MDW...Tell Me Everything!

[kristenrice]

I'm flying out of MDW in October for the first time and I am a bit nervous.

I get travel anxiety as it is and since we now have to drive 3 hours to get to the airport BEFORE our flight, I already know I will be a basket case. It's me and the two teenagers (14 and 16) who will be travelling. One gets out of school at 2:45 and the other gets out at 3pm. Since DH is not coming on the trip with us, he will pick up DD16 at 3 and I will pick up DD14 at 2:45 and we will rendezvous near the freeway. DH will take their school stuff home, the girls can grab a snack and we will be en route to Chicago by 3:30pm. We "gain" an hour with the time change so in a perfect world (no traffic, no stops), we would arrive by 5:30pm local time...but we all know that won't happen.

So...we shouldn't have to stop for food but there may be a need for a quick bathroom break. Other than that, what type of delays can I expect? I have NO idea how bad traffic will be. I know that we will be hitting the major downtown Chicago area right around 5pm and that terrifies me. I have no issue driving in traffic since I have been a paramedic ("ambulance driver") for 20+ years and I am very accustomed to bad drivers and ridiculous traffic. What I am more worried about is the delay factor.

Our flight is scheduled to depart at 8:00pm. We are flying on SWA...we have TSA-pre...and we have only carry-ons...and we have EBCI, so I am hoping that we should have a very easy time getting to our gate once we arrive. My concern is with the rental car return. I don't think that it is in the terminal. I believe that I read that it requires a shuttle. If that is the case, how much MORE time is that going to add? Plus since it is a 190-mile trip to the airport, I will have to fuel it before I return it, so that will add some time too.

DH said that he is willing to drive us to Chicago and drop us off. Aww...that is so sweet! I might have to accept that offer if we are going to be cutting it too close by having to fuel and drop off a rental car.

So for anyone who frequently flies out of Midway, help me out! How easy is it to navigate the airport? How about dropping off and refueling the rental car? What are the security lines like? If I were flying out of the GR airport with the same scenario (returning a rental car, etc), I would be completely comfortable arriving 60 minutes before take-off.

 

[Searc]

How does a rental car fit into this? If you're leaving from a local airport, why do you have a rental car? Take the girls out of school early. You'll need the extra time to deal with Chicago traffic, especially at that time of day and if you're coming from the East, yep, it will be awful.

 

[kristenrice]

How does a rental car fit into this? If you're leaving from a local airport, why do you have a rental car? Take the girls out of school early. You'll need the extra time to deal with Chicago traffic, especially at that time of day and if you're coming from the East, yep, it will be awful.

We are coming from Grand Rapids and our trip is 10 days. It is cheaper for us to have a rental car each way than it is to park a car for the length of our trip. Our cars each have 180K+ miles on them and they are SUV's. We can rent more fuel-efficient cars which will also save us the gas money in addition to the wear and tear. That's why we are opting to rent a vehicle to get us to and from the airport.

 

[Lilo&Stitch]

Midway is a very easy airport to navigate! Pay attention to the signs as they are very clear.

You will hit ALOT of traffic that time of day so there’s no telling what kind of delay you might have ! It could go smoothly or you could be more delayed because of construction, accidents, breakdowns etc... there’s really no way to tell what could happen. I agree with the PP saying take the girls out early and avoid being stressed out

 

[kristenrice]

There are a few reassurances that I have to work with. First of all, my sister and my parents are flying out of MDW at 6am that day, but they are making the drive over the night before. That means that they will be able to give me a much more accurate estimate of the actual driving time since they will be making the same drive at the same time of day, just on a Wednesday instead of a Thursday. I know that Google maps gives the estimated drive time based on the posted speed limits (55mph in some places) which I know is NOT followed. If I drove 65mph on that stretch of I-94, I would get mowed down by everyone who is driving 80!

I also forgot that my older daughter currently has her "block" day on Thursday so she gets out at 1:30 instead of 2:45. There is no guarantee that it will still be Thursday next year, though, since her "block" day last year was on a Tuesday. My younger daughter often has a class like P.E., choir or band for her last class of the day and those are all classes that I would be more willing to allow her to miss. I reallllly want to avoid pulling them out early at all costs because I was not even planning on pulling them out on Friday for this trip, but I caved in when my sister decided to pull her girls out of school Thursday AND Friday. I didn't want my girls to miss out on 2 full days of vacation with the rest of the family.

I am hoping and praying that the flight out of GR drops in price and we can fly out of GR instead. It connects in MDW and it's the same 8pm MDW-MCO leg, but it departs GRR at 7pm so we would still arrive in Orlando at the same time, but it would save us the drive. Unfortunately, that itinerary is currently $319 per person instead of $159 per person out of Midway. I am not very optimistic that the flight will drop by 50%, but you never know. (We're booked on points so we don't have to worry about using up a credit. I was just using the cash price for reference)

 

[Ralph&Pam]

As to the rental car return at MDW. The car rental center that hosts all of the major rental companies is in a parking garage that’s a 5-10 minute shuttle ride from the airport. It runs very frequently with multiple buses shared by all the agencies so likely a 5-minute or less wait. There are a good number of gas stations near the airport, say within 5 minute drive, with somewhat inflated prices for fuel, but probably worth it for the convenience. I usually rent from Alamo and their premium to do the fillup is sometimes small enough that I just let them handle it. This is always a last minute option if time is tight.

With TSA-pre, EBCI, and only carry-on bags you should breeze through security at MDW. We have TSA-pre and do EBCI but always do curbside check-in for our bags and we are usually at our gate within 15 minutes or less after we are dropped off outside the airport on the departures level. SWA usually starts boarding 30 minutes before scheduled departure if the flight is on time, so 60 minutes before take off should work fine. Although the walk to a gate can be long, the airport layout is very easy to navigate. SWA has gates in both A and B concourses (there is also a C) and the security checkpoint serves all three concourses. With pre-printed boarding passes, you will walk into the terminal, take an escalator to the appropriate level, and join the TSA-pre queue on the right hand side of the security checkpoints. Walk past all the passengers in the regular security lines, and have your IDs and boarding passes ready.

 

[EACarlson]

Gas stations all over around there. I used to fly frequently into MDW and go see family in Michigan City, normal travel time from there was about 75 minutes. You should avoid the worst of the Chicago traffic by staying on 294 to Cicero.

 

[mamamelody2]

Just remember to keep checking flights! We flew from GRR last fall. When the flights came out, they were super high, and I seriously considered flying out of MDW as it was much cheaper. I was waiting for bonus points to hit my account before booking, so had to wait a while. When I looked again about a month later (I had not looked before that because it was too depressing) prices had come WAY down. So we didn't have to book from MDW. It was lovely!

Also, based on some things you have said, I think it's totally possible your older daughter is in my son's class. LOL.

 

[kristenrice]

I'm keeping an eye on that flight from GRR to MCO......but I am also watching the flights from MDW to MCO too.

Right now, GRR-MCO is at $269 which is better than $319! It's still not low enough for us to cover the entire trip with points. Our 8pm flight from MDW-MCO was booked at $159/person and dropped to $129/person so my dad "rebooked" it and got about 6K in points back into his account. Now, if the 6am flight that the rest of the family is taking also drops by $30/person (~2K points), that will give my dad another refund of about 10K in points. Since he still had about 10K points in his account, that would give him enough to rebook us on the flight out of GR at the current prices. So much can happen in the next 6 months so we are optimistic that we can get it set up in our favor.

Also, based on some things you have said, I think it's totally possible your older daughter is in my son's class. LOL.

My daughter is a "Sophomore Sailor" .

 

[mamamelody2]

I'm keeping an eye on that flight from GRR to MCO......but I am also watching the flights from MDW to MCO too.
My daughter is a "Sophomore Sailor" .

HA! I knew it! My son is a sophomore sailor, also!
I hope the flights work out for you and you can avoid that drive to Chicago!

 

[kristenrice]

THE PRICES DROPPED!!!
The price for the 6am flight from MDW-MCO dropped from $159 to $139...
The price for the return MCO-MDW dropped from $189 to $149...
...so since Dad had those two flights booked on points for (5) people, he got a LOT of points back when he rebooked them at the new fares.

The price from GRR-MCO also dropped from $269 to $209! That means we were able to book me and my girls on a flight out of GR instead of Chicago!We aren't taking the 7pm flight that connects through Chicago, though. We opted for the 5:55pm flight that connects through BWI with a slightly longer (90 minute) layover. It lands at about the same time (11:25pm) but I am a little more comfortable with the 90 minute layover instead of the 60 minutes through Chicago. I have never been to the Baltimore airport so I have a little research to do now.

With the price drop, we also have enough points for me and my girls AND my sister and her girls to fly HOME to GR! We will all fly on the same flight from MCO to MDW at 3:55pm, but my sister and I and our girls will switch planes and continue on to GRR while my parents take their car and drive home. We will probably all arrive home at about the same time...around 10pm.