Weather Happens
In this week’s eFlyer, I wrote about US News & World Report’s “airport misery” index. Based solely on delays and high passenger loads–which themselves contribute to delays, as anyone who has stood in an airplane aisle waiting for people to find a place to put their carry-on knows–they ranked Chicago O’Hare (ORD) “most miserable.”
I was in a mood to agree, having spent way too much time at O’Hare myself recently. At the same time, I know that it’s one of the great airports, ranked by GT readers as Best in North America. I have to say that United’s Red Carpet Club certainly helped smooth out my delay experience–I got work done, and then joined some friendly fellow passengers to Tampa at the bar.
And I have to say the delays weren’t all Chicago’s fault. Initially flights were backed up from a snowfall earlier in the day, but when that traffic cleared, the next delay was due to a ground hold for stormy weather in Tampa.
I have no one to blame but myself for choosing to transit O’Hare in midwinter. Weather happens. Unless you live there, the rest of us choose O’Hare as a connecting point because it’s such a massive hub and we can get just about any connection we need there; and sometimes, as in my case, we choose it because the fares are better than those for some of our other options.
I must admit that as I was in my sixth hour of waiting around, I started thinking that I had been penny-wise and pound-foolish for not spending the extra $500 to fly out of the South. That moment passed, though. Misery is in the eye of the beholder, and I’d rather be stuck at an airport that has a lot of flight options, plenty of bars and clubs and dining and shopping, than at an airport that is “less miserable” by virtue of having not so many flights and not so many passengers–and therefore fewer amenities to amuse them.
If you get stuck at Chicago and you can’t take it anymore, there’s even a hotel, the O’Hare Hilton, right in the terminal that has day rates. On my outbound flight, I’d booked myself a long connecting time to allow for weather, and had booked myself into the Hilton for the day. When I had to change my flight and wasn’t going to get a chance to use the Hilton, I called at the last minute and they didn’t even charge me for the cancellation. So I’ve stopped my grumbling; over all, O’Hare treated me well.
–Mary Hunt, editor, eFlyer
