yeah, driving on a regular basis doesn't appear to be a great option. I checked Cleveland, Buffalo and Pittsburgh and they are all right at 2 hours from Erie. It would be a problem on the return as the last flight of the day from each of these airports to Chicago requires me to leave work around 2 or 3 pm which will probably be unacceptable when I could stay to 5 pm and catch the connection back to Pittsburgh and be home at the same time.

Looks like I'll just have to suck it up unless someone more senior wants to avoid US as well. Then I can follow his lead

Also UA/US is about 3x's more expensive ($400 vs $1200+).

Kiss 1K goodbye