Yes, it’s October. That means it’s time to decamp back to my favourite city to visit in the world - Chicago. And yes, that means I write lots about the usual things. So yes, settle dow for a mix of the the usual ramblings, iPhones in Sickbags, paint falling off planes, and general geeking. And if you thought this was any class other than Economy... you’d be wrong. 
Money Money Money.. Must be funny... In a rich mans world (The Introduction)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCkOmcIl79s
Airfares fill me with constant wonder. Normally the wonder is replaced with madness very quickly. Locking down a “cheap” fare to Chicago was proving difficult, with the shock of the >£550 for an “Economy” return to Chicago in October at one point
Errmmm..... £550????
I’m sorry, even by my standards for a 8000 mile or less hop, that is close enough to extortion. As redemption seats were again non existent, I sighed and left the ticket engines for a couple of day.
Thankfully the madness abated slightly and the airfare dropped to
£475 for a return ticket.
Pardon me, but £475 on a TATL hop in October is bordering on expensive. I suppose there’s a part of me who thinks anything more than £500 for a ticket is pushing their luck to put it blunt.
On top of this, things at home are... busy. The life of being an evil person (sometimes known as a Systems Administrator), mean the trips have been shorter each time, and this trip is no exception sadly What as going to be a nice relaxing 6 day trip was shrunk to 5 - leaving less time in Chicago. Unhappy, but life goes on.
Of course I tried to have a little fun with the trip, and as it’s a short trip (in fact, I haven’t done over a 6 day trip this year) so I priced in a trip via IAD with a 12 hour stopover on the way home, and the early flight on the way out. And this seems to be too much for United.bomb, which bomb out time after time putting in a long break in journey.
Thankfully, Continental.com priced it, and ticketed it without a second though. Hey kids, nothing like organised booking system that works.
As I’m at a conference for 3 of the 4 days, I decided to stick with what I know best, and book the Hyatt Regency O’Hare. Whilst not the cheapest property on the planet, you try heading back and forth at 2am in the morning after doing conference things. Only heading upstairs to bed is not a bad thing! However, I’m honestly not in the mood to pay a lot this time - and a bit of prodding indicated I had enough points for a 4 night stay.
With the changes that have happened at the base level of GoldPassport - good enough as Asia is off for a while - and I seem to have an abundance of ICHG points at the moment without a hope in hell of re-qualifying for Hyatt Platinum - let alone Diamond, so the hammer was put on that for the 4 nights.
So, a comparatively simple trip:
Map by the Great Circle Mapper -
http://www.gcmap.com
So off we go!