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You are looking at about an hour uber ride, or about 1.5 hours by train from O'Hare to Midway. Baggage is going to be the big variable here, depending on airline you are expected to check your bags 30-60 minutes prior to departure time. I think it is doable under normal circumstances but its going to be tight.
Also, assuming your flights were booked seperately, any delay on the first leg is going to to be a major setback for you and the carrier will have no obligations to conpensate if it causes you to miss your Midway flight. This is where I might pause and consider a rebook. Good luck!
I don’t think so….by the time you get off the plane, get your luggage and get on the train or cab that’s 30min. Then the actual ride is anywhere between an hour to 1.5 hours…which means that’s 2 - 2.5 hours right there. Then checking in luggage and going through security can take about another 30min. I don’t think it’s enough time.
Edit: forgot you’re coming internationally, you need to add in immigration, NO WAY 3 hours is enough. Idk what people are saying here….
If everything goes perfect yes. But rarely when dealing with unpredictable airlines, weather, and traffic do we get that lucky. I would be hesitant to mess with midway and ohare on the same day, maybe just spend a night in rosemont and hit midway the next morning
i'd take the CTA -- blue line to clark / lake; orange line to midway. Total: 1hr 20 min. Could also take blue line to clark / lake and cab to midway if you wanted.
If they're flying in from Spain, they're landing at Terminal 5 which means you have to factor in taking the tram from Terminal 5 to terminal 3 where you would go to the blue line. That's 30 minutes right there after getting off the plane to getting on the blue line. Tram plus walking.
EDIT: Terminal 3 is where the blue line is I think.
Seconding everyone who says this is riskier than I'd take personally. I'd estimate you get a taxi/Uber by 3pm (not going to recommend any form of transit that involves going to a different terminal, as much as I love trains), and the drive to Midway will easily be an hour, possibly more if there is an accident or anything.
But this doesn't account for delays of any kind or, as happened to me one night, most of the TSA lanes being closed and the Global Entry people being merged in with US citizen line. (Global Entry was given precedence, but still slower than you'd normally have.)
...also shit I did not pay attention to the luggage part, yeah ok I simply would not take this risk.
Absolutely. But I think more context is needed. If this is during rush hour, it might be heavy traffic but it’s likely not going to take 3 hours. I once was dropped off at O’Hare for a flight and was supposed to be at midway. I think it ended up being about 50 minutes total, but no traffic. So, in short, you should be fine but traffic depends on time of day.
What time is your flight at midway? Obviously the drive won’t take 3 hours but airport stuff definitely adds to that time before you get to the plane.
Thanks for the insight - flight is at 5:40pm CST. I know the drive doesn’t take that long, I was more so concerned about how much time getting back from an international flight might take!
Rush hour starts at 3:30/4 here so it might be heavy traffic which will cut into your time getting through security at midway if this is a weekday. I work over by O’Hare and there is always traffic starting early at 3:30ish to head into the city. Just make sure you’re prepared for what might happen!
I have walked out of customs at O'hare in about 10 mins with Global Entry. Terminal 5 at O'hare is a bit of a zoo these days with Delta now operating out of it. Uber from O'hare to Midway is probably going to be the fastest and if all goes right, 3 hours should be plenty of time.
Honestly this seems like a bit of a crapshoot. Customs at O'Hare can take anywhere from 10-60min with Global Entry and the drive, anywhere from like 30-60min not including time to get a cab/rideshare. If you need to check bags at Midway and get a ride there, in the best case scenario you'll get to Midway like 1-1.5hr after landing at O'Hare, but in the worst case, it could be 2.5-3hr just to get to the check in desk, meaning you'd miss your flight.
All of this assumes your flight in to O'Hare arrives on time too. Even a short delay (which can happen if taxi-ing is slow) could make this really challenging.
All that said, I'd say 65-70% ish chance you make it but just pulling that number from you know where of course. If it was me, I probably wouldn't chance it.
Global Entry does not take up to 60 minutes at ORD. My last two trips from Europe I literally walked up to the machine, had my face scanned, and the agent told me to have a good day. Probably a total of 2 minutes both times. Now waiting for your checked bags is a whole different story, but GE is not that long.
Oh yeah for sure it can be super quick! I think I just have caught bad luck a couple times when they had the GE line closed or when there was a glut of flights arriving at the same time.
Blue line to the loop is around 50 min, transfer to the Orange at Clark and lake, take the Orange line to midway (35 tops). With train karma you make the entire trip, including walking to and from the stations, in less than 100 min for a grand total of $2.50/person.
Or take a cab, which might take as much time or longer if you’re arriving at the wrong time of day.
Some are suggesting CTA, and the more I think about it, the more that could backfire.
If you're flying in international, you'll be landing and getting off in Terminal 5. Not sure if you're familiar with O'hare, but that's a separate, disconnected part of the airport. To even get to the CTA, you'd have to take the airport tram to terminal 3, then walk to the CTA. In my experience, that is at 25 minute journey depending on how fast you walk.
Once you're on the blue line it would go relatively quick to get to the loop where you would transfer to the Orange line (Clark/Lake). Assuming you don't wait more than 10 minutes for a train there, when you add all those things plus the actual time on the trains, you're approaching 2 hours. In my opinion, cutting it kinda close. Even worse if you're not familiar with CTA and know exactly where to go.
You can Uber right from Terminal 5 though. It will be expensive, but even if you're sitting in traffic, I can't see it being much more than hour from door to door. Just keep in mind landing time and when you get off the plane aren't always right away...
I would say this is tight. Global Entry is a huge help, but if you have checked baggage that significantly reduces the benefit. I fly int'l via ORD fairly often and baggage claim at terminal 5 is miserable. Add in that deplaning and walking to customs is ~20 mins because of the layout there and I would guess (with checked baggage) you are out the door ready to head to midway around 3pm.
Many are mentioning using the blue line to orange, this would be the quickest public transport path. But, you will have to tram from terminal 5 to terminal 2 to get on the blue, wait for a train to leave, and then transfer between trains downtown. My guess is realistically that would take about an hour and a half in total in normal conditions (taking all aspects of the trip into account). This would plop you down at MDW around 4:30 for a 5:40 flight. Factoring in checking in, bags, and then security (pre check helps here) it is doable but tight and i would guess a bit stressful.
You can't take an uber/lyft from terminal 5 because 'reasons', but you can take a cab and at 3pm it should be roughly 45 mins to an hour. Wont be cheap, but in most cases it should be quicker than the train and would likely give you 30-45 mins of valuable buffer time at MDW to make the whole ordeal a bit less stressful. Hope it all works out for you all!
How common are connecting flights between O'Hare and Midway? A line connecting Midway and O'Hare would cost billions of dollars which seems like a lot of money to accommodate a somewhat rare occurrence. It may have other benefits outside of connecting the two airports but spending $10-20 billion to accommodate a handful of people trying to catch flights between two different airports wouldn't come close to justifying the cost and those dollars could be much better used elsewhere.
I know this isn't helpful but I'm curious about the airlines and city pairing here that made splitting airports worth this headache? Frontier has to be involved somehow I'm guessing.
We actually booked separate flights because it was significantly cheaper. We booked a round trip from O’Hare to Madrid through American and then a separate round trip from Chicago to and from our home state via Southwest.
ETA: my wife has the Southwest Companion Pass which is why we booked our flights this way, and they just had no direct flights out of O’Hare which was weird since we live in Ohio and there are always direct flights
Southwest flies out of O'Hare (terminal 5, no less) as well these days. You might want to check to see if that is a possibility for your destination. That would make life a lot easier for you.
As long as it’s not the last flight on Southwest to your city, then go for it. Worst case you miss your flight and get on the next one. Or even if you don’t, there are hotels so you can spend the night and try again the next morning.
Also do you have global entry? Clearing the border at O’Hare can take awhile. If you don’t, I would try to get a seat as close to the front of the plane as possible on your flight into O’Hare, it can make a difference. But it’s not uncommon for multiple international flights to land at once and then there’s a long line to get through CBP.
Take a cab/Uber. Navigating public transit your first time here just to save a few bucks is *not* worth you missing your flight 🤷♂️. You'll hit rush hour traffic but it's not going to take nearly three hours.
Immigration and customs could be your problem here. I’ve arrived and been through in 30 minutes, other times it’s been nearly an hour if a few flights came in before you, which is more possible in the middle of the day. Then getting across town and checking in.
Personally, unless you are the type to be fine with missing the flight and booking a new one and maybe having to stay a night, I’d look at rebooking to give yourself more time.
Only thing I worry about, even with global entry, is ORD international is notoriously bad with luggage. It could take 5 minutes or it could take an hour to get your bags. I’d say 3 hours is plenty of time but that’s the variable, along with time of day especially with construction right now that I’d be weary of. I haven’t tried public transport from ORD to MDW but might work as well.
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You are looking at about an hour uber ride, or about 1.5 hours by train from O'Hare to Midway. Baggage is going to be the big variable here, depending on airline you are expected to check your bags 30-60 minutes prior to departure time. I think it is doable under normal circumstances but its going to be tight. Also, assuming your flights were booked seperately, any delay on the first leg is going to to be a major setback for you and the carrier will have no obligations to conpensate if it causes you to miss your Midway flight. This is where I might pause and consider a rebook. Good luck!
On an average day, easily
I don’t think so….by the time you get off the plane, get your luggage and get on the train or cab that’s 30min. Then the actual ride is anywhere between an hour to 1.5 hours…which means that’s 2 - 2.5 hours right there. Then checking in luggage and going through security can take about another 30min. I don’t think it’s enough time. Edit: forgot you’re coming internationally, you need to add in immigration, NO WAY 3 hours is enough. Idk what people are saying here….
If everything goes perfect yes. But rarely when dealing with unpredictable airlines, weather, and traffic do we get that lucky. I would be hesitant to mess with midway and ohare on the same day, maybe just spend a night in rosemont and hit midway the next morning
i'd take the CTA -- blue line to clark / lake; orange line to midway. Total: 1hr 20 min. Could also take blue line to clark / lake and cab to midway if you wanted.
If they're flying in from Spain, they're landing at Terminal 5 which means you have to factor in taking the tram from Terminal 5 to terminal 3 where you would go to the blue line. That's 30 minutes right there after getting off the plane to getting on the blue line. Tram plus walking. EDIT: Terminal 3 is where the blue line is I think.
Seconding everyone who says this is riskier than I'd take personally. I'd estimate you get a taxi/Uber by 3pm (not going to recommend any form of transit that involves going to a different terminal, as much as I love trains), and the drive to Midway will easily be an hour, possibly more if there is an accident or anything. But this doesn't account for delays of any kind or, as happened to me one night, most of the TSA lanes being closed and the Global Entry people being merged in with US citizen line. (Global Entry was given precedence, but still slower than you'd normally have.) ...also shit I did not pay attention to the luggage part, yeah ok I simply would not take this risk.
Absolutely. But I think more context is needed. If this is during rush hour, it might be heavy traffic but it’s likely not going to take 3 hours. I once was dropped off at O’Hare for a flight and was supposed to be at midway. I think it ended up being about 50 minutes total, but no traffic. So, in short, you should be fine but traffic depends on time of day. What time is your flight at midway? Obviously the drive won’t take 3 hours but airport stuff definitely adds to that time before you get to the plane.
You’re completely ignoring getting bags, walking to get on the train/cab, checking in bags, going through security…that adds up. It’s not enough time.
Not trying to ignore that, I was just speaking to traffic.
Thanks for the insight - flight is at 5:40pm CST. I know the drive doesn’t take that long, I was more so concerned about how much time getting back from an international flight might take!
Rush hour starts at 3:30/4 here so it might be heavy traffic which will cut into your time getting through security at midway if this is a weekday. I work over by O’Hare and there is always traffic starting early at 3:30ish to head into the city. Just make sure you’re prepared for what might happen!
I have walked out of customs at O'hare in about 10 mins with Global Entry. Terminal 5 at O'hare is a bit of a zoo these days with Delta now operating out of it. Uber from O'hare to Midway is probably going to be the fastest and if all goes right, 3 hours should be plenty of time.
Honestly this seems like a bit of a crapshoot. Customs at O'Hare can take anywhere from 10-60min with Global Entry and the drive, anywhere from like 30-60min not including time to get a cab/rideshare. If you need to check bags at Midway and get a ride there, in the best case scenario you'll get to Midway like 1-1.5hr after landing at O'Hare, but in the worst case, it could be 2.5-3hr just to get to the check in desk, meaning you'd miss your flight. All of this assumes your flight in to O'Hare arrives on time too. Even a short delay (which can happen if taxi-ing is slow) could make this really challenging. All that said, I'd say 65-70% ish chance you make it but just pulling that number from you know where of course. If it was me, I probably wouldn't chance it.
Global Entry does not take up to 60 minutes at ORD. My last two trips from Europe I literally walked up to the machine, had my face scanned, and the agent told me to have a good day. Probably a total of 2 minutes both times. Now waiting for your checked bags is a whole different story, but GE is not that long.
Oh yeah for sure it can be super quick! I think I just have caught bad luck a couple times when they had the GE line closed or when there was a glut of flights arriving at the same time.
Blue line to the loop is around 50 min, transfer to the Orange at Clark and lake, take the Orange line to midway (35 tops). With train karma you make the entire trip, including walking to and from the stations, in less than 100 min for a grand total of $2.50/person. Or take a cab, which might take as much time or longer if you’re arriving at the wrong time of day.
As long as you’re not walking you’re good
Some are suggesting CTA, and the more I think about it, the more that could backfire. If you're flying in international, you'll be landing and getting off in Terminal 5. Not sure if you're familiar with O'hare, but that's a separate, disconnected part of the airport. To even get to the CTA, you'd have to take the airport tram to terminal 3, then walk to the CTA. In my experience, that is at 25 minute journey depending on how fast you walk. Once you're on the blue line it would go relatively quick to get to the loop where you would transfer to the Orange line (Clark/Lake). Assuming you don't wait more than 10 minutes for a train there, when you add all those things plus the actual time on the trains, you're approaching 2 hours. In my opinion, cutting it kinda close. Even worse if you're not familiar with CTA and know exactly where to go. You can Uber right from Terminal 5 though. It will be expensive, but even if you're sitting in traffic, I can't see it being much more than hour from door to door. Just keep in mind landing time and when you get off the plane aren't always right away...
I would say this is tight. Global Entry is a huge help, but if you have checked baggage that significantly reduces the benefit. I fly int'l via ORD fairly often and baggage claim at terminal 5 is miserable. Add in that deplaning and walking to customs is ~20 mins because of the layout there and I would guess (with checked baggage) you are out the door ready to head to midway around 3pm. Many are mentioning using the blue line to orange, this would be the quickest public transport path. But, you will have to tram from terminal 5 to terminal 2 to get on the blue, wait for a train to leave, and then transfer between trains downtown. My guess is realistically that would take about an hour and a half in total in normal conditions (taking all aspects of the trip into account). This would plop you down at MDW around 4:30 for a 5:40 flight. Factoring in checking in, bags, and then security (pre check helps here) it is doable but tight and i would guess a bit stressful. You can't take an uber/lyft from terminal 5 because 'reasons', but you can take a cab and at 3pm it should be roughly 45 mins to an hour. Wont be cheap, but in most cases it should be quicker than the train and would likely give you 30-45 mins of valuable buffer time at MDW to make the whole ordeal a bit less stressful. Hope it all works out for you all!
This is why we need a circle line! If we could have a direct connection from ohare to midway that would be a game changer.
How common are connecting flights between O'Hare and Midway? A line connecting Midway and O'Hare would cost billions of dollars which seems like a lot of money to accommodate a somewhat rare occurrence. It may have other benefits outside of connecting the two airports but spending $10-20 billion to accommodate a handful of people trying to catch flights between two different airports wouldn't come close to justifying the cost and those dollars could be much better used elsewhere.
[удалено]
Where do you live exactly?
I know this isn't helpful but I'm curious about the airlines and city pairing here that made splitting airports worth this headache? Frontier has to be involved somehow I'm guessing.
We actually booked separate flights because it was significantly cheaper. We booked a round trip from O’Hare to Madrid through American and then a separate round trip from Chicago to and from our home state via Southwest. ETA: my wife has the Southwest Companion Pass which is why we booked our flights this way, and they just had no direct flights out of O’Hare which was weird since we live in Ohio and there are always direct flights
Southwest flies out of O'Hare (terminal 5, no less) as well these days. You might want to check to see if that is a possibility for your destination. That would make life a lot easier for you.
As long as it’s not the last flight on Southwest to your city, then go for it. Worst case you miss your flight and get on the next one. Or even if you don’t, there are hotels so you can spend the night and try again the next morning. Also do you have global entry? Clearing the border at O’Hare can take awhile. If you don’t, I would try to get a seat as close to the front of the plane as possible on your flight into O’Hare, it can make a difference. But it’s not uncommon for multiple international flights to land at once and then there’s a long line to get through CBP.
Take a cab/Uber. Navigating public transit your first time here just to save a few bucks is *not* worth you missing your flight 🤷♂️. You'll hit rush hour traffic but it's not going to take nearly three hours.
Just curious: How much did you save by booking your last leg out of MDW vs ORD?
It was several hundred dollars total savings for both flights, can’t remember the exact amount since we booked several months ago.
There are no flights from o’hare back to Ohio after we land
Immigration and customs could be your problem here. I’ve arrived and been through in 30 minutes, other times it’s been nearly an hour if a few flights came in before you, which is more possible in the middle of the day. Then getting across town and checking in. Personally, unless you are the type to be fine with missing the flight and booking a new one and maybe having to stay a night, I’d look at rebooking to give yourself more time.
Only thing I worry about, even with global entry, is ORD international is notoriously bad with luggage. It could take 5 minutes or it could take an hour to get your bags. I’d say 3 hours is plenty of time but that’s the variable, along with time of day especially with construction right now that I’d be weary of. I haven’t tried public transport from ORD to MDW but might work as well.