Originally Posted by hiyosilverwings
Yeah, it's in 2-3 weeks. My mother-in-law doesn't get to travel much, has never seen Chicago, and I thought it might beat sitting in the terminal for 3-4 hours. And actually, to an out-of-towner, the L is an experience in itself, IMO. They are transiting MSP-ORD-LAX.
I will certainly defer to the local experts on this one, though. Just a trial balloon. Thanks for the advice. ^
If they're interested, my suggestion would be to standby to an earlier MSP-ORD flight to give themselves more time. You're about right at 30 minutes given that transit, though it could shrink if they get unlucky with the L, like just miss the train leaving ORD, wait 10 for the next one. If they got on a 10 or 11am out of MSP, they'd stretch their time to 1-1/2 hours or 2-1/2 hours. If they did 10, they'd be hitting the loop just in time for lunch. Time to either go up the Sears or catch a quick cab over to Michigan Ave for a little shopping.
I would say be heading to the L station about 2:00 before the flight to be safe (:05 to walk there and get downstairs, :45 for the ride, :10 in case just missed a train, gets you back to ORD about 1:00 early, plenty of time to get back over to T1 and clear security). Though if they miss their 5:05, there are more flights to LAX, so they could cut it closer if they really wanted to.