- Two major airlines in one hub
- Example, I flew on AA out of LaCrosse to ORD and then onto LAX. The LaCrosse flight had a very late departure and I was going to miss my AA connection to LAX. AA booked me on the UA non-stop flight to LAX. DFW, ATL, CLT can’t do that- ever via a non-stop
- Gets even better in some city pair combinations- one example ORD-SEA, four mainline airlines offer non-stops AA,AS,DL,UA. Find another hub with four mainline carriers between two major city pairs- not many
- Best bad weather crews/ equipment in the US- likely the world
- No other airport can handle bad weather like ORD, not even a close second. Bad weather does happen, if often paralyzes other airports and causes issues for days on end- not at ORD
- If having to stay overnight, dozens of lodging options without having to catch a hotel shuttle
- Nothing worse than missing a flight and having to spend the night at a airport area hotel, one is already tired and frustrated. Waiting outside sometimes uo to two hours for a hotel shuttle is brutal and beyond frustrating. Along with the ORD Hilton at the terminal, one can get on the blue line seamlessly and in one stop be in walking distance to a handful of hotels, including three Marriott properties
- One can make any domestic to domestic flight by running, no shuttle bus or tram needed.
- In the past two years, I have missed numerous flights at DFW because I had to take the tram, and could missed the last flight out my just a minute or two. At ORD, I can run like OJ and make it
- One can also run at CLT, but CLT is so over capacity that more often than not one can’t run at the required speed to make the connection because the very dense crowds in the very narrow hallways
- Along the line of what EddyVW mentioned- Lou Malnotis pizza. Have a three hour layover. Get off the plane, call Lou Malnotis and order a deep dish pizza, grab a Uber, arrive at Lou’s with a world class deep dish pizza just out of the oven- now wait, have a delicious meal, back on Uber and back to the terminal- easy as eating a pancake
I could go on and on, but the above sets the tone why ORD is a hidden gen for road warriors. So many people have a negative perception of ORD, that they avoid ORD, which is actually a plus for road warriors transiting through ORD
Finally, some comments about pocketbooks. Chicago/ Illinois is toast. Having a world class airport is essentially is last and only option to save the place. I am sure the state is already done, but a world class airport might give a shimmer of hope. Without a new airport, absolutely no hope. And for the corruption, I am quite sure the original 8.3 billion price that is now 12 billion, the same construction likely could be done, and finished on time at places like CLT, SLC, etc for 3-5 billion and completed on time. That is why corruption is the cause of this, not the actual construction.