sxr71

I want to be as nice as possible about my observations as someone who flies out of ORD regularly.

Terminal 1:

1. The security takes a minimum of 30 minutes and can take 45-60 minutes pretty easily. The priority line merges with the regular as some kind of sick joke. I feel bad for the people who pay $40 for "priority access"

2. That C concourse is the bane of all airport travel. It was "cool" when it came out but it's just a huge hassle. I clench my teeth when I find my flight is leaving from the C concourse. The extra time to get there is just one part of the issue.

3. The food. At least the B concourse has Wolfgang Puck. The bartender there is great. He will greet you take your order and you'll get your food fast. Then comes C concourse. It's very hard for me to be polite when describing the options there. Does everything there have to be food that will give you diabetes or heart disease? To add insult to injury the utter lackadaisical attitude of everyone on that side will cause people to miss flights. Near the let side gates you have McDonalds, some pizza, some hot dog and some bar. At each of those the staff take their sweet time to ring up orders, stare at the ceiling and take an eternity to acknowledge your presence. At the bar there the bartender pretended to be busy for 10 minutes after which I had to walk out or risk missing my flight. I ended up eating some premade chicken salad on croissant as the healthiest option close to me gate. It was some prepared thing from Maryland that was over salty and disgusting. Why they can't sell something made locally is a mystery.

Terminal 3:

1. Security takes usually less than 20 minutes. Priority is usually even faster. There are multiple actual security points.

2. The layout is one created by a reasonable intelligent human being. There are gates that are further but nothing is at the other end of the world like in terminal 1.

3. The food. This is night and day IMHO. Starting from the food court with frontera, burrito beach and the smoothie place right up the gates there are pretty good options. I try to eat heathy but man that Rocky Mountain chocolate factory is worth the hit for sure. Right by the gate you get healthy options. The bar by the H gates has people who will greet you as soon as you get close. The refrigerated case has all sort of great options like fresh cut fruits or fresh cut pineapple, quinoa salad, three bean salad, artichoke heart pasta salad, lentil salad. You'll be able to get one of those and a drink in 60 seconds and walk to your gate.

The overall experience is so great in comparison to terminal 1 I switched airlines. Terminal 1 is a excercise in frustration and the risk of missing your flight trying to board with something in your stomach is just too high. Granted the United Tapas box beats any AA food hands down but the experience getting to the point is just too unnecessarily harrowing.