry-on and have Global Entry, so we are hoping that will be enough time.

Really, without immigration queues this is a 45 minute operation, so yes, plenty of time.

For future knowledge, when arriving in the USA, you ALWAYS go through immigration and customs at your first point of entry. And if connecting to another flight you will more than likely also have to go through security again.

The only exception is if you go through one of the 16 pre-clearance airports:

Dublin and Shannon in Ireland; Aruba; Freeport and Nassau in The Bahamas; Bermuda; Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates; and Calgary, Toronto, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg in Canada.

There you go through U.S. immigration and customs BEFORE boarding the plane.

We had tickets flying direct to Amsterdam from Dulles at the end of September. United has cancelled our flight and booked us on flights that include layovers at O'Hare in both directions.

First things first. Are you committed to United? There seems to be other airlines which fly to Amsterdam from Dulles, BWI and Reagan.

OUTBOUND (Dulles-AMS)--If you check your bags at Dulles with a destination to AMS, your bags will be transferred to your flight when you land in Chicago. You do not have to retrieve them. However, as others have said, you will most likely have to go from terminal 1 to terminal 5 via train. However, it is possible that your flight from Dulles to ORD could land at terminal 5. This is likely because many on your plane may be headed to AMS. I lived in Chicago and traveled a lot on business and a couple of times my domestic flight arrived at terminal 5 where I de-planed. If this happens to you, you will not have to go through security again because you will already be security side to AMS. If you plan on meeting folks at the Hilton, then you will have to go through security again.

INBOUND (AMS-Dulles)--Your flight AMS-ORD will land at terminal 5. There you will retrieve luggage and go through customs. There is no telling how long this will take. You then have to high tail it to Terminal 1, check your bags, go through security and get out to a gate on concourse C. IMHO, I would check for a later flight to Dulles and give yourself more than 2 hours.

You then have to high tail it to Terminal 1, check your bags, go through security

As others have noted, this is not correct. For those traveling on a single ticket, there's a bag drop at T5 with no waiting involved, although OP said carry on only.

Also there may be a KLM flight from IAD to AMS but it will be the only other nonstop from WAS and since it is another alliance the only way to access it would be to cash out the United ticket and repurchase. You have rights to a full refund in case you didn't know. DCA is of no help, and BWI to too far away to go to for their limited flights to Europe, I think just 2 or 3.

I only offer the other airports and other airlines because flying United and scheduling from Dulles to ORD is so absurd to get to AMS. I would rather take a train or taxi to BWI or DCA and fly with a connection in Iceland or JFK or direct on Delta/KLM and save so much time.

Unless you are stuck with United, I would check out the alternative airports and airlines. It may cost a little more, but time is so worth it IMO. I am sure many West coast travelers here will tell you how much they wish they could start out on the East coast when going to Europe. Good luck and enjoy your trip.

What a pain in the neck if you are in Arlington to have to fly out of Dulles only to go via O’Hare en route to Amsterdam and have to go through O’Hare and then to Dulles in order to go home to Arlington. Did United tell you that there are no other direct flights to/from Amsterdam? I thought Dulles was a United hub.

Would it be easier if United routed you via Reagan National since that’s much closer to you in Arlington if you have to go via O’Hare?

Threadwater- The OP and vafromva are both already ticketed on UA. To shop other carriers would likely leave them with significant money tied up in UA credits and higher fares from other carriers at a date that is now closer to departure. It's highly unlikely to be a reasonably or even viable alternative for them.

significant money tied up in UA credits

No, the addition of a stop to an itinerary always means eligibility for a full refund.

Some responses to your very helpful suggestions:

We don't have a lot of options as we are attached to United for this one.... a lot of United points were involved in purchasing these tickets.

Since the flights were originally booked out of IAD we’re not at all troubled by going to/from IAD rather than DCA, although my wife may investigate the possibility of a later flight home from ORD just to increase the odds of making the connection.

The original booking had us connecting through Newark, we changed to ORD because we have heard fewer scare stories about ORD than EWR. At this point we've already planned to try to have lunch with my sisters at the Hilton on the long outbound layover, so I think we’ll just stick with ORD rather than try Frankfurt or Toronto.

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies.

Almost forgot....

About an hour after I posted this I clicked something I hadn't noticed before on the O'Hare web site and found this, which nicely tracks with what I've been told here.

https://www.flychicago.com/ohare/myflight/international/pages/default.aspx

Thank you all again, and safe travels.

Just to chime in, we are changing our final destination to DCA (National). Its a much shorter taxi ride home and will give us an hour more at O’Hare. I looked into changing airlines, but would have been a hassle.
And Kevin, thank you for the link to transfers at O’Hare.

Happy Travels,

Virginia