Chicago O’Hare No Longer Home Alone

Remember the panicked race for Kevin’s family in Home Alone to make it to their Paris flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport? Well, ORD finally got some love (No. 11 ranking) in WSJ’s 2023 “Best & Worst Airports” report.

“Reliability, value and convenience" are supposed to be key and captured by a tolling of 30 factors that span any given trip. Frankly, I’ve never understood past surveys &/or media stories whining about how BAD Chicago’s main airport is. Something usually about “poor one-time and/or delay” scores. Never mind that I’ve never had a departure or arrival nightmare that others might have had. Nor have I ever seen another airport anywhere (here or over there) with more restaurants, bars & shops of all kinds … or with more direct flights to just about anywhere (here or over there). O’Hare’s got cabs coming to you upon your arrival in a New York minute. People movers between kingdom & come (Domestic and International terminals). And, trains leaving the airport for downtown every Chicago minute or so ... and for a few bucks.

Meanwhile, a word about New York’s also-much-maligned LaGuardia airport, which came in with a non-too-shabby overall ranking of 15. I think it always deserved a high five simply by being CLOSE to Manhattan … so close that Kevin could see the Big Apple by looking out the window in Home Alone II. Ok, so it can look kinda outdated dingy, but it’s small enough so you don’t have to be there long after grabbing a beer on the run … and, just so long as you have transportation that’s not the subway from hell.

Davd Soul