Oh…HARE – Tips (And Tales Of) Escaping Chicago’s Infamous Airport

No joke I know exactly where the Bridgeview Inn is. Right next to JB Hunt trucking company and Walmart a block away. Unfortunately im from Bridgeview you should have tried for the Super 8.

Which moron decided to put a large hub in a place where related delays are unavoidable.

Weather related delays should not be exempt from compensation.

Bridgeview Inn, the type of place where B grade porno's are shot. Still, $60 per night ain't bad.

The last time I flew out of ORD my flight was canceled as well. Thankfully I had close friends in Chicago and spent the night with them.

Ha, I think I like "Storytime with Steph."

I wonder, though, at what point would you have just given up and slept in the airport?

Ahhhh Chicago. One of my first "solo" experiences with weather disruptions was there, way back in the mid-90s during my college days.

My dad had to be in Chicago around Christmas time for work, so for whatever reason it was decided that we'd do our family Xmas celebration in Chicago that year. My parents flew in from India and I flew up from Atlanta after my college finals.

I had decided to make a day trip from Chicago to Madison to visit a friend there on 23rd December, so I made my way back to O'Hare that morning for a 730am flight on United (operated by an Air Wisconsin BAe146). We departed for Madison on time but due to heavy snowfall, the airport closed while we were en route and after an hour of circling we diverted to Milwaukee around 945-10am. United organised buses for us and we got to Madison around 1230pm.

Of course, due to the weather my flight back to Chicago scheduled for around 5pm had also been cancelled and there were no flights leaving Madison at all that day. Renting a car and driving back to Chicago in the snow was not practical for a 19 year old either. So we decided to head to my friend's house past Wisconsin Dells and see what the next morning brought.

Early morning, phone calls to all the airline's 800-numbers (this was before the era of airline apps, or indeed smartphones or internet booking) brought news that Madison airport was still closed but it looked like American was still flying from LaCrosse. So we drove out to LSE airport after breakfast. Unfortunately, by the time we got there it turned out that O'Hare was closed and the American Eagle Saab 340 had not yet departed. I spotted a Northwest flight to MSP leaving around lunchtime and successfully begged the counter staff to accept my UA paper ticket to get me out to MSP on that flight, and then standby on a later flight to Chicago if the airport opened later.

I made it onto the DC9-10 and into MSP, but Chicago was still closed. Spent most of the afternoon at MSP airport (I remember spending around $20 on the NBA Jam arcade game on the old "Blue" concourse) until I finally made it as a standby onto an A320 to Chicago around 6pm. Finally got back to our hotel downtown after 9pm but just in time for Christmas.

So yeah, that taught me a lesson about Chicago weather disruptions that I still haven't forgotten 20+ years later!!!

I might have also looked for flights out of MDW. It's a big WN hub.

This is almost identical to what happened to me in the first week of June at ORD. flight delayed in toORD from YYC so missed connection to Madison. HSBC Premier Mastercard World Elite Insurance wouldn’t cover the cost of hotel or rerouting. Went to Hertz as PC, and they said as it was a walk-in booking no loyalty benefits and charged $256 for less than 12 hour rental to drop of in Madison.
! A real shocker!

Bridgeview is also home to one of the best strip clubs in Chicago land

You are a experienced traveler, a female traveling alone and you did this? Very naive. @snic is right you should have slept in the airport, which would have been safe. If you know anything about Chicago or any large metropolitan US city like that you should know that 25 miles outside the city can be good, bad or very dangerous. Not something which you should gamble on. I am glad you lived another day to write. You are very - very lucky.

LGA to ORD....ouch

I’ll go out of my way to avoid both, but for me, LGA has been so much worse than any other airport

These are the situations in which I enlist help. I have had good success with Amex Platinum services being able to take good care of me. For situations like this with hotels, it's great to have an experienced travel agent on call 24/7 with access to the GDS.

Flew into ORD on Thursday when they had more rain issues. Was good to be 1K in that case as I was able to get booked onto and earlier (delayed) flight with 1 seat left even though that flight was showing full and wasn’t an option in the app for rebooking.

Another bad airport for weather is SFO - always a crap shoot.

I once had a trip from Milan to San Diego that took three days. Five hour delay at MXP for an ATC blackout over London. Arrived at Newark just in time to miss the last flight to San Diego. All hotels were sold out. Found a place (just like Steph’s) an hour outside of Newark. Returned to the airport at 5 am for my flight to Houston which was cancelled due to weather at Newark. Waited ten hours for another flight. Arrived Houston in time for a hurricane warning and cancelled flights. Fortunately, found a Hyatt close by. The following day I got out at noon to San Diego. This was my last flight with United; I realize that most of this wasn’t their fault but the rebooking was a never-ending nightmare. All this happened in the normally weather safe month of September.

Having spent many nights in airports, I’d take a seedy motel given the choice.

cracking up at the note taped to the wall the Bridgview inn photo

"DO NOT RENT" list

Will it soon include a blogger who posted photos that put the hotel's cleaning and carpet/furniture replacement cycles in an unfavorable light?

There are ways to travel through Chicago and minimize your chances of being delayed. Chicago and O'Hare was my home airport until I just recently moved to Houston. Obviously weather delays you can't do much to avoid. If you want to get through O'Hare with the least chance of being delayed leave early in the morning.

You also talked about flying into a different airport to get home, but did you look at flying out of Midway instead of O'Hare.

Fly to MKE. Amtrak has a stop that serves the airport. Unfortunately with most of what was Midwest Airlines/Republic/Frontier long gone avoiding a connection at ORD is more difficult.

Don't mind ohAAre at all. I feel like Kevin from Home Alone every time!

Did you consider Amtrak? The train to NY departs CHI at 9:30 PM.

Tortas Frontera is good enough to keep me going back to O’Hare, no matter the delays

Steph what a nightmare! I fly out of ORD internationally once a month and have had a heck of a time with logistics (I live in Milwaukee and have opted never to get a connecting flight ever from MKE to ORD for all of the delays - I was averaging a 50% cancellation rate on my return connection to MKE). Some options for stay in hotels for future reference is to look at the Western Suburbs (Schaumburg, Woodfield, Oak Brook, Vernon Hills, or even Rosemont to the East) which although a fair distance away from the airport you can get a Go Airport Express shuttle or Uber to. You can also check flights at Milwaukee (MKE) airport which is accessible by Coach USA bus which leaves hourly from ORD to MKE. I recall an issue awhile back where the computer systems went down and all flights out of ORD were suspended. People managed to rebook out of MKE. While ORD is convenient to Chicago MKE is such an easy airport to get in and out of and has direct flights to LGA. It is about 1:15 to ORD direct by car or you can also grab the Amtrak train at the airport to get you downtown Chicago Union Station. Still thinking of how scary it must have been to be in the hotel you stayed at. Glad you made it home!

Experienced traveler. Really? Starting with booking LGA-ORD as if they are the only transportation choices in cities of 13 million and 7 million, and then seeming blown away when things don’t go well? “Experienced travelers “ have known about both LaGuardia and O’Hare for decades, and work around them unless travel conditions like weather, holidays, time of day for travel, etc seem to not be complicating factors. Yes, weather. You can usually get a decent idea of potential weather problems as far as two weeks ahead of time; if you’re booking your travel 3 months in advance, then you get what you get at LGA or ORD, when flights on that same day in the same weather will have a lower chance of on-time success than at EWR or MDW. If you want to hedge the bet, Newark and White Plains and Midway and Milwaukee look pretty good right from the start of trip planning. Then randomly riding out to Bridgeview with no idea about it other than there’s a $60 hotel room available? ($60 rate being another small clue missed when decent basic hotel rooms in NYC and CHI are typically 2-3X that rate.) It’s all very cute and knock yourself out if you’re gonna travel without a common sense plan, but don’t represent yourself and your story as “advice from an experienced traveler” to whoever might be (god forbid) a less-experienced traveler, with the amount of bonehead moves made on this misadventure.

If you are Marriott Plat. aren't they supposed to get you a room if they are out?

Travelled all my life for business, and yes before uber and gps. I have stayed many time in those "holes". Often wondered if my car would be on blocks. Slept in my clothes because you know those top comforter did not get changed, much less the sheets.

And the family at home thinks Dad is on vacation.

I have travelled to and from ORD probably a hundred times but will soon be making my first connection there. Tortas Frontera during a flight delay will puts ORD on top of the other options.

And I think the United app is fantastic.

Thanks all for the suggestions re: alternate airports and otherwise. I normally do what I can to avoid both LGA and ORD at all costs, but with a last-minute client schedule change, tight budgets and razor-thin timelines, most of my other go-to options were off the table this time around.

And for those of you concerned with safety - first off, thank you (really) for your concern. I did spend some time waffling between sleeping in a fleabag motel or on an airport cot with my laptop bag by my side in a public place, and ultimately the privacy won by a (small) margin. Had I felt truly unsafe, I would have had no problem telling the Uber to turn right back around (and probably would have done so if my hotel had been at the original drop-off location that he attempted). In the end, while I was skeeved out and unamused, I never felt that my safety was threatened.

And obviously I'm trying Tortas Frontera next time I'm in ORD (and my husband concurs that it's awesome.)

@Brendan - Sadly, they were sold out too.

@Donna - Three days - wow! Glad you finally made it back.

@snic - Thanks! Plenty more where that came from.

@Heather - Sounds like you've been through it, and thanks for your detailed response!

I realize your post was probably written with the best of intentions, but instead of containing constructive advice (book early departures when possible, reject itineraries with short connections, or such), it just leaves the reader with a throwing out the baby with the bath water-type of "don't fly via ORD".

I have flown transcontinental itineraries regularly now for eight years, and often choose ORD as the transfer point. Never had any major issue there, except one time when all flights were late - but then it just ended up that my connecting flight was proportionately late, so no missed connection then either. ORD is an advantage actually, because there is such a redundancy of flights in case you do miss a connection. And five runways, soon to be six, have improved reliability - and the ability to recover from irregular operations quicker - substantially.

Looks like you had dark cloud chasing you that day, and I'm sorry about that. But don't place ORD as the primary culprit in that chain of events.

Was in a 7 hour delay on Wed with AA ORD to DFW. 5 hrs due to weather and 2 more for a mechanical delay(with a equipment change). Was expecting AA to pull the plug any minute but we left after midnight and arrived close to 3am at DFW. Was surprised to get an email from AA the next day with 6000 miles.

^Agree with Marco, I'm from the Chicago suburbs and honestly have never had a major issue of all my times. Yes, there will be times when weather is bad either in the winter or summer, but that can happen anywhere in the Midwest. I would disagree with the "any little bit of rain causes delays at O'Hare" even if it's an exaggeration, it would only be for major thunderstorms with large amounts of lightning in the area...it's not like the airport is super paranoid and shuts down during the lightest bit of rain.
Also there are unquestionably plenty of better hotels in the suburbs west and southwest of O'Hare that I doubt would have been sold out even if there had been a large weather delay (i.e. Naperville, Schamburg, Lombard, Aurora, etc.), so I really believe your misfortune of staying in a ghetto motel was largely due to your lack of knowledge of the Chicago geography.
This post would have made more sense if you focused on things like the lack of amenities, how far you have to walk from one terminal to another, how horrible Terminal 5 (International) is. O'Hare is definitely not a "nice" airport but I don't think it deserves the title of this report based on a one-off experience you had...now if this happened MULTIPLE times you've gone through O'Hare, please write away on how horrible it is.

This happened in May 2018. Reading in your column about Turkish Air. I had booked two business class seats to Odessa Ukraine with a stopover for a week in Istanbul. We live in Alaska. We booked a flight from Anchorage to O'hare on Alaska Air and planned to then fly Turkish Air to Istanbul. Our flight from Anchorage to Seattle was uneventful. The flight from Seattle to Chicago ran into weather. Chicago was closed for incoming and we were diverted to Milwaukee. While we were on the ground I used my cell phone to call American Express Travel Service to change our flight to the next day. Good to have 24 hour coverage by a tour company. They called Turkish air before our flight left Chicago. The travel agent called me back and said regardless of weather my change fees for my wife and I would be $1,000. Not pleased but charged it to my Amer Exp (AX) card. Got into Chicago later that evening , the Turkish flight was long gone and all the hotels in all my apps and phone calls were sold out. We walked to the Hilton in the O'Hare airport. Gave him my most sorrowful blue eyes look, gold status and my platinum AX card. They found a room. The next day I was unable to print out our Turkish Airline tickets. Called my AX travel agent. They called Turkish Air. They stated since they we had missed our flight they had cancelled the rest of our round trip ticket. However they would be pleased to restore it for $5000 dollars. No pleas made a difference or alternative options. I expected to be taken at "the grand bazar" but not before I had left O'Hare. We cancelled our trip, got the $1000 original change fee back and contacted the tour guides and hotel. Most were understanding when we told them our Turkish Air experienc. Our AE Travel agent is working to get our original $6,000 tickets refunded. FYI, AK Air changed our return back to Alaska at no charge (We are MVP gold) . The O'Hare Hilton is a 5 star hotel. For us it was worth the money after a long long frustrating flight

I have a separate itinerary for SAT-ORD then ORD-MUC. I originally planned on being in Chicago for 2 days leading up to my flight to Munich but last minute changes actually have me in San Antonio so I had to purchase a one way UA ticket to ORD. I am very stressed about the idea of making my Munich flight on Lufthansa as the connection is 2 hrs 30 minutes. I know I can through check my bags since it's an all Star Alliance itinerary but getting to Chicago is a whole different matter. This is a 70k mile business class ticket on Lufthansa and it would be a shot to the stomach if couldn't get to ORD. I am actively searching for award space with SAT-MUC so I can rebook and just take the losses on my one way flight. Well worth the peace of mind but as of now there is nothing for the date I'm looking for. Great article

Hello,

June 18 HKG-JFK-YYZ.

Took me 15 hours HKG-JFK on CX
Took me 30 hours JFK-YYZ on AA

18th June JFK to YYZ cancelled last minute on AA

I was rerouted to ORD and connect to YYZ.

On the flight to ORD we were diverted to STL as ORD closed weather.

Reached ORD and YYZ connection long gone.

AA rebooked me 8.3am flight next morning ORD-JFK. When I enquiried about bags said check with bags enquiry desk.

I asked for bags, said too late to pull bags now. They will be checked forward.

I get hotel room $500 downtown only. Around 1am on my way (20 mins later) I get email to say my 8.30am ORD to YYZ is cancelled and airline has rebooked me via New York to YYZ via LGA.

Also airline email confirmation full of mistakes. Places me with 10 minute layover and marks aircraft type as “A380” clearly airline has lost control of its booking system.

At this stage I feel like a first class passenger “on the titanic”

I give up. I buy new ticket 8am on AC ORD to YYZ for US$1200 one way. Cost nearly as much as my HKG to JFK R/T ticket in premium economy.

I get 3 hours sleep after my long trip front Hong Kong in my $500 a night room and head back to airport.

6am I am at AA baggage desk to get my bags. I am promised my bags will come out “within 2 hours”

I change my AC flight to 10am and wait.

My bags NEVER come.

I switch my AC flight to 6pm.

Every hour I check with the baggage enquiry desk and spend the entire day sitting in front of them. They all say it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming. It never ever came. I am then told my bags already have made it to YYZ.

Finally I left and flew to YYZ. Upon arrival I check and my bags are not in YYZ.

I file missing bags enquiry and it’s 5 days already and still no bags. I’ve come on an international business trip with no clothes and no samples. I lost my entire week by the time my office scrambled and couriered my replacements.

Unfortunately, my story is worse than even OMAATS story. I probably fly 200k miles a year and have been doing so for 18 years. This is my worst experience I can recall.

Luckily I have travel insurance.

What a coincidence, I happened to fly into ORD for the first time in my life this week. Our flight got diverted to IND due to thunderstorms in the Chicago area and the plane needed fuel. Missed the last flight of the day to NYC.
Had to spend the (short) night at the Hyatt Regency ORD.

Will try to avoid ORD next time

EWR as a hub for UA or JFK as a quasi-hub for DL (and less so every month for AA) are far, far worse connecting points than ORD. As noted the add'l runway a few years ago led to a good on-time arrival gain, and to this day I think it's ~10 points higher than any NYC airport.

Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never had major issues flying through ORD. If anything, I like connecting there because I have somewhere around 425 alternatives from O'Hare or Midway to get back to Dallas if something goes wrong.

As far as things to do proactively, I always keep a close eye on the weather about a week out. If it looks like there might be problems on the return, I'll find a hotel near the airport with a 6 pm same-day cancellation policy and book a room a few days before. Never had to actually use it but at least I know I'll have a place to sleep and have a meal.

I rarely have difficulties flying through O'Hare. Also, there are thousands of hotels within 30 min from the airport - don't really see a concern.