Anyone else stuck at ohare today...

I hate O'Hare with the intensity of a thousand suns. From cancelled flights, lost luggage, to having to argue to get them to cover my hotel and/or other things from the aforementioned sins. Terrible, awful place.
 
I have to fly to O'Hare often for work, and one thing that has relieved significant stress about flying there is that I no longer try to make tight connections there. Inevitably, the departure will be delayed because of weather in Chicago. And if the flight does depart on time, it seems that the flight either gets put in a holding pattern upon approach to O'Hare, or we land and sit on the runway for 20-30 minutes waiting for a gate to open up.
 
My son's flight from DSM to ORD yesterday was delayed an hour and 45 minutes. Three flights to ORD after his were cancelled. His flight from ORD to DCA was delayed two hours. It made for a long day for him
 
Seems to me the definition of the worst airport usually depends on where your worst experiences are....and where you've had them multiple times. For me, it was hands down JFK.

NJ/NY airports are nothing to write home about.
 
Airfare between eastern Iowa and the east coast has changed considerably in the past few years. I used to be able to book everything from Moline to DCA on the 'cheap' through Detroit on Delta. Fewer delays and while the terminals are large, they are easier to navigate than O'Hare if in a hurry to catch a connecting flight. As of late however, Cedar Rapids via O'hare on United has been 15-25% cheaper. Of course on days like today when the delays are mostly weather related, not much difference, but if you're close on a connecting flight, I'd take DTW over ORD any day!

Realize DSM is probably a different animal entirely, the few times I flew from DCA to DSM was on Midwest Airlines. Granted, this was 5+ years ago. Since Frontier took over, hard to say how bad things have gotten, but they had connecting flights in Milwaukee which was a walk in the park.

Has Southwest not really infiltrated the Des Moines market as much as everyone had hoped they would?

MLI used to have the advantage of AirTran service. Their low fares forced prices down for every airline serving MLI. You're right, there used to be some good bargains out of there, enough to make it worthwhile to drive from Cedar Rapids. But then AirTran left MLI (whether part of being bought by Southwest or not, I dunno), and that airport lost its price advantage. Now that Frontier is in CR, along with more destinations served by Allegiant, Cedar Rapids is often no longer the most expensive airport around. I mean, it's still no bargain, but it's better than it used to be.
 

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