Tag Archives for chicago o’hare.
United is expanding at Chicago O’Hare and increasingly American is the number two carrier there. Years ago the city had a sprawling international route network, selling flights to Moscow and Delhi. Now American’s flying from Chicago is mostly domestic.
At an internal meeting earlier in the month led by Chief Commercial Officer Vasu Raja, an employee asked about the draw down in Chicago flying and in particular why American isn’t flying from Chicago to Hawaii.
I don’t love Chicago O’Hare, but when I book an O’Hare connection I usually think, “at least I can get Tortas Frontera.” And I’ll pick up a sandwich (choriqueso is my go-to, followed by the pepito) even though there’s free lounge food available. I’ll gladly pay for something good enough that I would eat it even if it wasn’t inside of an airport.
There need to be some licensed TGI Fridays and plenty of quick serve places in an airport, to put out a lot of food to travelers with varying palates. But not every place needs to do that.
American Airlines has re-opened its Flagship business class lounges at New York JFK, Miami and Los Angeles. Flagship First Dining for long haul first class passengers has reopened at JFK and Miami. However the lounges in Dallas and Chicago remain closed.
Fortunately American Airlines is now talking up a target for their re-opening.
One man lived inside Chicago O’Hare for three months. Like a Richard Linklater film though, Allison Robicelli had just one night, and she made the most of it.
He spent October 19, 2020 – January 16, 2021 in the airport because he was afraid of Covid-19. He had flown to O’Hare but didn’t continue onto India as he’d planned. He relied on the kindess of strangers who picked up meals for him, and he talked to passengers about Buddhism and Hinduism.
The man was charged with felony criminal trespass for his time in a restricted area of an airport. And he’s now been acquitted, without having to submit a defense.
Many of us have avoided airports during the Covid-19 pandemic. While air travel is probably safer than most indoor environments, much of what you might do at a destination is off the table. And airports themselves generally lack HEPA air filtration, and there’s often too much congregation at security checkpoints and gate areas.
Which makes it such a strange choice, to me, that one man afraid of the novel coronavirus, decided to live at Chicago O’Hare for the past 3 months. The 36 year old California man has been arrested for criminal trespass.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg has no particular experience in transportation policy or running a large bureaucracy, but he did propose to his husband at Chicago O’Hare – though it wasn’t because of any particular love of aviation. Still, O’Hare has already changed its twitter profile and United Airlines is memorializing gate B5 online.
The largest U.S. domestic airline is already a significant player in both the Houston and Chicago markets. They’re doubling down by extending service to a second airport in each city. Just as they’re taking American Airlines head on in Miami, they’ll be taking on United (Houston Intercontinental) and United and American (Chicago O’Hare) at those major carrier hubs.
After all the scare stories, Customs and Border Protection acknowledged “most of the fake IDs were for college-age students.” Isn’t the biggest risk then that someone could be tasked with buying booze for a non-socially distanced rager as colleges open this fall?
According to Department of Transportation statistics American Airlines is number 8 out of 8 airlines in baggage mishandling. They view this as a competitive disadvantage in the Chicago market where they lag United (#4 of 8). So they’re working to improve their baggage reliability statistics. Whether the bags make it to you dry seems like it may be another matter.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
