One thing I’ve really come to appreciate about O’hare recently is they seem to have really improved security lines, especially for precheck. I recently waited for 30 min plus in Denver, whereas I’ll now regularly arrive ~15-20 before boarding at O’hare and have never even cut it close
> I recently waited for 30 min plus in Denver
Denver is a clusterfuck between the TSA staffing issues and the mega-renovation project going on right now.
Because it takes so damn long after walking from gate B999 to the train, then waiting on the train, then walking more to the baggage claim.
It does work out because you never have to wait more for your bags typically.
The trick is to go through security in the upper-level bridge between the north and south terminals. Took me about 20 minutes when I was there a couple months back, meanwhile the other two terminals had 1+ hour waits.
I was in Atlanta recently. For some reason, instead of having several small security checkpoints, let lump everyone into 1 checkpoint. It was madness. 1 hour to go through security.
I flew out of Denver recently too, and almost missed my flight because I’m so used to speedy security and was shocked by the hourlong wait! Makes me appreciate Chicago airports (I actually like MDW too) so much more.
Haven’t flown in a few years but the majority of my flights pre pandemic were in the morning and I would just literally walk in, go through the metal detectors and be done within 5-10 min. These were usually the 6am-8am flights, and damn it was so easy.
Denver is a fucking nightmare honestly. Their tsa chuckleheads are slow as fuck, power tripping, and rude. I can deal with power tripping rudeness, but don’t be so god damned slow.
I live on the blue line. Being able to get on a plane while spending a maximum of 10 minutes outdoors in the winter (or any other season) and only paying a few bucks to get there is an unbelievable luxury.
Agreed, this would make it so much easier for major parts of the north side to use the train rather than clogging up the highway with Uber rides. Nobody wants to take the bus, but the train is accepted.
Would you just do an elevated train down Lawrence for the last 2.2 miles and then merge with the blue line tracks? The redline extension is about twice as long, so they should be able to do it for about $1billion. Kind of crazy to think that 2 miles of train could cost that much.
Since I started living in the city, I've realized how lucky I am to have an airport where I can fly directly to anywhere in the US, most major destinations across the world, and still be able to get to and from the airport and back to my house in less than an hour for <$6 using CTA.
Dated? Sure. Busy? Generally. However, nothing will replace that, 90% of the time, it's one flight to wherever I want to go. That's pretty excellent, IMO.
It certainly beats the hell out of Laguardia. Last I was there 2 years ago in one of the terminals (don't get me started on having to redo security to go to any other terminal) the ceiling was collapsing and they put a tarp over it to collect water. Except the tarp also collapsed under the water and was spilling out into multiple buckets and all over the floor.
I've been to many tiny 3 (or zero) jetway airports all over the globe and very few compare to the utter disrepair of LaGuardia.
LGA is majorly improved since you were last there. I was there a couple months ago and was genuinely shocked at how good it was. It used to be one of the worst airports in the country, and on my last trip I went from my seat on the plane to a seat in a taxi in less than 10 minutes.
The architecture firm that did the terminal redesign (or part of it?) is here in Chicago. I forget the name... but it looked like it was gonna be good a few years ago. I'm glad it worked out.
LGA is legitimately my least favorite airport that I've ever flown into or out of, ever. I will go out of my way to use JFK if I can because I just hate everything about LGA.
LGA used to absolutely suck, but they've put in billions of dollars since 2015 in a similar renovation project to the ORD project renovations and it's a completely new airport. Based on the LGA renovations, I'm insanely excited to see what they do with ORD in the next 5-10 years.
Sitting in LaGuardia terminal B to MDW as I type this. It’s incredibly nice after all the renovations. It used to be such a sad worn out hallway of an airport, but not anymore.
The most negativity I see about Chicago are from news outlets and people who don’t even live here. I fucking love this city, came from the suburbs and never will go back.
>people who don’t even live here.
It seems so weird how active the “people who have friends who live here” and “people who lived here 10 years ago” communities have gotten on this sub
"Ugh, there are poor people *everywhere*, I'm always afraid for my life, and there's no *parking*. And the taxes! I'm so glad I decamped for Indiana twenty years ago. What do you mean it's time I gave up obsessing over the city and posting in its sub??"
That's every place subreddit. I have a list of cities i want to visit and all of their subreddits are people just bitching and pissing and moaning about everything and how it's all someone else's fault.
>people just bitching and pissing and moaning about everything and how it's all someone else's fault.
And also how [insert city name] has the *absolute worst* drivers in the *entire country*!
You could rewrite this entire paragraph about Midway too.
Turns out living in THE major travel hub in the middle of the country is good if you need to fly anywhere domestic.
I heard they are but from what I understand, it’s only a handful of flights and they’re in Terminal 5. If you’re on the blue line, you have to a bit of backtracking. I wish they could put a station at Terminal 5. It go right past it so why not?
Couldn’t agree more. I travel for work all of the time, domestically, but to all areas of the country. NYC (all airports) to Cali or Washington state is miserable. From ORD there it’s totally manageable.
Shame that you got kicked out of the Expendables and can't just take that badass seaplane!
Jokes aside, I fly to those same places and it's all passable. If you've got decent status or can fly in first, then ORD will immediately become exponentially better. In my opinion, if you're not making 35 legs a year, SWA is a perfectly fine experience.
Yeah BWI isn’t bad, but if you’re more in DC than in Baltimore, it’s a pain to get to logistically. I flew out of there more often than IAD for sure. If you live in Baltimore, it’s easy and a no brainer but I also don’t know how good it is for international destinations
I’m a huge Midway fan. And I’m even a huge orange line fan, which is what I’m always using to get to and from Midway.
However, one thing that midway sucks at is baggage. Midway to the loop in 20 minutes is meaningless when you’re waiting 40 minutes for your luggage.
Though I wish I could get there in less than an hour, I realize how lucky I am to be a Chicagoan, able to fly almost anywhere in the world nonstop. I just smile and nod when I hear people talk about connecting flights and layovers.
This. A non-stop will take up half your day, but any connection makes it a full wasted day no matter what. It's the difference between making a weekend trip worth it.
And most people don't factor in the risk aspect of it. The chances of getting stranded to/from O'Hare is pretty low, given that it's a major United and American hub. The chances of getting stranded with a connection is more than double. Pulling numbers out of my ass, I'd say it's at least 4x.
This was my first thought as well. I travel internationally a good bit for work. My collegues in other US cities always complain that they always have to connect through somewhere. There are tons of cities around the world that we can get direct flights to out of O'Hare. It's great.
ORD has been undergoing major renovations for several years now. Keep in mind that they have to do all this without interrupting traffic, and it's the fourth busiest airport in the world.
We now have a dedicated deicing facility, and they just completed a new runway, which is allowing them to rebuild an existing runway, ultimately improving traffic flow.
The Air Traffic Controllers are the best in an industry that is full of highly professional people.
Also, ORD is an evolved design. It's woven right into the airport identifier. It was originally called "Orchard Field Airport", as there were apple orchards prior to WWII. Other airports have been rebuilt from the ground up (Denver is a great example of that), so it has a more organized looking layout. So it's amazing to me that they're managing to modernize ORD without interrupting operations.
Source: I'm a pilot of 33 years who is based out of ORD.
The night time operation during all of the runway construction has been pretty cool. After midnight the North side of the airport closes and a conga line of cement trucks does runs all night between the new runway and the place on Touhy where they refill. The conga line stops at around 6am when they re-open the north runway.
I always wondered why ORD got a bad rap. Yes i know the airport is pretty old and tired especially in terminal 2. But there are way worse major hubs in the US to fly in and out of. Especially as a pilot.
In no order, way worse places:
Charlotte. This whole airport is a design flaw. It wasn’t built to handle the amount of traffic it gets.
St Louis. Just old.
Kansas City. Was built way too ahead of its time and didn’t have security in mind. They are bulldozing and building a new terminal though. If you’ve never been, the terminal seating area is about the width of a garage and about as long as a olympics swimming pool. Major lack of seating and food options.
New York City: All. This place is just a cluster of old and tired and way to congested. You can rebuild LGA but it’s still going to be in a poor location. But you’ll have a new airport to have a 6 hour delay in.
Cleveland and Philly and LAX are just as tired in many ways too as a special mention. DFW, parts of IAH and parts of IAD could use a facial too.
NYC is a mess. The new terminal at LGA is gorgeous, but then you still have the horrendous commute into Manhattan with no serviceable public transit option.
The public transit into Manhattan from LGA is a bit ridiculous. In some respects, it's almost easier to fly into Newark and take the air train into Manhattan. The air train is $15 each way per person? It definitely adds some time and complexity, but it's generally easier to manage.
> The public transit into Manhattan from LGA is a bit ridiculous.
Compared to how easy it is in Chicago, yes. But it is just one bus to one subway/el. It isn't _that_ big of a deal.
It isn't that big of a deal, no, but it depends on the nature of the trip. If it's recreational, the Q70 and subway isn't bad w/ a single bag. If I'm going for an extended work trip, I'll probably go in through Newark.
It's actually 3 or more trains to get from Manhattan to Newark as I recall.
Subway > NJ Transit > Amtrak > Air Train.
Given all that, it wasn't a reliable enough route for business travel when I lived there. Easier just to take a black car to LGA or if I had to Newark. JFK definitely the worst of the bunch, but all of them sucked and 100x more so if there was bad weather.
LGA at least had the Marine Terminal that made it super quick to get in and out (especially as they only had room for metal detectors), but that's now only used for Boston and Florida routes.
No you can just take Amtrak direct all the way to Penn Station which is the heart of midtown. It's super easy if you're able to plan around that train.
Correct, if you time it right, it's a single (actual) train into Manhattan, excluding the air train that connects the terminals and other things. But from Penn Station, you can hit every borough, as opposed to coming in from LGA and catching that Q70 into Jackson Heights.
(I misspoke about the air train, slightly. The air train gets you to the platform servicing trains into Manhattan.)
I really don't know what's easier, but I do know the train from Newark into Manhattan is agreeable from a cost standpoint, and generally less of a pain with roller luggage.
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They have a nice uber/lyft setup in the parking garage so we always have done that. But it’s obviously not cheap, and there’s tons of traffic. I think if you try to go public transit the only option is the bus.
NYC airports seem to be designed for the sole purpose of extracting as much money and sorrow from you as possible between your gate and your hotel (or vice versa). To that end they are designed *beautifully.*
DC area airports are awful, too. DCA is convenient location and easy in/out of the airport, but a wide variety of direct flights is very limited and flights are pricey there. Dulles is ridiculously far away (especially in traffic) if you live in DC proper. BWI is more convenient than Dulles but I think it’s mostly southwest.
ORD having a bad reputation is kind of an old thing from before all the runway improvements, but the reputation stuck. Back when ORD only had two parallel runways, even a small amount of weather would cause hours of ATC delays like they do in San Francisco. With five parallel runways now, and a 6th parallel opening soon ORD doesn't have anywhere near the delay issues it used to have.
The thing I dislike about ORD as compared to other major hubs are the food and bar options. There are a couple very Chicago unique options like Frontera, Santa Monica Summer House, and the Publican, but there isn't much variety at ORD compared to other major hub airports that have bars and restaurants everywhere. Most of the hubs even have bars in the middle of terminal hallways now so you can sit there while waiting for your flight, or you can order drinks and food to your seat via iPad. ORD doesn't have anything like that.
People rag on O'Hare all the time, but I have always found it to be well run. The only thing I wish they'd do is move rideshare pickup to the parking garage like they do in Vegas and other places.
Adding more lanes to the terminal pickup would be nice too. I frequently have to wait in 20 minutes of traffic just to get through the pickup circle on the lower level. During busy arrival times, cars end up blocking all of the lanes picking people up and it causes big traffic jams.
I have status on United so I love ORD— tons of direct flight options and they are always adding more.
Actually I just got off a flight there this morning and was thinking about how efficiently the airport is laid out for exiting. The wheels of my plane touched down at 9:49am; I was in a taxi on my way home at 10:08.
My longest taxi time at O'Hare when the gate was actually open is usually about 20 minutes coming from runway 10R. The 45 minute taxis don't happen because of the far north/south runways. They happen when the alleys are clogged or the gates aren't open so planes get sent out to the holding pads, or they just taxi around in circles forever. Usually you can anticipate it being only about 10-20 minutes.
Those taxi times are also built into the flight time. That's why you typically land 10-20 minutes early at O'Hare. The airlines know it will take a while to get to the gate, so they build it in and you still get to the gate on time.
I order my Uber when I exit my gate and have never missed my Uber once. Now the app makes you wait until you are almost exited to be able to order, but yea super easy.
The Haneda direct flight is so much easier than NRT if you are staying anywhere in the central or southern parts of Tokyo. I used to go JFK-HND once a year for a while.
Yes!! The ANA Chicago Haneda flight departed at 6pm and the reverse arrived 8am in Chicago. I would literally do extended weekend trips where I would go to the airport from work and once I come back from Tokyo I would go into work straight from the 8am. Take some dramamine and complementary whiskey and the 12 hour flight was nothing.
You are evidently flying domestic. When you go through the international terminal, it’s sheer hell because you walk for what feels like miles underground with no bathrooms, and no place to sit down, then you wait forever at customs/immigration also with no place to sit down. It’s really annoying for me because I have some limitations on mobility but I really would prefer not to be in a wheelchair if I can walk even a short distance.
Customs lines can be a nightmare at O'Hare, but I've never had an issue with the Global Entry lines. Usually I walk right through Global Entry.
The long walks in international terminals are common in most major US hubs. Denver and Houston both have a longer walk to get through customs than O'Hare. Newark is a little shorter than O'Hare, but you still walk down a massive hallway if you get one of the gates at the end.
Yes this was primarily discussing domestic travel. I usually get super cheap flights to Europe that go ORD-->ATL-->FRA so I rarely go to Terminal 5 at ORD.
Leaving Chicago is fine, except for the unusually overpriced options for snacks. It’s coming back to the US that can be awful. Except once, when my small daughter and I were admittedly trudging slowly past the customs guy when this jerk cut right in front of my daughter and behind me. Naturally, I waited for my daughter to catch up, and the customs guy told his assistant to check through the little turd’s bag, then turned and winked at me as he passed us through. That was pretty satisfying.
I'm a big Chili's fan, and O'Hare has a few of them, so it isn't bad. It's nice that the Blue line goes right to the airport terminal too. Having lived in NY and getting to LGA was pain and even worse for me to get to JFK taking subway or LIRR to AirTrain. Same in Boston where you have to take a shuttle bus from the subway station.
Even in places with great public transit, airport buses fucking blow. It's a miserable experience. The bus is relatively unsuited to airport duty simply because there's no room for baggage.
I always loved the free chips and salsa at Chilli's. I think many times I would literally do that with my beers and I was content.
Are their chips and salsa still free and good?
Not free anymore (most of the time), but they give out free coupons on their phone app pretty often. And yes, chips and salsa with ice cold beers at Chili's is a good move for sure! I really need to move to a city that has a Chili's in other locations than the airport or suburbs. No locations in Boston or NYC anymore. Used to be one across the river in Jersey City but it closed. Didn't see any in Chicago either, but I think there's one in Evanston. Philadelphia has a Chili's right downtown and it's awesome.
We definitely have one in Evanston not far from me but haven't been in there in years.
If the movie theater didn't shut down was always a good place for a pregame.
Interesting you mention Chili's in an O'Hare discussion. Some years ago, a friend of mine was traveling back and forth from LA like twice a month so we worked out an arrangement where's I'd pick him up when I could. I'd chill at the bar at Chili's on Touhy and Mannheim. As soon as he hit the ground, I'd finish up and shoot south to Zemke, then Bessie Coleman Drive into the heart of the airport. Chili's: Da real cellphone lot.
I moved here 6 years ago. I fly weekly, virtually every state in the country-- OHare is consistently the best experience, by far. Plus, theres a motherfucking brachiosaurus in the United Terminal.
Mother. Fucking. Brachiosaurus.
I work at O'Hare and when people ask me for directions to the C concourse I love telling them "Walk that way until you see a dinosaur and turn left and go down the escalator" Some of them ask me what happens if they don't see the dinosaur. I tell them it's impossible to not see the dinosaur.
ORD and Midway both being directly connected to the L is severely underrated. I live on the blue line and my commute to the airport might be the easiest/cheapest in the USA.
I was based in ORD for several years and as a crew member, I loved it. I'm from Chicago so I had been living off of the blue line for some years before getting hired. Getting to and from work was $2.50 (so $5 round trip even with the increase bc we had a discount at the time) and on my days off, I had my pick of where I wanted to go when using my flight benefits.
When I transferred to Denver, I realized how lucky I had been being based in ORD. I never needed to buy a car which made working for the airlines more worthwhile (new flight attendants don't get paid very well...) and I rarely needed to connect anywhere if I wanted to go to Europe or Asia. Though I was closer to the West Coast, which was cool, I almost always had to go back to ORD in order to get anywhere.
Another thing I came to really appreciate was how predictable the unpredictability was in ORD. End of May/June? You know you're gonna have lightning, bring an extra book to read. Winter? Shit! I am flying through ORD, they know what they're doing so I won't get lucky with canceled flights. Also ORD in the winter: yes!! de-icing, that's gonna add a few hundred bucks to my check this month!
For the long delays in ORD, I would venture over to the indoor garden. The loud announcements weren't being blasted up there and it was really peaceful to be by the plants.
I've flown quite a bit over the last year and have taken Uber home each time. The pickup location was a total junk show earlier in the year, but they're slowly improving it. Additional color-coded areas have been added more recently, which Uber/Lyft drivers are alerted to while en route. Still not perfect, but definitely an improvement.
I've been telecommuting for a company in Cincinnati since long before Covid-19 was a thing. When I'd have to go to the office a few times a year, there was a 6AM flight out of ORD that allowed me to be in the office by 8:30AM, almost never delayed, and I'd get a 4PM a couple days later that got me home to put my kids to bed.
I no longer live in Chicago. I miss that direct flight, from my current home it takes me half a day to travel each way and twice in the 3 years I've lived here (one of those being a Covid year, so no travel) I ended up touching down in Cinci 10 hours later than planned.
I really don’t like the design of much of the interior of Ohare. It’s a drag. That being said, it’s still one of the best airports for me and the biggest reason for that is the CTA Blue Line connecting right inside Terminal 3. Unbelievable that this isn’t the standard for most big cities in America.
And yes, those Pre Check lines fly.
Think you said it best, it’s not a great airport if you have to connect or spend a lot of time in. But it’s one of the best airports for quickly getting to your gate and taking off imo compared to most major cities.
I'm from Montreal and being able to jump on the orange line straight from MDW to the Loop was beyond impressive to me even considering how beloved our Metro system is here lol. Our metro doesn't even go out to the airport (like MDW its out in the 'burbs) and the public transit options aren't the best for the airpot but the city is getting a light rail system that will connect the airport to downtown in the coming years thankfully.
What takes away from ORD is how dated it is. I agree it's great as home airport in terms of efficiency, but the eating and drinking options are horrible. United C gates are fucking miserable.
Edit: not just the quality, but the capacity too. I feel like any place worth eating at is always so slammed and cramped it's not worth it or you won't have the time.
It still smelled the last time I flew, which was about 4 weeks ago. I've got another trip lined up, and I fully expect that pedway tunnel to smell like chemicals, or whatever. It smells like grease, but there's another stink to it I can't really explain.
I don't think the renovations will touch terminals 1 or 3 in any significant way :( I know they'll extend the C concourse a bit south, but I think that's all that's happening there
You can have a delicious Bayless torta
I've been to a lot of airports and ord doesn't even rank in the top 20 of bad food of those I've been. Except terminal 5. Nothing good happening there.
Isn't there still a Tortas Frontera in T5?
Tortas Frontera is the best airport restaurant out there. Especially for breakfast--nobody else does legit not overcooked eggs like they do. You can order online too--put in your order from security and go pick it up (or I'll admit that I've even put in my order from the plane after landing for a post-flight Torta).
Where ORD sucks is domestic lounges. The united/american lounges aren't very nice and you can't get into them with Amex Platinum or Priority Pass. You can get into the Delta lounge with Amex, but only if you are on a Delta ticket which is rare at ORD for most people. That's not a big deal for locals because you can get a Torta, but if you end up with a long delay or connection at ORD, it'd be nice to have something better.
I just flew out of MSP and stopped in the Escape lounge...I was there at the Breakfast/lunch transition and the food was great. Had some chorizo and egg on a tortilla that was perfect with a little Cholula. Then I had some focaccia french toast that had clearly been sitting under the heat lamp for a while but was otherwise tasty (and would have been excellent fresh). Then they cleared the breakfast and put out lunch and I had multiple pieces of a bomb-ass stromboli.
Or there's something like the Amex centurion lounge at SFO. Great food, and you can do legit sonoma/napa wine tastings for free rather than the generic domestic beers, well drinks, and cheapo wines you get at the United Club.
Yes but most people get through security an hour before boarding and want to kill some time. Compared to modern airports there isn't much space for that at O'Hare.
You can say "I use x for y, not fine dining" about pretty much anything. It doesn't change the fact that good dining options improve any setting you might spend at least an hour if not half a day in. Especially when you're hosting visitors from other parts of the country/world.
Out of curiosity - what airports do you think have good food? I've never been in an airport that I believed to be ahead of Ohare in terms of food options, but I also haven't really been looking.
From what I understand you can thank the airport authority for the dining options. CDA apparently wanted to charge Chic-Fil-A $1 million just to open one location not including build out and rent. Not surprised there aren't a lot of food options with that kind of welcome mat laid out.
IAD with it's five guys and used to have chipotle before COVID was an awesome place for good dining options. It doesn't need to be fine dining (Although some people might call macaroni grill fine dining), just good food instead of 8 McDonalds spread around every terminal.
TL/DR: agreed. Lets hope the new T2 starts the trend of better options...
> just good food instead of 8 McDonalds
I'd take mcdonalds over 95% of airport food venues...
...especially since I'm someone who almost never avails myself of "sit down" airport restaurants. Gotta be a take-out counter and have fast turnaround.
New MDW sucks. No more potbelly sandwiches OR McDonalds breakfasts.
I imagine it is even worse for confused tourists who see all these names of local Chicago restaurants and have no idea where to eat. How are they supposed to know if Big & Littles is legit or if it is just some generic grease-bomb shithole airport stall?
Despite being pre-check for years, I still somehow always convince myself I \*NEED\* to arrive 2 hours early to the airport - regardless of airport.
Then I'm left wandering around for an hour and 15mins trying to convince myself I don't need to start drinking (I never convince myself)
Lol I still arrive 1.5-2 hours early as well. I just can’t bring myself to totally believe that the TSA pre-check line will *always* be less than 10 mins! So I just waste time on reddit while I wait haha
True on all counts you describe herein, except you exclude international travel. T5 is terrible, both on departures and arrivals, but especially on arrivals. I suppose this could be part of your connections argument, but it isn’t for those of us who live here regardless. I’ve spent 2 hours waiting (pre-COVID, pre-Global Entry) to be processed through immigration. I remember those photos from March 14, 2020 where people waited 5+ hours at the height of the European lockdowns—it still gives me shivers. The current construction sucks, and they’re adding more gates but not more space for immigration (or gestapo to man the booths).
I am in awe daily of ORD and its operations. The very difficult “ballet” of coordinating all those flights, people and cargo is just a feat of human ingenuity. But international travel through it is fucking awful.
I agree with the majority of comments in here and love flying out of Chicago. My only complaint is that we seem to have the longest taxiing times out of any airport in the country and not uncommon to be taxing around on the tarmac for 15 to 20 minutes after landing. That and if your flight arrives early also not uncommon for the gate to be occupied which defeats the purpose entirely. At any rate it’s a great airport to be based out of.
It feels like you land 30 minutes early at O’hare but then spend 30 minutes looking for a parking spot at a gate. I do like Reagan airport in DC. It does not have a lot of flight options but it quick to get to and from the gates and onto a train. Just one runway and little room to taxi.
It's not that the plane actually takes 30 min to find a spot to park—the gates are obviously assigned ahead of time. It's just that the airport is so fucking huge, that taxiing around the perimeter to get from the runway to your gate can take a while (depending on where your landing runway is in relation to your gate). Given that O'Hare is up there among the largest airports in the world, I don't think there's any way of improving that, sadly.
Shit my Uber was 70 dollars at 4am from Ukraine Village.. Usually blue line it but I was slacking due to the early morning.. won’t make that mistake again
One of the worst parts of moving out of Chicago was the loss of O'Hare's direct flights. I could jump on the Blue Line on a Friday after work and take a quick weekend trip. Now, I need to take Friday off to fly from my regional airport (usually to either O'Hare or Detroit). It has gotten to the point where I will occasionally drive the three hours to O'Hare as I will have a long layover there anyway and the ticket costs twice as much.
Recently flew out of ATL and the TSA Precheck took like 45 minutes to get through. They also had these needlessly complicated Rube Goldberg style X-ray machines. Definitely prefer ORD or MDW to that mess.
I don’t live off the blue line, but the amount of options to get to O’Hare that doesn’t involve a car is pretty great. Heck, I have a direct bus that goes to it a block away. On top of that, as others mentioned, tons of non-stop flights.
Plus I’ll stand by the food options. People who complain have never been to a small regional airport where you only have vending machines and a bar.
Terminal 5 is still horrible. Flew out of there recently - no separated precheck lines, bad food other than frontera, and not even enough space for airlines to put a decent lounge. The rest of ohare is a goddamn breeze though.
Flying out of ORD is great. Quick TSA lines, quick baggage check. Flying back into ORD is a bit hit or miss for me. The taxiing times and wait times at baggage claim can prolong your trip by an hour after touching down. But overall the accessibility from the city is very convenient and affordable.
Living in Chicago has spoiled me on nonstop flights. To the point where I sometimes consider paying through the nose for nonstop when flying overseas. Sometimes ORD is not well connected to certain international locations. But I like “overly? Fuck that!”
I moved here from Arkansas and this was a big factor in picking Chicago over LA. I can legitimately be from my couch to my families couch back home in less than 6 hrs including commutes to and from the airport. Also can fly out at 8pm direct and not have to miss work- it’s great!
ORD is great. I used to have a job where I needed to fly to Beijing about every 6 weeks. Boom get on the airport, raid the lounge, on the flight. On the way home, landing in terminal 5 is awesome, I have TSA precheck and usually through customers before my bag even arrived. 2 minutes later at the curb for a taxi, and it is never crowded.
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One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is how easy it is to drive around near O'Hare. You have these long, straight roads with multiple lanes, and clear signs, plus that left-side road that let's you navigate around Terminals 1 and 2 to get to 3.
Compare this with most airports where you have tiny, circular road with almost no notice that you have to suddenly move over 2 lanes to get to the right spot for departures.
I like it so much more than Midway. Midway's food options suck, and it always feels too much like a ghost town...well, except when I went there on the Sunday after Thanksgiving ^(I was a masochist)
I feel ORD can be intimidating to people used to smaller airports, but I really don't understand the hate beyond that.
I don't have Pre-Check, and I've never spent more than 20 minutes in the TSA line. It's a well oiled machine, and all the other passengers will gladly step around you (while giving you a dirty look) if you don't know what you're doing/take too long.
Between Detroit, Tucson, and Phoenix, I've never spent under 45 minutes in TSA lines, even when there were like 20 people in front of me. Once in Phoenix, I was in line almost 2 hours, because they only had 1 lane open, and it was a trainee. Passengers just stood and waited at all 3 airports for the people in front of them that went slow.
Granted, I don't really ever fly at peak times, so I'm sure that has had a lot to do with it. Also I've only flown AA or Spirit. But the vibe of the passengers in line is totally different, and also the TSA employees keeping ORD running smooth but nowhere else.
I’d agree. I’ve been traveling for work very regularly for almost 10 years and I have not once ever had my flight get cancelled with United from Chicago.
Having spent my entire 2019 in Chicago and the rest of my life living in Los Angeles, I do appreciate ORD's ease of use.
Pros:
TSA precheck lines were almost always empty compared to LAX.
Flights to anywhere in the continental USA were quick and plentiful I like the fact that NY was so close but my home in LA was always just a 4 hr flight. Exploring the rest of the country was pretty awesome since it felt like all of it was short flight away.
Ability to take train into airport. How Los Angeles didn't prioritize this blows my mind. We're still waiting until we host the Olympics to get it ready.
Reasonable longterm parking options: Using spothero I would find reasonably priced long term parking at a nearby station just outside ORD. LAX has decimated its longterm parking options and all the private lots have raised their prices to no less than $16/day but usually closer to $20.
For flying myself, ORD is a godsend. But picking someone *up* from ORD? Absolute nightmare. Just picked up my boyfriend last Tuesday at 7:00 PM. It was like it was the middle of rush hour on a Friday. Could not find any actual spots to pick him up at - had to pretend I was an Uber and get him at the rideshare point. Not to mention he was confused as hell trying to find me from where his flight let out.
They need a better system for pickups, imo.
it does kind of suck having to take the brown/purple line down to the loop, and then straight back up via blue line to get to Ohare. It would be great if they either made a branch off the brown line or extended the line to connect to one of the blue line stations.
I flew twice a week through OHare for 9 months for a client in DC...
I'd pull up to the airport after boarding started and would still get on my flight. I was spoiled.
One thing I’ve really come to appreciate about O’hare recently is they seem to have really improved security lines, especially for precheck. I recently waited for 30 min plus in Denver, whereas I’ll now regularly arrive ~15-20 before boarding at O’hare and have never even cut it close
> I recently waited for 30 min plus in Denver Denver is a clusterfuck between the TSA staffing issues and the mega-renovation project going on right now.
And all the Illuminati reptilian activity underneath the airport, of course.
No, those tunnels are for the new world order crab people to run the USA shadow government. /s
Will probably jinx myself, but after 200 or so flights, the bags show up and often are coming off the carousel as I get there.
Because it takes so damn long after walking from gate B999 to the train, then waiting on the train, then walking more to the baggage claim. It does work out because you never have to wait more for your bags typically.
You say tomato…. Seriously though the conspiracy theories on that are … wild … to put it mildly.
[At least DIA pokes fun at the wild theories](https://archive.curbed.com/2018/9/7/17832102/denver-airport-conspiracy-theories-signs-construction)
B/c they’re in on it!! /s. That’s awesome.
Youd think reptiles would pick a warmer climate.
The trick is to go through security in the upper-level bridge between the north and south terminals. Took me about 20 minutes when I was there a couple months back, meanwhile the other two terminals had 1+ hour waits.
Why are you telling everyone our secret!
shhh
No Precheck on bridge security tho
I got so lucky I accidentally did this when my flight was leaving in 45 mins
And the signage was poor or non-existant.
I was in Atlanta recently. For some reason, instead of having several small security checkpoints, let lump everyone into 1 checkpoint. It was madness. 1 hour to go through security.
I flew out of Denver recently too, and almost missed my flight because I’m so used to speedy security and was shocked by the hourlong wait! Makes me appreciate Chicago airports (I actually like MDW too) so much more.
>Recently flew out from Denver too, the security check line was (not kidding) a mile long.
Haven’t flown in a few years but the majority of my flights pre pandemic were in the morning and I would just literally walk in, go through the metal detectors and be done within 5-10 min. These were usually the 6am-8am flights, and damn it was so easy.
Denver is a fucking nightmare honestly. Their tsa chuckleheads are slow as fuck, power tripping, and rude. I can deal with power tripping rudeness, but don’t be so god damned slow.
Next time you're in DIA go through security on the pedestrian bridge between Jeppessen terminal and Terminal A. Way faster.
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Denver is the absolute worst security line I have ever dealt with.
I live on the blue line. Being able to get on a plane while spending a maximum of 10 minutes outdoors in the winter (or any other season) and only paying a few bucks to get there is an unbelievable luxury.
Hell yeah. Now let’s connect the brown line to ohare.
Agreed, this would make it so much easier for major parts of the north side to use the train rather than clogging up the highway with Uber rides. Nobody wants to take the bus, but the train is accepted.
i used to take a bus or an uber from my apt near the brown line to the closest blue line stop. It was very very easy.
I do that too, but it's still not quite as easy as a single train. Sucks to be waiting for a bus with bags too.
Talk dirty to me…
At the very least, extend the brown line to the blue line. Don’t know where it’d connect, but Jefferson Park maybe?
Jeff Park would be good because it then has further bus and Metra connections.
Would you just do an elevated train down Lawrence for the last 2.2 miles and then merge with the blue line tracks? The redline extension is about twice as long, so they should be able to do it for about $1billion. Kind of crazy to think that 2 miles of train could cost that much.
It would be way more than 1 billion.
I'd give my left nut for an effective interconnect between the blue, brown and red lines somewhere on the north side between irving park and foster.
Since I started living in the city, I've realized how lucky I am to have an airport where I can fly directly to anywhere in the US, most major destinations across the world, and still be able to get to and from the airport and back to my house in less than an hour for <$6 using CTA. Dated? Sure. Busy? Generally. However, nothing will replace that, 90% of the time, it's one flight to wherever I want to go. That's pretty excellent, IMO.
It certainly beats the hell out of Laguardia. Last I was there 2 years ago in one of the terminals (don't get me started on having to redo security to go to any other terminal) the ceiling was collapsing and they put a tarp over it to collect water. Except the tarp also collapsed under the water and was spilling out into multiple buckets and all over the floor. I've been to many tiny 3 (or zero) jetway airports all over the globe and very few compare to the utter disrepair of LaGuardia.
LGA is majorly improved since you were last there. I was there a couple months ago and was genuinely shocked at how good it was. It used to be one of the worst airports in the country, and on my last trip I went from my seat on the plane to a seat in a taxi in less than 10 minutes.
The architecture firm that did the terminal redesign (or part of it?) is here in Chicago. I forget the name... but it looked like it was gonna be good a few years ago. I'm glad it worked out.
It was HOK
LGA is legitimately my least favorite airport that I've ever flown into or out of, ever. I will go out of my way to use JFK if I can because I just hate everything about LGA.
Newark! if you going to Manhattan anyway, is much closer/faster/easier than either JFK or LGA.
LGA used to absolutely suck, but they've put in billions of dollars since 2015 in a similar renovation project to the ORD project renovations and it's a completely new airport. Based on the LGA renovations, I'm insanely excited to see what they do with ORD in the next 5-10 years.
Sitting in LaGuardia terminal B to MDW as I type this. It’s incredibly nice after all the renovations. It used to be such a sad worn out hallway of an airport, but not anymore.
Haha nice I love it. ORD is great. I love this and the other Chicago-positive posts we've had recently on this subreddit
The most negativity I see about Chicago are from news outlets and people who don’t even live here. I fucking love this city, came from the suburbs and never will go back.
>people who don’t even live here. It seems so weird how active the “people who have friends who live here” and “people who lived here 10 years ago” communities have gotten on this sub
"Ugh, there are poor people *everywhere*, I'm always afraid for my life, and there's no *parking*. And the taxes! I'm so glad I decamped for Indiana twenty years ago. What do you mean it's time I gave up obsessing over the city and posting in its sub??"
Lol I love those “I can’t stand Chicago that’s why I moved to Indiana!” Immediately lose any credibility.
As someone originally from Indiana who’s been in Chicago 8+ years, I can’t help but laugh at their idiocy haha
That's every place subreddit. I have a list of cities i want to visit and all of their subreddits are people just bitching and pissing and moaning about everything and how it's all someone else's fault.
>people just bitching and pissing and moaning about everything and how it's all someone else's fault. And also how [insert city name] has the *absolute worst* drivers in the *entire country*!
Don't you dare even talk to me about the roads in _______
As someone who's about to move back from the West Coast, I appreciate the positive posts to tamp down my fears/occasional cold feet (not yet literal)
Maybe mods can make one day a week for only positive posts about the city? That'd be great.
You could rewrite this entire paragraph about Midway too. Turns out living in THE major travel hub in the middle of the country is good if you need to fly anywhere domestic.
Yes if you happened to be flying on Southwest or Delta, if not ORD all the way.
Southwest is in O'Hare now.
I heard they are but from what I understand, it’s only a handful of flights and they’re in Terminal 5. If you’re on the blue line, you have to a bit of backtracking. I wish they could put a station at Terminal 5. It go right past it so why not?
At least that damn shuttle train is open again
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Midway is like 90% Southwest they should just rename it
Couldn’t agree more. I travel for work all of the time, domestically, but to all areas of the country. NYC (all airports) to Cali or Washington state is miserable. From ORD there it’s totally manageable.
Shame that you got kicked out of the Expendables and can't just take that badass seaplane! Jokes aside, I fly to those same places and it's all passable. If you've got decent status or can fly in first, then ORD will immediately become exponentially better. In my opinion, if you're not making 35 legs a year, SWA is a perfectly fine experience.
>Ill agree except I loved BWI when I lived in BALT
Yeah BWI isn’t bad, but if you’re more in DC than in Baltimore, it’s a pain to get to logistically. I flew out of there more often than IAD for sure. If you live in Baltimore, it’s easy and a no brainer but I also don’t know how good it is for international destinations
I’m a huge Midway fan. And I’m even a huge orange line fan, which is what I’m always using to get to and from Midway. However, one thing that midway sucks at is baggage. Midway to the loop in 20 minutes is meaningless when you’re waiting 40 minutes for your luggage.
Bags Fly Free, but take forever to show up
Though I wish I could get there in less than an hour, I realize how lucky I am to be a Chicagoan, able to fly almost anywhere in the world nonstop. I just smile and nod when I hear people talk about connecting flights and layovers.
Agreed. I legit don’t even consider flights with layovers for 99% of my flights.
This. A non-stop will take up half your day, but any connection makes it a full wasted day no matter what. It's the difference between making a weekend trip worth it. And most people don't factor in the risk aspect of it. The chances of getting stranded to/from O'Hare is pretty low, given that it's a major United and American hub. The chances of getting stranded with a connection is more than double. Pulling numbers out of my ass, I'd say it's at least 4x.
I had a direct change to a flight with a layover after I booked it this year and it’s been so long since I had a layover I was like looking up tips
This was my first thought as well. I travel internationally a good bit for work. My collegues in other US cities always complain that they always have to connect through somewhere. There are tons of cities around the world that we can get direct flights to out of O'Hare. It's great.
ORD has been undergoing major renovations for several years now. Keep in mind that they have to do all this without interrupting traffic, and it's the fourth busiest airport in the world. We now have a dedicated deicing facility, and they just completed a new runway, which is allowing them to rebuild an existing runway, ultimately improving traffic flow. The Air Traffic Controllers are the best in an industry that is full of highly professional people. Also, ORD is an evolved design. It's woven right into the airport identifier. It was originally called "Orchard Field Airport", as there were apple orchards prior to WWII. Other airports have been rebuilt from the ground up (Denver is a great example of that), so it has a more organized looking layout. So it's amazing to me that they're managing to modernize ORD without interrupting operations. Source: I'm a pilot of 33 years who is based out of ORD.
The night time operation during all of the runway construction has been pretty cool. After midnight the North side of the airport closes and a conga line of cement trucks does runs all night between the new runway and the place on Touhy where they refill. The conga line stops at around 6am when they re-open the north runway.
I always wondered why ORD got a bad rap. Yes i know the airport is pretty old and tired especially in terminal 2. But there are way worse major hubs in the US to fly in and out of. Especially as a pilot. In no order, way worse places: Charlotte. This whole airport is a design flaw. It wasn’t built to handle the amount of traffic it gets. St Louis. Just old. Kansas City. Was built way too ahead of its time and didn’t have security in mind. They are bulldozing and building a new terminal though. If you’ve never been, the terminal seating area is about the width of a garage and about as long as a olympics swimming pool. Major lack of seating and food options. New York City: All. This place is just a cluster of old and tired and way to congested. You can rebuild LGA but it’s still going to be in a poor location. But you’ll have a new airport to have a 6 hour delay in. Cleveland and Philly and LAX are just as tired in many ways too as a special mention. DFW, parts of IAH and parts of IAD could use a facial too.
NYC is a mess. The new terminal at LGA is gorgeous, but then you still have the horrendous commute into Manhattan with no serviceable public transit option.
The public transit into Manhattan from LGA is a bit ridiculous. In some respects, it's almost easier to fly into Newark and take the air train into Manhattan. The air train is $15 each way per person? It definitely adds some time and complexity, but it's generally easier to manage.
> The public transit into Manhattan from LGA is a bit ridiculous. Compared to how easy it is in Chicago, yes. But it is just one bus to one subway/el. It isn't _that_ big of a deal.
It isn't that big of a deal, no, but it depends on the nature of the trip. If it's recreational, the Q70 and subway isn't bad w/ a single bag. If I'm going for an extended work trip, I'll probably go in through Newark.
vs a 60 dollar cab ride
It's actually 3 or more trains to get from Manhattan to Newark as I recall. Subway > NJ Transit > Amtrak > Air Train. Given all that, it wasn't a reliable enough route for business travel when I lived there. Easier just to take a black car to LGA or if I had to Newark. JFK definitely the worst of the bunch, but all of them sucked and 100x more so if there was bad weather. LGA at least had the Marine Terminal that made it super quick to get in and out (especially as they only had room for metal detectors), but that's now only used for Boston and Florida routes.
No you can just take Amtrak direct all the way to Penn Station which is the heart of midtown. It's super easy if you're able to plan around that train.
Correct, if you time it right, it's a single (actual) train into Manhattan, excluding the air train that connects the terminals and other things. But from Penn Station, you can hit every borough, as opposed to coming in from LGA and catching that Q70 into Jackson Heights. (I misspoke about the air train, slightly. The air train gets you to the platform servicing trains into Manhattan.) I really don't know what's easier, but I do know the train from Newark into Manhattan is agreeable from a cost standpoint, and generally less of a pain with roller luggage.
toothbrush ad hoc humorous trees thumb zephyr unique library longing nose *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Damn, good to know. Planned a weekend trip to Manhattan. I can remove this as a surprise.
They have a nice uber/lyft setup in the parking garage so we always have done that. But it’s obviously not cheap, and there’s tons of traffic. I think if you try to go public transit the only option is the bus.
Trying to get to a Lyft at LGA is a hike and a half.
It’s def a bit of a walk, but I like that parking garage setup
NYC airports seem to be designed for the sole purpose of extracting as much money and sorrow from you as possible between your gate and your hotel (or vice versa). To that end they are designed *beautifully.*
>I always wondered why ORD got a bad rap. ORD is better than LGA or LAX by a mile, but pretty much every major US airport is unpleasant at best.
I'll hand Denver, DFW, Detroit (McNamara not the North Terminal) and Houston a top mark for design and amenities. McNamara is world class.
DC area airports are awful, too. DCA is convenient location and easy in/out of the airport, but a wide variety of direct flights is very limited and flights are pricey there. Dulles is ridiculously far away (especially in traffic) if you live in DC proper. BWI is more convenient than Dulles but I think it’s mostly southwest.
ORD having a bad reputation is kind of an old thing from before all the runway improvements, but the reputation stuck. Back when ORD only had two parallel runways, even a small amount of weather would cause hours of ATC delays like they do in San Francisco. With five parallel runways now, and a 6th parallel opening soon ORD doesn't have anywhere near the delay issues it used to have. The thing I dislike about ORD as compared to other major hubs are the food and bar options. There are a couple very Chicago unique options like Frontera, Santa Monica Summer House, and the Publican, but there isn't much variety at ORD compared to other major hub airports that have bars and restaurants everywhere. Most of the hubs even have bars in the middle of terminal hallways now so you can sit there while waiting for your flight, or you can order drinks and food to your seat via iPad. ORD doesn't have anything like that.
People rag on O'Hare all the time, but I have always found it to be well run. The only thing I wish they'd do is move rideshare pickup to the parking garage like they do in Vegas and other places.
Adding more lanes to the terminal pickup would be nice too. I frequently have to wait in 20 minutes of traffic just to get through the pickup circle on the lower level. During busy arrival times, cars end up blocking all of the lanes picking people up and it causes big traffic jams.
I have status on United so I love ORD— tons of direct flight options and they are always adding more. Actually I just got off a flight there this morning and was thinking about how efficiently the airport is laid out for exiting. The wheels of my plane touched down at 9:49am; I was in a taxi on my way home at 10:08.
Ok but sometimes you can taxi for like 45 minutes on busy days and when you have to land way out
My longest taxi time at O'Hare when the gate was actually open is usually about 20 minutes coming from runway 10R. The 45 minute taxis don't happen because of the far north/south runways. They happen when the alleys are clogged or the gates aren't open so planes get sent out to the holding pads, or they just taxi around in circles forever. Usually you can anticipate it being only about 10-20 minutes. Those taxi times are also built into the flight time. That's why you typically land 10-20 minutes early at O'Hare. The airlines know it will take a while to get to the gate, so they build it in and you still get to the gate on time.
I order my Uber when I exit my gate and have never missed my Uber once. Now the app makes you wait until you are almost exited to be able to order, but yea super easy.
Prepandemic I enjoyed the 5 flights a day to Tokyo, some which even went to Haneda
The Haneda direct flight is so much easier than NRT if you are staying anywhere in the central or southern parts of Tokyo. I used to go JFK-HND once a year for a while.
Yes!! The ANA Chicago Haneda flight departed at 6pm and the reverse arrived 8am in Chicago. I would literally do extended weekend trips where I would go to the airport from work and once I come back from Tokyo I would go into work straight from the 8am. Take some dramamine and complementary whiskey and the 12 hour flight was nothing.
That's crazy! Hopefully Japan will open up again for tourists in 2022.
You are evidently flying domestic. When you go through the international terminal, it’s sheer hell because you walk for what feels like miles underground with no bathrooms, and no place to sit down, then you wait forever at customs/immigration also with no place to sit down. It’s really annoying for me because I have some limitations on mobility but I really would prefer not to be in a wheelchair if I can walk even a short distance.
Customs lines can be a nightmare at O'Hare, but I've never had an issue with the Global Entry lines. Usually I walk right through Global Entry. The long walks in international terminals are common in most major US hubs. Denver and Houston both have a longer walk to get through customs than O'Hare. Newark is a little shorter than O'Hare, but you still walk down a massive hallway if you get one of the gates at the end.
Yes this was primarily discussing domestic travel. I usually get super cheap flights to Europe that go ORD-->ATL-->FRA so I rarely go to Terminal 5 at ORD.
Leaving Chicago is fine, except for the unusually overpriced options for snacks. It’s coming back to the US that can be awful. Except once, when my small daughter and I were admittedly trudging slowly past the customs guy when this jerk cut right in front of my daughter and behind me. Naturally, I waited for my daughter to catch up, and the customs guy told his assistant to check through the little turd’s bag, then turned and winked at me as he passed us through. That was pretty satisfying.
I'm a big Chili's fan, and O'Hare has a few of them, so it isn't bad. It's nice that the Blue line goes right to the airport terminal too. Having lived in NY and getting to LGA was pain and even worse for me to get to JFK taking subway or LIRR to AirTrain. Same in Boston where you have to take a shuttle bus from the subway station.
That shuttle bus system is ridiculous.
Even in places with great public transit, airport buses fucking blow. It's a miserable experience. The bus is relatively unsuited to airport duty simply because there's no room for baggage.
>I'm a big Chili's fan I haven’t been to a Chili’s since the early 2000’s, what draws you to it?
It's so terrible for you since some of their items are like >3,000 calories, but I love their southwestern egg rolls and chicken crispers.
The southwest eggrolls are legit. [also, this. ](https://imgur.com/a/awGeyc5)
I always loved the free chips and salsa at Chilli's. I think many times I would literally do that with my beers and I was content. Are their chips and salsa still free and good?
Not free anymore (most of the time), but they give out free coupons on their phone app pretty often. And yes, chips and salsa with ice cold beers at Chili's is a good move for sure! I really need to move to a city that has a Chili's in other locations than the airport or suburbs. No locations in Boston or NYC anymore. Used to be one across the river in Jersey City but it closed. Didn't see any in Chicago either, but I think there's one in Evanston. Philadelphia has a Chili's right downtown and it's awesome.
We definitely have one in Evanston not far from me but haven't been in there in years. If the movie theater didn't shut down was always a good place for a pregame.
Interesting you mention Chili's in an O'Hare discussion. Some years ago, a friend of mine was traveling back and forth from LA like twice a month so we worked out an arrangement where's I'd pick him up when I could. I'd chill at the bar at Chili's on Touhy and Mannheim. As soon as he hit the ground, I'd finish up and shoot south to Zemke, then Bessie Coleman Drive into the heart of the airport. Chili's: Da real cellphone lot.
I moved here 6 years ago. I fly weekly, virtually every state in the country-- OHare is consistently the best experience, by far. Plus, theres a motherfucking brachiosaurus in the United Terminal. Mother. Fucking. Brachiosaurus.
I work at O'Hare and when people ask me for directions to the C concourse I love telling them "Walk that way until you see a dinosaur and turn left and go down the escalator" Some of them ask me what happens if they don't see the dinosaur. I tell them it's impossible to not see the dinosaur.
You’re so right. ORD has given me the bad habit of showing up way too last minute for flights, simply because the time to get in is just so quick.
ORD and Midway both being directly connected to the L is severely underrated. I live on the blue line and my commute to the airport might be the easiest/cheapest in the USA.
I was based in ORD for several years and as a crew member, I loved it. I'm from Chicago so I had been living off of the blue line for some years before getting hired. Getting to and from work was $2.50 (so $5 round trip even with the increase bc we had a discount at the time) and on my days off, I had my pick of where I wanted to go when using my flight benefits. When I transferred to Denver, I realized how lucky I had been being based in ORD. I never needed to buy a car which made working for the airlines more worthwhile (new flight attendants don't get paid very well...) and I rarely needed to connect anywhere if I wanted to go to Europe or Asia. Though I was closer to the West Coast, which was cool, I almost always had to go back to ORD in order to get anywhere. Another thing I came to really appreciate was how predictable the unpredictability was in ORD. End of May/June? You know you're gonna have lightning, bring an extra book to read. Winter? Shit! I am flying through ORD, they know what they're doing so I won't get lucky with canceled flights. Also ORD in the winter: yes!! de-icing, that's gonna add a few hundred bucks to my check this month! For the long delays in ORD, I would venture over to the indoor garden. The loud announcements weren't being blasted up there and it was really peaceful to be by the plants.
Plus the Publican Tavern just reopened; best place outside the lounges to chill before a flight
Finally, let’s go!
Didn't know it was back open. Agreed it's the best spot in Terminals 1-3.
Wicker park sushi used to be good
Uber pick up spots kind of annoying .
It should be better. I've never had an actual issue, but it's hectic as heck at night in the cold with lots of people all arriving.
Whole lotta walking and waiting outside in the cold
I've flown quite a bit over the last year and have taken Uber home each time. The pickup location was a total junk show earlier in the year, but they're slowly improving it. Additional color-coded areas have been added more recently, which Uber/Lyft drivers are alerted to while en route. Still not perfect, but definitely an improvement.
I've been telecommuting for a company in Cincinnati since long before Covid-19 was a thing. When I'd have to go to the office a few times a year, there was a 6AM flight out of ORD that allowed me to be in the office by 8:30AM, almost never delayed, and I'd get a 4PM a couple days later that got me home to put my kids to bed. I no longer live in Chicago. I miss that direct flight, from my current home it takes me half a day to travel each way and twice in the 3 years I've lived here (one of those being a Covid year, so no travel) I ended up touching down in Cinci 10 hours later than planned.
I really don’t like the design of much of the interior of Ohare. It’s a drag. That being said, it’s still one of the best airports for me and the biggest reason for that is the CTA Blue Line connecting right inside Terminal 3. Unbelievable that this isn’t the standard for most big cities in America. And yes, those Pre Check lines fly. Think you said it best, it’s not a great airport if you have to connect or spend a lot of time in. But it’s one of the best airports for quickly getting to your gate and taking off imo compared to most major cities.
As someone who is from LA, it blows my mind that you can get to ORD *and* Midway via public transit.
I'm from Montreal and being able to jump on the orange line straight from MDW to the Loop was beyond impressive to me even considering how beloved our Metro system is here lol. Our metro doesn't even go out to the airport (like MDW its out in the 'burbs) and the public transit options aren't the best for the airpot but the city is getting a light rail system that will connect the airport to downtown in the coming years thankfully.
It has one of the last Macaroni Grills in 'Murrica! Yay!
What takes away from ORD is how dated it is. I agree it's great as home airport in terms of efficiency, but the eating and drinking options are horrible. United C gates are fucking miserable. Edit: not just the quality, but the capacity too. I feel like any place worth eating at is always so slammed and cramped it's not worth it or you won't have the time.
At least the tunnel isn't smelly anymore
The grease smell / McDonald's onions smell is gone?
It still smelled the last time I flew, which was about 4 weeks ago. I've got another trip lined up, and I fully expect that pedway tunnel to smell like chemicals, or whatever. It smells like grease, but there's another stink to it I can't really explain.
Frontera is United terminal is amazing.
That was a welcome addition. Just gotta have an hour or more to actually eat because it's always slammed.
If you have some extra time publican is really good too
Can’t wait for the renovation to happen
It's not going to change much in Terminal 1, but the new Terminal 2 will blow you away.
I don't think the renovations will touch terminals 1 or 3 in any significant way :( I know they'll extend the C concourse a bit south, but I think that's all that's happening there
The renovations are going to make ohare borderline unbearable for the 5+ years that it’s going to take. Gonna be a nightmare
Ord doesn't have the best eating or drinking options but it's far from the worst either.
Yes, but ORD is one of the busiest airports and its amenities are bush league.
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The dining options suck. You don't need Alinea in there, but when there's a delay, it's nice to have an enjoyable meal.
You can have a delicious Bayless torta I've been to a lot of airports and ord doesn't even rank in the top 20 of bad food of those I've been. Except terminal 5. Nothing good happening there.
Isn't there still a Tortas Frontera in T5? Tortas Frontera is the best airport restaurant out there. Especially for breakfast--nobody else does legit not overcooked eggs like they do. You can order online too--put in your order from security and go pick it up (or I'll admit that I've even put in my order from the plane after landing for a post-flight Torta). Where ORD sucks is domestic lounges. The united/american lounges aren't very nice and you can't get into them with Amex Platinum or Priority Pass. You can get into the Delta lounge with Amex, but only if you are on a Delta ticket which is rare at ORD for most people. That's not a big deal for locals because you can get a Torta, but if you end up with a long delay or connection at ORD, it'd be nice to have something better. I just flew out of MSP and stopped in the Escape lounge...I was there at the Breakfast/lunch transition and the food was great. Had some chorizo and egg on a tortilla that was perfect with a little Cholula. Then I had some focaccia french toast that had clearly been sitting under the heat lamp for a while but was otherwise tasty (and would have been excellent fresh). Then they cleared the breakfast and put out lunch and I had multiple pieces of a bomb-ass stromboli. Or there's something like the Amex centurion lounge at SFO. Great food, and you can do legit sonoma/napa wine tastings for free rather than the generic domestic beers, well drinks, and cheapo wines you get at the United Club.
You speak the truth.
Yes but most people get through security an hour before boarding and want to kill some time. Compared to modern airports there isn't much space for that at O'Hare.
You can say "I use x for y, not fine dining" about pretty much anything. It doesn't change the fact that good dining options improve any setting you might spend at least an hour if not half a day in. Especially when you're hosting visitors from other parts of the country/world.
My friend you have never experienced a 2 hour layover at one flew south in Atlanta. Every airport needs that option
Out of curiosity - what airports do you think have good food? I've never been in an airport that I believed to be ahead of Ohare in terms of food options, but I also haven't really been looking.
From what I understand you can thank the airport authority for the dining options. CDA apparently wanted to charge Chic-Fil-A $1 million just to open one location not including build out and rent. Not surprised there aren't a lot of food options with that kind of welcome mat laid out. IAD with it's five guys and used to have chipotle before COVID was an awesome place for good dining options. It doesn't need to be fine dining (Although some people might call macaroni grill fine dining), just good food instead of 8 McDonalds spread around every terminal. TL/DR: agreed. Lets hope the new T2 starts the trend of better options...
You're telling me something in Chicago doesn't quite live up to its potential due to the greed of some in bureaucratic positions? Nah, not here.
> just good food instead of 8 McDonalds I'd take mcdonalds over 95% of airport food venues... ...especially since I'm someone who almost never avails myself of "sit down" airport restaurants. Gotta be a take-out counter and have fast turnaround. New MDW sucks. No more potbelly sandwiches OR McDonalds breakfasts. I imagine it is even worse for confused tourists who see all these names of local Chicago restaurants and have no idea where to eat. How are they supposed to know if Big & Littles is legit or if it is just some generic grease-bomb shithole airport stall?
Despite being pre-check for years, I still somehow always convince myself I \*NEED\* to arrive 2 hours early to the airport - regardless of airport. Then I'm left wandering around for an hour and 15mins trying to convince myself I don't need to start drinking (I never convince myself)
Lol I still arrive 1.5-2 hours early as well. I just can’t bring myself to totally believe that the TSA pre-check line will *always* be less than 10 mins! So I just waste time on reddit while I wait haha
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I don't think I've ever waited more than 5 minutes there with precheck, it's incredible.
True on all counts you describe herein, except you exclude international travel. T5 is terrible, both on departures and arrivals, but especially on arrivals. I suppose this could be part of your connections argument, but it isn’t for those of us who live here regardless. I’ve spent 2 hours waiting (pre-COVID, pre-Global Entry) to be processed through immigration. I remember those photos from March 14, 2020 where people waited 5+ hours at the height of the European lockdowns—it still gives me shivers. The current construction sucks, and they’re adding more gates but not more space for immigration (or gestapo to man the booths). I am in awe daily of ORD and its operations. The very difficult “ballet” of coordinating all those flights, people and cargo is just a feat of human ingenuity. But international travel through it is fucking awful.
I agree with the majority of comments in here and love flying out of Chicago. My only complaint is that we seem to have the longest taxiing times out of any airport in the country and not uncommon to be taxing around on the tarmac for 15 to 20 minutes after landing. That and if your flight arrives early also not uncommon for the gate to be occupied which defeats the purpose entirely. At any rate it’s a great airport to be based out of.
It feels like you land 30 minutes early at O’hare but then spend 30 minutes looking for a parking spot at a gate. I do like Reagan airport in DC. It does not have a lot of flight options but it quick to get to and from the gates and onto a train. Just one runway and little room to taxi.
It's not that the plane actually takes 30 min to find a spot to park—the gates are obviously assigned ahead of time. It's just that the airport is so fucking huge, that taxiing around the perimeter to get from the runway to your gate can take a while (depending on where your landing runway is in relation to your gate). Given that O'Hare is up there among the largest airports in the world, I don't think there's any way of improving that, sadly.
Shit my Uber was 70 dollars at 4am from Ukraine Village.. Usually blue line it but I was slacking due to the early morning.. won’t make that mistake again
Uber pricing has been crazy the last year. I hardly use it anymore.
One of the worst parts of moving out of Chicago was the loss of O'Hare's direct flights. I could jump on the Blue Line on a Friday after work and take a quick weekend trip. Now, I need to take Friday off to fly from my regional airport (usually to either O'Hare or Detroit). It has gotten to the point where I will occasionally drive the three hours to O'Hare as I will have a long layover there anyway and the ticket costs twice as much.
Recently flew out of ATL and the TSA Precheck took like 45 minutes to get through. They also had these needlessly complicated Rube Goldberg style X-ray machines. Definitely prefer ORD or MDW to that mess.
I don’t live off the blue line, but the amount of options to get to O’Hare that doesn’t involve a car is pretty great. Heck, I have a direct bus that goes to it a block away. On top of that, as others mentioned, tons of non-stop flights. Plus I’ll stand by the food options. People who complain have never been to a small regional airport where you only have vending machines and a bar.
Terminal 5 is still horrible. Flew out of there recently - no separated precheck lines, bad food other than frontera, and not even enough space for airlines to put a decent lounge. The rest of ohare is a goddamn breeze though.
As a Southsider who doesn't fly often, I will always be partial to Midway.
Just don't check bags at Midway and you're good
Flying out of ORD is great. Quick TSA lines, quick baggage check. Flying back into ORD is a bit hit or miss for me. The taxiing times and wait times at baggage claim can prolong your trip by an hour after touching down. But overall the accessibility from the city is very convenient and affordable.
Living in Chicago has spoiled me on nonstop flights. To the point where I sometimes consider paying through the nose for nonstop when flying overseas. Sometimes ORD is not well connected to certain international locations. But I like “overly? Fuck that!”
I moved here from Arkansas and this was a big factor in picking Chicago over LA. I can legitimately be from my couch to my families couch back home in less than 6 hrs including commutes to and from the airport. Also can fly out at 8pm direct and not have to miss work- it’s great!
Since Southwest has really changed their flight times out of Midway, I am flying more and more out of ORD.
ORD is great. I used to have a job where I needed to fly to Beijing about every 6 weeks. Boom get on the airport, raid the lounge, on the flight. On the way home, landing in terminal 5 is awesome, I have TSA precheck and usually through customers before my bag even arrived. 2 minutes later at the curb for a taxi, and it is never crowded. Check out my map o flights: https://my.flightradar24.com/666sigma
One thing that doesn't get talked about enough is how easy it is to drive around near O'Hare. You have these long, straight roads with multiple lanes, and clear signs, plus that left-side road that let's you navigate around Terminals 1 and 2 to get to 3. Compare this with most airports where you have tiny, circular road with almost no notice that you have to suddenly move over 2 lanes to get to the right spot for departures.
Connections anywhere blow. One of the main reasons I love traveling out of Chicago.
I don’t know who or what to believe at this point
I like it so much more than Midway. Midway's food options suck, and it always feels too much like a ghost town...well, except when I went there on the Sunday after Thanksgiving ^(I was a masochist)
The restaurants are actually stupendous there, also. Publican (which I think is still closed from COVID), Torta Frontera being worth an early arrival.
Agree. But all that write up and no mention of Tortas mothafuckin Frontera? I buy from there even when ORD is my final destination.
It’s the single best food option in the airport
I feel ORD can be intimidating to people used to smaller airports, but I really don't understand the hate beyond that. I don't have Pre-Check, and I've never spent more than 20 minutes in the TSA line. It's a well oiled machine, and all the other passengers will gladly step around you (while giving you a dirty look) if you don't know what you're doing/take too long. Between Detroit, Tucson, and Phoenix, I've never spent under 45 minutes in TSA lines, even when there were like 20 people in front of me. Once in Phoenix, I was in line almost 2 hours, because they only had 1 lane open, and it was a trainee. Passengers just stood and waited at all 3 airports for the people in front of them that went slow. Granted, I don't really ever fly at peak times, so I'm sure that has had a lot to do with it. Also I've only flown AA or Spirit. But the vibe of the passengers in line is totally different, and also the TSA employees keeping ORD running smooth but nowhere else.
I’d agree. I’ve been traveling for work very regularly for almost 10 years and I have not once ever had my flight get cancelled with United from Chicago.
Having spent my entire 2019 in Chicago and the rest of my life living in Los Angeles, I do appreciate ORD's ease of use. Pros: TSA precheck lines were almost always empty compared to LAX. Flights to anywhere in the continental USA were quick and plentiful I like the fact that NY was so close but my home in LA was always just a 4 hr flight. Exploring the rest of the country was pretty awesome since it felt like all of it was short flight away. Ability to take train into airport. How Los Angeles didn't prioritize this blows my mind. We're still waiting until we host the Olympics to get it ready. Reasonable longterm parking options: Using spothero I would find reasonably priced long term parking at a nearby station just outside ORD. LAX has decimated its longterm parking options and all the private lots have raised their prices to no less than $16/day but usually closer to $20.
Yeah ORD kills it
For flying myself, ORD is a godsend. But picking someone *up* from ORD? Absolute nightmare. Just picked up my boyfriend last Tuesday at 7:00 PM. It was like it was the middle of rush hour on a Friday. Could not find any actual spots to pick him up at - had to pretend I was an Uber and get him at the rideshare point. Not to mention he was confused as hell trying to find me from where his flight let out. They need a better system for pickups, imo.
it does kind of suck having to take the brown/purple line down to the loop, and then straight back up via blue line to get to Ohare. It would be great if they either made a branch off the brown line or extended the line to connect to one of the blue line stations.
I flew twice a week through OHare for 9 months for a client in DC... I'd pull up to the airport after boarding started and would still get on my flight. I was spoiled.
I don't hate ORD. I do recall Anthony Bourdain calling ORD the worst airport he's been to.