I'm flying to Chicago in a few weeks to meet up with some friends who are also flying in.

I'm flying in on Delta (Terminal 3?)

My friends are flying in on British Airways from London (Terminal 5?)

It'd be best if we could arrange a place to meet before hand, as they will have to pay international roaming rates to call me on my cell phone.

Any easy suggestions on where we can aim to meet up? They land about 1 hour before I do, but they have to deal with customs.

We are taking the El into the city. So perhaps something along one of our routes from our various terminals to the train that has chairs to wait at.

Thanks for any suggestions,
Duane-O

Welcome to FT. I am moving this thread over to our Chicago Forum. Please continue to follow it there.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Unless your INTL, Delta will be T3. BA will be T5.

Several options. With immigration/customs you might be sprung at about the same time?

So, you can go to them:

Take the airport train from T3 to T5 (one stop) and meet them at the exit from Immigration. All pax come out of one of two doors and the door for their flight will be posted. There are only these two possibles routes so you can't miss them. Both exits have seats close by (sort of under the escalator) so I'd tell them to wait for you there if they arrive first.

The second option is to have them meet you at the baggage claim for your flight. ORD let's anyone into the area, and I've found this is the clearest place to meet even if you don't have checked bags. They'd need to take the train from T5 to T3 and then find their way down two levels to baggage claim (not hard, really)

If you don't want to fuss with the above, another option would be the Lobby of the airport Hilton. If you're taking the EL into the city you'll need to be in that direction in any case. From T3 you can just follow the signs to the Hilton. You'll go to the baggage claim level, down a little bit more and then you'll be on a moving sidewalk. From T5 they'll need to take the train to T3 or T2 and then follow the signs from there.

You could also meet at the entrance to the CTA station, but I don't remember any place to sit there.

Since they'll have had the longer flight and be jet lagged I'd suggest the first option, that you meet them in T5.

Finally, don't discount the option of a quick phone call. My carrier charges 99 cents a minute, so they could call you for $2.00 or less. I would think that would be worth the peace of mind. (Remind them to check with their carrier to be sure they have worldwide service, my carrier required that the option be activated.) At ORD you can make phone calls immediately after landing, but you can't use the phone within immigration/customs. I've had no problems making a quick call to say "I'm here" within that window of time.

Thanks for the various options, thats exactly what I was looking for.

We text message either other quite frequently. While I'm visiting them in London a text message counts as 2 against my plan, but is a reasonable way of communicating. I'm thinking that will be useful in this situation as well, and hopefully it's as economical for them.

Again, thanks for the detail in your post.

Duane-O

I must take this opportunity to acknowledge your selfless, quite detailed contribution to a FT inquiry. This is a great place to seek help. ^ ^ ^

It was my pleasure. Fellow FTers have answered similar questions I had. I know ORD like the back of my hand and it took five minutes to write the message - which explains the typos.

Just FYI: several Starbux have started to open in the T1-T3 baggage claim areas, making them viable meeting spots. The Hilton's lobby is still the best choice, as it's closer than any of the terminal to the CTA entrance.

Within the CTA station, there are benches on the platform and the little children's train by the fare machines. Cute, but not something I'd count on.

The only issue with the CTA station is that it has a way of being hotter than Hades down there - I try to limit my wait to waiting for the train to depart.