O'hare vs. Midway vs. Milwaukee vs. Rockford (Chicago, Ottawa: 2013, house)

[4122]

I fly from O'hare whenever I need to head out of town, but it seems like O'hare is getting more and more expensive to fly out of. I live around 30 miles from Midway and 50 miles from the Milwaukee airport. I have another house around 30 miles from the Rockford airport, but it's a shorter drive than from my house in the Chicago suburbs to Midway because of traffic. Would the other airports be cheaper to fly out of, including parking at an airport?

Also, I went to Boston in late August and in mid October and my flight got delayed each time there and back. Is this because of the airport or is it because of American and United (airlines I flew from)?

[BOBNCHI]

I live in the far nw burbs and primarily fly SWA out of Midway. While it does take about an hour to travel each way I'm in and out of the terminal quickly, parking costs are about the same with ORD and I like SWA. Going to MKE or RFD is shorter travel and has lower parking cost but the availability of more non stop flights through MDW works for me.

[Maintainschaos]

It's somewhat hard to predict which airport will be cheaper of the bigger three, but Rockford will be almost certainly more expensive for just about every flight (a general trend with smaller airports because you have to connect to get virtually everywhere). Also, depending on which airline you want to fly, you will almost assuredly have to choose a different airport. Want a lot of options on American or United or Frontier? ORD all the way. Want more options for Southwest? MDW or MKE. If you really don't have a preference, when you search for tickets, just choose the option that lets you view other airports in the vicinity and make a choice. I almost always fly out of ORD unless I'm going Southwest, and then it's MDW. If I have to be stuck, I'd rather be stuck at ORD only because the likelihood that there will be another flight to your destination is highest there. I only fly into MKE in emergency situations when I find myself at the [insert your airline of choice] service counter asking the question, "Well how close can you get me to Chicago?"

[JTW2013]

My preference is always SWA and Midway over O'Hare. When you consider bag fees, SWA is usually cheaper than the airlines out of O'Hare. SWA's prices have definitely gone up over the years and they no longer the huge bargain they were in the 1990's but the free bags make them cheaper than UA, American and the rest.

I also very much prefer MDW to O'Hare. It's smaller and easier to get around. I think the parking is better, both economy and the garage. However, there are not enough spaces in the garage. When I traveled for work, I found that the garage was usually full during the week, depending on the time of my departure. Which was a real pain because the garage (I mean the one attached to the airport, not the one in the Red Lot) was one of the main perks of flying out of MDW. You can literally get out of your car, get on the elevator and go right down to security. It's expensive and I never parked there when I had to pay for it myself but it was awesome for business travel.

I hate dealing with the ORD airlines as compared to SWA. With SWA, you know exactly how to get a better seat. You don't board by status which screws you if you're on an airline where you have no status. It means you're stuck taking your roller bag through security and then end up checking it anyway. with SWA, you either pay the $11 for earlybird checkin or make sure you check in exactly 24 hours in advance and you'll end up with a decent seat if you're willing to head to the back of the plane.

Their rewards plan is more straight forward than the competition's although it's not as generous as it used to be. I'd recommend that anyone who flies SWA get a rapid rewards number and a SWA Visa. We earn at least one trip a year through my Visa.

[marothisu]

I've been flying out of O'Hare almost every week since late July and believe it or not, I've rarely been delayed on my way out of there (maybe 3 total times out of over 20 flights). In general though, it also depends on where you're going too. Smaller airports tend to actually be more expensive (I mean smaller regional ones). Rockford will most likely be the most expensive.

As far as Midway versus O'Hare goes, it depends on where you're going to. Airlines tend to compete with price (surprise surprise), so if there is a flight out of Midway that is much cheaper than O'Hare, then an airline out of O'Hare might lower their prices. I saw it with Des Moines in the last few years - the only flights to Des Moines were out of O'Hare and over $400. Southwest started offering service from MDW for $200, and within a few weeks of that, the flights out of O'Hare were dropped to $200.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by JTW2013

I also very much prefer MDW to O'Hare. It's smaller and easier to get around.

IMO this is pretty circumstantial. It all depends on what gate you are in - O'Hare is very easy to get around within and everything is clearly labeled if you need to get anywhere. If you are flying out of a gate that's not far from security, then this point doesn't matter.

Both airports IMO are good, but an experience you may have at any airport is very circumstantial. For awhile every week my flights were in the same 3 gates pretty close to security. So my experience is going to say "O'Hare isn't too bad to walk through." Then I changed the airport I fly into and my flights are a lot further away - now I may think differently. It's all circumstance. Just because an airport is huge doesn't always mean you're going to have to walk long distances to your flight.

[JTW2013]

Originally Posted by marothisu

IMO this is pretty circumstantial. It all depends on what gate you are in - O'Hare is very easy to get around within and everything is clearly labeled if you need to get anywhere. If you are flying out of a gate that's not far from security, then this point doesn't matter.

Both airports IMO are good, but an experience you may have at any airport is very circumstantial. For awhile every week my flights were in the same 3 gates pretty close to security. So my experience is going to say "O'Hare isn't too bad to walk through." Then I changed the airport I fly into and my flights are a lot further away - now I may think differently. It's all circumstance. Just because an airport is huge doesn't always mean you're going to have to walk long distances to your flight.

True but because O'Hare is so much bigger than Midway, you are more likely to have a long walk to your gate at ORD than at MDW.

Also if you are flying UA, your flight will probably go in and out of the C concourse which is a hike.

[4122]

Originally Posted by marothisu

I've been flying out of O'Hare almost every week since late July and believe it or not, I've rarely been delayed on my way out of there (maybe 3 total times out of over 20 flights). In general though, it also depends on where you're going too. Smaller airports tend to actually be more expensive (I mean smaller regional ones). Rockford will most likely be the most expensive.

As far as Midway versus O'Hare goes, it depends on where you're going to. Airlines tend to compete with price (surprise surprise), so if there is a flight out of Midway that is much cheaper than O'Hare, then an airline out of O'Hare might lower their prices. I saw it with Des Moines in the last few years - the only flights to Des Moines were out of O'Hare and over $400. Southwest started offering service from MDW for $200, and within a few weeks of that, the flights out of O'Hare were dropped to $200.

So the delays I've been experiencing have been are because of American and United, not O'hare.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by JTW2013

True but because O'Hare is so much bigger than Midway, you are more likely to have a long walk to your gate at ORD than at MDW.

Also if you are flying UA, your flight will probably go in and out of the C concourse which is a hike.

Yes, chances are like that but really not always. My flights to EWR on AA were always pretty close to security. My flights to LGA though are in the middle or end of the concourses though so those can be a hike. At airports, it depends on which terminal you're going out of and what your destination is.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by 4122

So the delays I've been experiencing have been are because of American and United, not O'hare.

I fly AA every week - unless it's a mechanical reason, it's not the airline's fault. It's air traffic control, which isn't affiliated with any airlines. The last delays I had out of O'Hare were when it was really cold last month and the fuel lines froze, but most airlines felt delays as a result. Usually delays have to do with air traffic and that is on ATC.

This reminds me of a converstion I had with a friend who was visiting Chicago the other week. I told him the same thing and he just said "Whatever, I've never been delayed with United out of O'Hare." 1 hour later I got a text with him that said "My United flight is delayed " I had to laugh because I know from flying every week that delays are usually on air traffic and not the airlines themselves.

Also, many times the delays you experience have nothing to do with the airport you're flying out of. An example would be a flight I had from EWR-ORD in September when there was a massive thunderstorm extending from Ottawa to northern Texas. It was so big and disruptive that O'Hare got backed up and delayed tons of flights coming in from all over the place. In fact, it was so backed up that I had coworkers on the earlier flight that actually flew to Kansas City, turned around in mid air and flew back to Chicago just to buy O'Hare more time to get the flight in. At the surface, it may have looked like EWR sucked, but it was actually because of ORD.