Recommend a Car Service?
 

I have to get to Chicago PD on S. Michigan from ORD for a meeting, then head back to the airport and on to LAX on a Monday afternoon in a couple of weeks.

Google offers me a choice of 24,000 limo listings in Chicago. Anyone have any recommendations for a reliable car service that get me to my destination off I-90 and back to the airport?

Luxury Limos in Orland Park.

My wife uses them all the time to go to/from O'Hare, Midway, and our home in Flossmoor (southern suburb). They'll pick you up at 4 am, anything.

Extremely reliable, never a problem of any kind, which cannot be said for many of their competitors.

(708) 460-8388 Tell them Carrie from Flossmoor sent you.

A suburban car service cannot take passengers from ORD or MDW to anywhere else in the city, only a city car service can.

Thanks for that news. . . How about a suggestion for a city car service?

O'Hare-Midway

http://www.ohare-midway.com/

I second O'Hare-Midway. Used to use Amm's and found the quality of the cars sometimes lacking. O-M is generally pretty reliable and the cars are always in good condition.

Is Dav-El a city service? They are also good, IMO.

I use www.chicago1limo.com for all my travel to the airport. They are pretty good and cheaply priced $45 + tip

O-M was very good, but their dispatch was a little disconnected . . . they could not find my reservation using my name, but had to have the confirmation number when I called from ORD. The cars were very clean, I would have appreciated a cold bottle of water, when I got in, like I get in Boston . . .

Both drivers were polite, and the car I took back to the airport had a power inverter so I could charge my computer without using the DC power cord.

Price was $63, plus fees of 5.50 and a $10 tip . . . I was happy with the service but this was pretty pricy. I think I will try chimoe's suggestion the next time.

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the help!

Dresden

O-M is our preferred limo vendor at work, so I've been riding with them for a few years now. They usually don't give me too much grief over not knowing my confirmation number when calling from ORD (and in some cases don't even ask for the number and just ask my name right away) but what really drives me nuts about them is always having to tell the drivers how to get back to my place. It makes me wonder if dispatch even tells them where to go aside from simply "Evanston." Trying to give directions to the driver from the back of a limo isn't something I really feel like doing after a trip.

Is it just me, or are the limo services going the way of the taxi companies?

I've been using a service for at least ten years. They've gone through a couple changes of ownership and are now part of a big conglomerate of some such. I've about had it with them. The drivers now tend to be Eastern European and very often have a poor command of English and a very poor sense of direction. They also tend to be smokers (not when I'm in the car, but the cars reek) and love their cell phones. They also drive one notch below taxis. I've complained more than once -- and when I asked them to send me an "experienced driver", they sent me a really nice guy, but he was about 75 and needed a cane to get around. I imagine that the dispatchers had a good laugh...

I had one guy yapping on the phone drive over the 290 on 25th Ave., get to North and 25th and ask me when the expressway was. I told him to keep going north. He then drove past the 190 exit on Mannheim and we ended up going in to the airport from Bessie Coleman. He thought he was going to the limo lot. Guess it's easy to forget you have a passenger when you're yapping on a cell phone the entire trip.

Another guy picked up one passenger and then me at ORD. The other guy's ride was pre-arranged by the organization that he was speaking to and he was informed that it was supposed to be a private car. Unfortunately, no one told the driver which building at Loyola Medical Center this guy was supposed to go to. And the driver had never been to Loyola before and wanted to drop the guy at the front door of the Hospital (plus he was already running a couple hours late from an international flight). The guy was speaking to the Medical School and had a brochure, so we went around the back of the Medical Center and finally found the right building. The guy was p-o'd, rightly so. I wasn't real happy because I shouldn't have had to give directions.

I don't mind directions for the last few blocks to my house. But, if I say "get to Ogden and Maple in Brookfield, by the Dunkin Donuts, I at least want the guy driving EAST from 294, not WEST, like one guy did.

My company wants me to use O-M, but they won't do shared rides south of ORD and their price south of ORD is superpremium. I've heard similar complaints about the quality of their drivers.

A friend of mine suggested Boston Coach. They are quite pricey, but they have an excellent website where you load all your information, including payment information, then do your bookings online. When you get to the airport, you just get out of the car, rather than fooling around trying to pay the guy. They are only single ride sedans, but they are supposed to be excellent for the price.

I suppose that if you have a regular driver who owns his or her own car, that is another option. My Dad did that in retirement and you can at least get consistency, but the trick is getting a good service that has backups in case your regular guy is booked.

So, I usually end up having Mrs. P1 drop me at the Kiss n Fly...

Mrs. 29813 and I are headed into ORD in August for a nice weekend. I have read through the posts and have a few quick questions.

1) What should I expect to pay for a cab from ORD to the Westin Chicago River North (60610)? If it makes a difference, we are due to land at 3:40pm.

2) Will the driver meet you at baggage or do you need to meet them outside?

3) Is there ever a break for booking the return at the time of the original reservation?

Thanks!

If you plan on taking a regular cab (non limo service) - there are always a plenty of them waiting outside of each baggage claim; no reservation would be necessary. Going from the Westin back to Ohare will be similar - you will probably be able to find one easily or have the hotel employees get one for you. Cost - I'd estimate $40 - $50 one way before tip?
Anyone else have a better estimate who takes this route more often than I?

just called these folks to take me to Hammond tom. I will report back

For what it's worth, I recommend Smart Car. I think their number is (312) 433-7627 (though the area code may have changed to 773).

Post 9/11, you now have to call your car service once your plane lands, and it will then be released from the holding pen (where limos and excess taxis all wait) and sent to the terminal. You meet your limo/car outside the terminal. Only if you pay significantly extra (about a $20 surcharge, last time I checked) will the driver meet you by baggage claim.

This new system has a few problems:
1. If you have to wait on hold when you call your car service, the limo doesn't know you've arrived and is stuck sitting in the holding pen while you're waiting outside the terminal. (Meanwhile, other arriving passengers are jumping in cabs and heading toward the city.)
2. If there are a lot of cars leaving the holding pen at the same time, it creates a traffic jam, and you're stuck waiting outside the terminal for your car. (And meanwhile, other arriving passengers are jumping in cabs and heading toward the city.)

In case you haven't figured it out, I've reduced my use of car services and increased my use of cabs. Fortunately, I live in a neighborhood where cabs are plentiful 24 hours a day, so even at 4 a.m. I can walk outside and have a cab to the airport within a few minutes. I realize not everyone is so lucky.

Do you have a web site for these guys?