ursine1

The best AM alternatives are the McDonald's and the Starbucks on Cicero. Especially now that they've expanded that Starbucks and made the drive thru a more viable option. (It's still kinda difficult to get into/out of when coming from the North though.)

toomanybooks

No way on earth MDW is worse than LGA. Absolutely ludicrous to suggest that.

No one with any sense parks at MDW. Tons of private alternatives very close for about $9 a day. Orange Line to the city takes 30 minutes, costs $2.50, runs every few minutes. Security lines are being massively expanded.

pinniped

Ah yes, the Midway-hate thread that I sort of lost me from the point someone suggested O'hare was better.

Any survey that ranks Midway the worst when the list of candidates includes LGA simply has no credibility to me. LGA was a complete sh**show last week, to the point where people had to walk to the airport from over a mile away. Why? It rained. Not really that hard even. It just rained, off and on in NYC all of last week. I think at one point I actually used an umbrella for 5 minutes, and this created messes that started Wednesday and stretched through the weekend.

I preemptively refunded my WN nonstop out of LGA and booked a United one out of EWR. United was about 45 minutes late. WN was 4 hours late, sitting on the taxiway for 3 hours, and had to refuel in Indiana. Many other ex-LGA flights were canceled. EWR seemed to be functioning reasonably normally, with some modest delays here and there.

By contrast, MDW has been the airport I head *to* when bad weather kills my AA or UA flight out of ORD. (Although to ORD's credit, it's usually a severe thunderstorm or snowstorm involved.)

Peoriaman1

Once I decided to hit the McDonald's in the Oasis on 294 on my way to Midway for an early flight. Super convenient.... But I couldn't get past the nagging feeling that the security line was growing with each passing minute. It'll be nice to see the improvement when the new security area expansion is finished.

lougord99

ursine1

Complete conjecture: I bet the new security setup will include that unnecessary overly-complicated tray delivery conveyor-belt system, that someone is likely making a lot of money off of the sale, manufacture and installation of, and from which a not-insignificant portion of that money will somehow find it's way into some official(s) pocket(s).

glg

I'm really disappointed about the loss of MDW-EWR. I often need to be in Jersey, where it makes no sense to use LGA (outside of IRROPS). Not looking forward to having to use ORD instead.

Peoriaman1

LOL Just like shopping at Target.... There are 24 registers available, but only two are open, with a dozen shoppers in line at each one.

I would assume the security expansion involves more lanes. Its certainly going to be much wider than before.... With my luck of course there will only be one lane open when TSA opens at 4AM and the line will have 600 people already.

My employer is a subcontractor for the project. A sub of a sub, actually. Unfortunately I'm not involved with it at all so I don't get to see the drawings, etc.

pinniped

I hate that system. Part of it may be that passengers aren't used to it yet...I've had someone get pissed because they thought I was going in front of them...but part of it is that it definitely seems like a bad process if you need two trays.

Just seems like an unnecessary expense. The loading of the trays was never the bottleneck to begin with: that's still at the scanning process itself.

ElmhurstNick

I suspect you'd have to wander to one of the lodging establishments north of Midway to have an experience. Great is probably in the eye of the beholder.

pinniped

On the plus side, I would think it would be very hard to find yourself stranded *inside the airport* overnight. How much snow does it take to stop the CTA from running?

The main US airport I worried about getting stuck in the terminal overnight was Denver when there was no hotel and no rail connected to the terminal. Hotels were several miles away at the closest and I could see that one road in and out of there getting shut down when a big blizzard hit. Now with both a hotel and a better transit connection to the city, I would think those odds are a bit lower than they were. Although again, I don't really know what type of snow it takes to shut down a train.

I would think with Midway, you could at least make your way to a hotel - either right nearby or downtown at the worst.

ursine1

The orange line doesn't run 24 hours, fyi. It stops for a couple/several hours after I believe 1am depending on the day of the week. So you'd need to make it our before then.

Putnik

Frozen Home Run Inn is actually better than their restaurant pizza. I've buying their frozen pizza for years and a couple years ago went to their restaurant location in Darien. The pizza was not that good.

lougord99

I wanted to say how much I like Fast Park ( https://www.thefastpark.com/airport-...ago-midway-mdw ) at MDW. It is on the corner of Cicero and Archer with an entrance on both streets.

I have parked 4 times in the last 3 months. Parking is in a heated garage. You are told where to park and the shuttle bus is there waiting for you. Shuttle bus promptly leaves for airport. On pickup the bus was waiting for me twice and I didn’t wait for the bus more than 2 minutes the other times. After the first person gets on the bus, the driver hits a timer and after 2 minutes leaves for the garage, even if you are only person on bus. Bus drops you off at your car.

Parking is $11 per day which is $4 less than economy lot. I would use these guys if they were $4 more than economy lot.

Peoriaman1

Cool, I'll have to give them a try! I've been using the Economy Garage for years (or more accurately, since they built it) mainly because of its convenience. I approach the airport from the northwest (IE, 55th & Central) so the garage is the first thing I come to. Fast Park looks like its almost as convenient.

Midway Park Saver gets recommended here often, but for me, that's all the way at the furthest corner of the airport. Southeast of the terminal. So I've never tried them and probably never will.

My only complaint about the economy garage is that the busses sometimes run on random schedules. A big delay, then there will be six busses in ten minutes.