quote:

Originally posted by rat2306:

Berghoff

Wow! That's a name I haven't heard, nor thought about, for forty years or more.

The downtown location was right in the middle of Chicago's old business area. An old-time, authentic German restaurant, outstanding German food and good beer. My wife and I used to go there for a good, reasonably affordable meal.

I do not know the following to be fact, but I was told by more than one person that the waiters, who were all old-time professionals, were independent contractors, who bought the food from the kitchen at wholesale prices, and sold it to the customers at the retail prices that were printed on the menu.

Every time we fly we change at ORD, and occasionally something goes wrong. Our home airport is Moline IL (MLI), we park and check in at our easy to navigate terminal and take a United RJ to ORD from where we can get almost anywhere in the world.

Our flying kicked into high gear when I retired six years ago, and on rare occasions flights are late or bags get misplaced. It happens, and we accept it.

We always go through ORD, sometimes from EWR or IAH. I can't remember a major hub where stuff doesn't happen. We try to have connections of two hours, that's about all we can do.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sigmund,

I am a Chicago native and I always liked O'Hare. I remember when Midway was the primary airport. Used to go watch the Turbo props warm up and take off. We even got a tour of the plane because his Dad was an airline Captain. Yep, the days when the riff rafff took the bus. When I moved I could not understand how few flights there were. Did not have two flights per day to Hawaii. There has always been talk of buiding another airport in Chicago.
Newark airport really sucks and it is dangerous as well.

Few years back wife and I had to fly into O'hare from Rapid City after a great vacation touring South Dakota... landed 20 minutes late and had about 45 minutes to make our next flight home.... we spent the next hour and fifteen minutes taxing around the airport.... not stopped but moving... I guess this was so folks would have to stay in their seats... If I don't ever go back there if will be too soon.

Ah, yes. Making connections at O'Hare. Usually a nightmare.

Since it's my home airport, I don't have to worry about connecting through O'Hare. But, I've lost count of the number of times I saw folks sitting around me realize they had just a few minutes to make it from our arrival gate to their departure gate in another terminal.

It's not just Ohare, there's a million horror stories at airports.
Denver a month or so ago, I'm shlepping my luggage and my family from international to domestic flights, not an easy place to navigate on foot, we just went through customs, now have to go to a terminal at the other side of the airport, back through tsa, and thankfully our tsa agent was the two dumbest assholes there! Then on the train to our terminal...
In about 20 minutes between flights.
Made our flight to Chicago with honesty 2 minutes to spare.

However, you're right, I-294/-290/-90... You're getting raped to leave the area in tolls.
I try to stay off the Jane Addams and anything north on -294 as much as I can.

V-tail, back when Ronald Reagan was still in office, I had to attend a meeting in Chicago. One of the guys in the office had grown up in town from about middle school upwards. He took several of us up to view the Sears Tower (still that to me), walked about the business district etc. and had dinner at Berghoff's. Excellent! After that trip, if time allowed, I would make my way to the airport cafe.

O'Hare Airport

Worst Food Courts Ever!

Good Lord willing, I will never fly commercially again!! Which probably means that I will never fly again. Sick of what the entire industry has become!

P.S. Hated O’Hare.

I call it Chitcago.......

Yes, flying any airline/any place is very dicey these days.

In my opinion, here is no other industry who treats their customers as abhorently as airlines do.

Have you ever wondered why airlines charge so many "fees"? It's because they got the tax law favorable to them. They only pay taxes on revenue. Fees are exempt from taxes.

And, I am sure that anytime there is a Senator or US Representative on a flight, they get upgraded so they will look favorably on the airline industry........

My wife and I were flying to San Francisco to get married and we got stuck in O'Hare for seven hours at night. The whole damn thing closed, no food or anything. It sucked BUT, the last time I went thru there, I landed at 11am. My connection was delayed for a couple of hours, so I went in search of food. Even little plastic box sandwiches were 15 to 20 bucks, and I was cursing under my breath. A woman called to me from a hot dog stand. She asked if I had ever had a Chicago dog. I said I had not, and she said, after some discussion, to try one and if I liked it, pay her the five bucks. Before I'd even finished, I'd given her a 10 and asked for another. She pretty much made my day.

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
....we spent the next hour and fifteen minutes taxing around the airport.... not stopped but moving...

ORD has VERY little "extra" space to park airplanes while they're waiting to enter the ramp area to park at their gates. For that reason, ORD has established a WELL DESIGNED race track taxi pattern for both inbound and outbound flights to keep aircraft moving so that nothing stops on the taxiways...there just isn't room to park planes and block taxiways.

The first time you fly into ORD as a new Captain, the Check Airman usually asks, "You ever flown into O'Hare?" If the answer is a negatory, the Check Airman will state, "Whatever you do, DON'T STOP on a taxiway. If you miss something or don't hear the instructions clearly, JUST KEEP MOVING!"

That's just the Chicago way......

quote:

Originally posted by Blume9mm:
I guess this was so folks would have to stay in their seats...

If someone had needed to use the lav, the crew would have been happy to let them go. Just be prepared to hit a moving target if you're one to stand and void your bladder. 'Cause we ain't stoppin'...

Grew up near ORD. Never once been glad to go there. Feels like I'm headed to the gallows going down 90 to get there.

I can't understand how all the people I grew up with still live there.

Now that my kid has finally put NOLA in his rear-view mirror and moved to the Peoples Republic of Oregon, I have been looking at air fares:
1- The fare cost is outrageous.
2- You cant get there from here. No direct flights to Salem OR that I could find. You have to fly into Portland then drive south to Salem. So costs go up since you need rent a car.
3- Where is my connecting flight after I puddle jump from the Yoop? O'Hare. layover times vary from 20 minutes to 7 hours. Or... Several flights route me through Charlotte. So I can go both east and west on the same day. Insanity.
I may just drive. Its 2K. The Enterprise office is in walking distance from my house. See the country and the Rockies. Spread it out over 3 days.

quote:

I may just drive. Its 2K. The Enterprise office is in walking distance from my house. See the country and the Rockies. Spread it out over 3 days.

That's absolutely what I would do, assuming there were no time constraints on the trip. That would be a fantastic drive, and from where you're starting the only two urban areas you'll have to drive around are Minneapolis and Portland. I've driven around Minneapolis and it's nowhere near as bad as Chicago traffic. Can't speak to Portland, but you'd have to drive that anyway even if you flew.

As much as I dislike O’Hare I hate Midway and LAX even more.

O’Hare is a giant amoeba of an airport in a shitty state. Still not as bad as Charlotte. Or LaGuardia.

In general flying sucks and it's not what it used to be after those butthole terrorists, Covid epidemics, etc.
Depending on the time of year, it's peak vacation traffic (over booked flights), thunderstorms in the evening (cancelled/delayed flights), multiple trips through the de-ice process in the morning (delayed flights), missing flight crew members (delayed flights), broken lavatories (smelly/uncomfortable flights), or a Icelandic volcano (plans/trains/automobiles). Bring a book or a tablet to keep you in a semi zombie state and plan to get f'ed by everyone in the airline business, car rental business and hotel business....the employees are getting it too. Your highlight might be overpaying for a bowl of Rick Bayless soup by some poor sap who has to park nearly in Wisconsin and take the bus into the O'Hare terminal while getting groped by TSA every day before their shift. Still beats flying on a Russian Sukhoi aircraft where you aren't worried about the Air Conditioning...you are worried about leaving the ground!

Stories like this is why I drive 99% of the time.

I used to drive round trip from El Paso to Tampa once a month. Very long drive and boring at some parts but I just hate flying so much.

The only airport on our no-go list is Charles de Gaulle, we pay extra if need be to avoid that shithole

Miami almost made that list for the lack of eateries after security but now we know and can prepare