need info on Chicago O'hare airport

Hello all,
Believe it or not, I have never flown in or out of Chicago's airport - I am in the process of booking my Mexico flights and since United & Continental have merged, we have 2 choices for our return flight to the states.
1. P Vallarta - Houston - Philadelphia via Continental (we have done customs many times at Houston since we always fly Continental to latin America and find it to be easy and hassle free (the connection between flights is 1hr 50 mins)
2. P Vallarta - Chicago - Philly via United - never came through Chicago and am thinking in March it may be a hassle due to weather conditions, busyness of airport, etc. (connection between flights is 2hr 30mins)
Our return to the states date is 3/15 (a Tuesday)

Any insights appreciated!
D

An interesting side note - if I book through Continental's web site the same listing of flights is almost 1/2 less expensive than booking through United's site and another option that Continental has that United does not - I can book economy for parts of the flight and book business 1st for other parts of the flight and the cost of this is the same as what United charged for all economy - just goes to show you that all airlines are not created equal

I would fly through Houston if possible. Less chance of bad weather, but if you're booking now, you're probably flying in the spring or summer and weather won't be an issue.

I would choose the least $ option. IAD Houston has it's share of severe weather issues--not always in the area, but from connections, and it's not snow but ICE (ie Dallas) and ORD isn't always a weather risk. ORD has plenty of "holds" due to traffic. Weather can be an issue in any season in the plains, midwest, ect--tornadoes, hurricanes/storms for Houston. six of one, half dozen of the other. I'd go for price if you have similar time connections and tickets by one airline. Let us know what you found!

I always find that the best made plans always get messed up!! So, with that said, I would go by price and just hope all the stars and planets line up when you go!

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Originally Posted by [email protected]

Hello all,
Believe it or not, I have never flown in or out of Chicago's airport - I am in the process of booking my Mexico flights and since United & Continental have merged, we have 2 choices for our return flight to the states.
1. P Vallarta - Houston - Philadelphia via Continental (we have done customs many times at Houston since we always fly Continental to latin America and find it to be easy and hassle free (the connection between flights is 1hr 50 mins)
2. P Vallarta - Chicago - Philly via United - never came through Chicago and am thinking in March it may be a hassle due to weather conditions, busyness of airport, etc. (connection between flights is 2hr 30mins)
Our return to the states date is 3/15 (a Tuesday)

Any insights appreciated!
D

An interesting side note - if I book through Continental's web site the same listing of flights is almost 1/2 less expensive than booking through United's site and another option that Continental has that United does not - I can book economy for parts of the flight and book business 1st for other parts of the flight and the cost of this is the same as what United charged for all economy - just goes to show you that all airlines are not created equal

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[email protected], easy choice for me.

I would avoid ORD if possible and go with IAH. Less traffic, fewer delays and much easier to process through Immigrations and Customs.

Weather may or may not be a problem at either airport, but In March statistics are in your favor at IAH.

I did look up some statistics on O'Hare and think I will go with Houston - the connection time is less but I am returning on a Tuesday which is usually the slowest travel day so I don't think I need more than the 1hr 45 minutes connect time in Houston to get through customs and get the bags rechecked. Looking forward to the warmth of Mexico - more snow coming to Philly on Friday and I hate winter!
Going to book economy going down and business 1st coming home - the fare for this is really good which suprised me since when you are doing multiple destinations the fares are usually higher - arriving in Puebla but departing from PV and it turns out our flight from Mexico City to PV is a continental code share so we will get miles from that. Need to bulk up the miles since we used most of them for the Guatemala trip last year!
thanks for all of your input

[email protected].....we've used Continental through IAH into and out of Mexico for at least four or five trips. You should be OK with 1 & 3/4 hours....although claiming your bags, clearing customs and rechecking just seems a little clumsy at times.

Unfortunately, due to your short connecting time, you probably won't be able to spend much or any time in one of Continental's President's Clubs (included with your biz class tkts).....and their clubs are pretty nice in Houston.

Enjoy your trip!

[email protected],
It sounds like IAH is your best bet. Staying at the lower half of the North American continent coming from Mexico will probably safe you overall travel time. You will also save yourself lots of walking time to get to your gate at O'Hara. Those are some very long corridors to walk... and, even in mid-March, you can still get late snow storms in Chicago.

LL_Travelfan

I have been in the presidents clubs in Houston many times and yes they are nice - we will probably have time on our departure date since we have an almost 3 hour layover in Houston before our flight to Puebla. Although when the weather is nice we like to hang around outside the airport and get some air.