sammow

I will be arriving at ORD from HKG at around 2pm in late June. I am looking at booking a connecting flight from MDW departing at 7:05pm. Would this be doable? Or should I try for a later connection at MDW? I will be using public transport from ORD to MDW.

Thanks for your help

Adam1222

I assume this is two tickets. I would allow more than 5 hours if planning on using public transportation as it will take up to 2 hours on the train alone.

There are shuttles between the 2 for under $20 which is a far better idea.

84fiero

The train will be cheapest but most likely, though not always, the longest.

The shuttle services drive time would be about an hour outside of rush hour. However they normally only have a departure every hour, so it would take more than an hour unless you time it perfectly. And of course if you happen to just miss the pickup, you'll essentially be taking two hours to arrive at MDW.

The most expensive, but fastest, method is via taxi. The drive time should be about the same as the shuttle but of course you depart as soon as you arrive at the taxi, unlike the shuttle.

You may be starting to get into rush hour traffic, depending on if your flight is on time and how long it takes you to get to the ground transport area from the plane, so the shuttle or taxi drive times may be longer depending on actual traffic at the time, in which case the train may not be the longest time, or not by much.

If you want to be conservative, I'd plan on 2 hours of transit time - starting from when you have cleared immigration and customs and are in the ground transport area (not 2 hours from your flight landing time). You should be fine with any of the options assuming your flight is reasonably timely.

http://www.flychicago.com/OHare/EN/G...-Airports.aspx

http://www.omegashuttle.com/schedule2.htm

Good directions for using CTA rail

obscure2k

Please continue to follow this discussion in the FT Chicago Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

MessyEater

I presume that you are going to have to book this separately from your flight from HKG to ORD? I say this because while there are a few non-Southwest flights operating out of MDW, the big lure for most travelers trying this is some cheap Southwest flight. The problem is that Southwest does not do any interlining. You cannot buy a joint ticket on Southwest and any other airline.

While you could physically get to MDW in much less than 5 hours, the problem comes when something goes wrong with your international flight. It's not unheard of for such flights to be hours late and in some cases even a day late. Or flights may be cancelled and you may be rerouted via some slower connection.

If you miss your flight and your on-going flight is on the same reservation, you will be treated as a misconnect and the airline will try to accommodate you. If the on-going flight is on a separate reservation you will be treated as simply a no-show and, if your ticket in nonrefundable, you will lose the entire value of the ticket.

Plus you'll have to lug your own luggage between airports.

A lot of people try to create clever connections using online booking and end up with multiple reservations. Often everything goes well. But when a problem happens, they end up screwing themselves. Even if there is a fee, contact an experienced international travel agent and get them to set up a complete itinerary that will properly protect you in case of problems.

But, yes, if the plane really arrives at 2:00 pm and the ongoing flight leaves at 7:00 pm, you will have plenty of time to get between airports.

MessyEater

I know that some years ago, there were relatively cheap fares, but a few years ago all of the fares suddenly skyrocketed. Who runs between airports for less than $20 now days?

Omega Shuttle is $45.
Coach USA is $24.
A taxi is probably going to be $50 to $75.

Often1

If you are on separate tickets, you will not be connecting at CHI, even if arriving/departing the same airport which you aren't. I think that the 5 hours should be fine, but you should understand that if you no show for your xMDW flight, you will likely have your ticket cancelled and will be required to buy a new one at whatever price is then available.

sammow

Yes I will be travelling on 2 serparate tickets and I will be catching a Southwest flight.

How long should I allow to deplane (F class), clear immigration, customs and baggage claim if the flight arrives on time? Is 2pm a busy time of day at ORD?

milepig

The only F advantage is you'll be off the plane first and your bags MAY come off first. Or may not. I've waited as long as an hour for the 1st bags to come off or just a few minutes. The trip to MDW could be a nightmare. I'd take a cab, but you may be out of ORD as late as 3:30 which puts you into rush hour and it could take as long as 2 hours. To make this everything needs to be perfect. Did you price just adding the final destination to your intl ticket? Can you possible avoid checked bags?

sammow

I am travelling on an award. My final destination is Denver.

Southwest has a later departure at 8:45pm. Maybe I should book that? They did say they would reacommodate on a later flight if there was availiblity should I miss the 7:05pm depature due to a delay into ORD.

FindAWay

How did/will you purchase your SWA ticket?

Paid WGA fare?
Paid AT fare?
Paid BS fare?
Points reservation?
Standard/Freedom Award?

This could actually be very important and give you much, much more flexibility because the ability to no-show or cancel without any cost may apply.

Specifically, if your SWA ticket is a points reservation and you no-show, then your points are simply refunded to your account. If your SWA ticket is an AT or a BS fare, then showing up late and trying for the next flight by flying standby may not be too difficult (depends on load).

SWA has policies that differ from most legacy carriers on many of these matters and you may be able to use them to your advantage.

G-CIVC

I'm a regular on the 806. The lines are terrible at immigration and customs (the QR flight arrives at roughly the same time). I have never been able to reach landside in less than 75 minutes…then you have to bear in mind that if you want to take the L it is another hop on the monorail to T1/2/3.

Disarray

Personally, I would also consider how much luggage I have when deciding whether to take the L or some other method between the airports. If using the L you'll need to take the Blue Line downtown and transfer to the Orange Line. Lake station maybe? I haven't done so in a couple of years, but if I remember correctly the Blue Line is in the bowels of the station and the Orange Line is elevated. One must take several escalators/flights of stairs to get from one platform to the other. The escalators are routinely broken and are used as stairs. The trains themselves are designed to accomodate people not luggage. Once you get close to rush hour you will be facing packed trains and cranky commuters. I wouldn't attempt it with more than a rollerboard and a backpack but I'm sure others have done it.

The 2pm - 7:05pm hinges on your inbound arriving on time. If you hit the gate at 2pm you'll in all likelyhood make it but you don't have much buffer if anything goes wrong.

As someone who has done both JFK/LGA and ORD/MDW transfers multiple times -- neither is a picnic, but I find the JFK/LGA to be quicker.

XLR26

I must've gotten lucky because the one time I took this flight (Last Spring), it took maybe 15 minutes...tops.

To the OP: I'd keep the 7pm flight. Conservative time estimates:

20 min from Inter'l terminal to the Blue Line station.
50 min Blue Line to Clark/Lake station (transfer to Orange line)
40 min Orange Line to MDW
10 min walk from station to security
20 min to get through security and walk to gate

toomanybooks

I would take the later flight. Much less stress.

Not sure I would trust that they will put you on the later flight. Of course, they might, but it's not 100%.

Why not spend one night in Chicago and fly out the next morning?