My dh is on a regular gig every week to Schaumburg, outside of Chicago, and is flying in and out of Midway. Yes, we know ORD is closer, but for FF reasons, he is flying in and out of Midway. (It sucks on the home side too, as he's flying out of a further airport from our home, but Delta doesn't fly direct to Chicago out of EWR.)

His flight home on Thursday evenings is at 7 PM. Last week, he left the office at 4 PM, thinking that would be plenty of time to get to the airport, but the trip during rush hour took 2 hours! It has been suggested to him, that instead of bringing the Hertz car back to Midway, he drop it at an HLE in or near Schaumburg then take the train to the airport.

I know the Orange line goes to Midway, but if anyone could give us more specific advise as to where he should get on the train, as close to Schaumburg as possible, we will then be able to figure out which local Hertz location to return the car. If you could please let us know any other details about the train ride he should know (transfers, timing, link to appropriate schedule), it would be very much appreciated.

The train is unlikely to help him. The Orange Line only runs to the loop. You'd need to get from Schaumburg to the loop and that's probably worse then getting to MDW.

What route is he taking from Schaumburg to MDW? We may be able to help on that.

I'm sure it's however his GPS is directing him. Sorry I can't be more specific, but if you have suggestions as to the best route which might not be the way mapquest would direct, that would be great.

I spoke to the concierge at his hotel and she said the only way she could think of would be for him to take the Blue line out of Rosemont to the Orange line to Midway.

Public transportation to/from Schaumburg is a royal pain.

My advice is to can MDW and use ORD, even if it's not as ideal for FF purposes. Doing what he went through every week, especially if it's late afternoon, will get really old.

He can sit 2 hours in a car, or 2 extra hours on a plane. It's a "pay-me-now-or-pay-me-later" sort of situation.

I agree with the above. I'm actually surprised that the trip in rush ONLY took 2 hours!! You really can't get to MDW from Schaumburg. (there is a reason why its called the "land beyond O'Hare"). It would probably be faster to get to MKE than MDW.

Yes it does (well, NW does). NW1412 is direct EWR-MDW. It's just not non-stop.

(Note the sarcasm).

Well, you could do this, but.....

You first need to get to Rosemont. You could drop off the rental at ORD and take the rental car shuttle bus to the CTA station in the airport. Or, I guess you could drop of the rental somewhere closer to Schaumburg and cab it to Rosemont.

So, we're probably talking.

1. Drive from Schaumburg to ORD - 20 minutes? Probably closer to 30?
2. Turn in car, shuttle ORD then walk to CTA - 20 minutes?
3. Blue line to Clark/Lake - 45 minutes
4. Orange line to MDW - 30 minutes
5. Walk to gate - 15 minutes?

Total time approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes, if the CTA cooperates.

Wait a sec, I just reread this. You want Delta miles and EWR is your home airport? Use Continental to ORD. That'll work until their alliance ends, which isn't until October or November

You could reutrn the car at ORD and take a shuttle bus to MDW.

Omega Airport Shuttle runs the service

www.omegashuttle.com. The afternoon trips are scheduled to take 60 minutes, so that would be somewhat faster than the blue/orange line option, but only run once per hour. The shuttle will be subject to rush hour traffic, and I have no idea how reliable that 1 hour trip time actually is. The ORD-MDW fee is $16.

Thank you for all your tips. I'm forwarding this thread to him. I most agree with the options that have him going EWR-ORD with a stop, maybe these few weeks that are already scheduled LGA-MDW will convince him that it is occasionally worth taking a flight with a stop.

As for the Continental suggestion, I knew about that, but his corporate travel computer (based on company policy) seems to have effectively banned CO unless it is the only airline that goes where you need to go. Even to the point where a continental flight was $9 less than an AA flight, and yet was still out of policy. Crazy!

I just did the Schaumburg to MDW run with a co-worker last Friday night in the rain, leaving at 4:10pm. We rolled up to MDW about 5:45. and that was in Friday night inbound traffic, with rain, so pretty much the worst of all situations (plus I went cross-country from I-290 and Mannheim to MDW to avoid some jams and keep moving). In theory, you could make the run in about 60 minutes if there was no traffic. The preferred route for me would be I-290 to I-294 South to I-55 North, exit at Cicero Ave. Problem here is that the ramp from 290 to 294 is awful in rush hour. Everything else isn't too bad, although I-55 can be slow -- an alternate would be to exit I-55 at First Ave. and follow that around to Archer / 55th Street. But the First Ave. bridges at I-55 are now messed up. Welcome to Chicago...

GPS and various maps will say I-290 to Cicero Ave. Problem is, the 290 from Mannheim to Cicero can be ugly at any time of the day and I'm not sure that Cicero Ave. is a picnic.

I went cross country only because I know the area and my time included some slow residential areas and a major delay on First Ave. over I-55.

Bottom line is that I would never recommend MDW to Schaumburg unless you can plan to travel mid-day. I told my co-worker that his time is much more valuable than the little bit of savings on Southwest.

As someone else noted, you could drive to ORD and grab the Blue Line into the city, then jump off at Clark and Lake and transfer up to the Orange Line. Not sure that it would save much time, if anything.

The one nice thing about the DL / NW merger is that you do get a lot more options if you don't mind connections. Granted, a connection in ATL or MSP isn't very much fun, but think about the miles and segments... this is FT after all!

Is JFK - ORD an option?

JFK - ORD is only not an option because I absolutely refuse to drive there. lol
Actually, since he really hates traveling with stops, his solution has been to just leave earlier. If he leaves by 2:45-3 PM, it only takes him 45 min - 1 hour to get to MDW. Thanks all for the input.

I agree with the suggestion of taking the blue line to the Loop and switch to the Orange Line at Clark/Lake. Not the most efficient, but it could be done within two hours or so (at least from the point the car is dropped off).