r/mildlyinfuriating • u/ShitTheFuckDown • 17h ago
No Coke. Is Pepsi ok? It's 10pm in Chicago. After a whole day of flight delays, the B terminal of the airport has no open restaurants, vending machines, or kiosks. The only thing within walking distance is this small vending machine which serves cobb salad. And it has a line.
Fuck you O'Hare
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u/Wondur13 17h ago
Insane an international airport can just not have food open after a certain time, like brother its not 10pm in the various countries these people have flown in from
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u/halorbyone 16h ago
There are. But you have to walk. Including 24-hour options…
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u/Precarious3145 12h ago
Yea, I've flown a lot over the past few years and without fail, if there's more than one terminal, one has next to nothing while another has everything.
Anytime I know there'll be a layover, I always google the map of the airport to know what'll be around me if I need to prepare myself for a walk.
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u/mst3k_42 8h ago
I stupidly thought an airport as big as CDG would have more restaurant options in each terminal.
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10h ago edited 19m ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Melted-lithium 9h ago
There is Bus shuttle now in the secure area from T3 to T5 that keeps you in security as domestic flights now from from T5 (international) on delta and AA. However for food the international terminal isn’t much better that time of night.
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u/hot-whisky 9h ago
Last time I tried to take that bus they wouldn’t let us on since we didn’t have a flight leaving out of that terminal. And it was an international flight, just not leaving from the international terminal.
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u/hot-whisky 9h ago
Last time I got delayed at O’hare, we were down at the isolated end of the airport, past 10pm, with boarding happening “imminently” for 3+ hours.
Ground crews were at a stop because of lightning and our pilots were stuck on a plane that couldn’t be unloaded because of that. But once the all-clear was given we would be boarding within minutes, and any non-vending machine options were a 15+ minute walk away (and I don’t even remember a vending machine being an option).
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u/Wondur13 16h ago edited 15h ago
Yeah maybe this specific one, i meant in general, i mean have you ever seen the ho chi minh international airport? Its TERRIBLE, no food at all after 7-8pm but the domestic airport terminal is really nice actually, i guess thats a communism thing
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u/BigVanilla5678 15h ago
Orly Paris has entered the chat...
It's 8:00 p.m. And the only thing left is salmon quiche from the French equivalent of Dunkin Donuts. Five real restaurants are waving you away (why would they be open for dinner? Their employees need to go home ) towards the only one that is open-- the one that is super expensive.
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u/mst3k_42 11h ago
We arrived in Paris early in the morning and had an eight hour layover. Not knowing any better, we left the terminal we were in and took the shuttle bus to the one we were flying out of, figuring we can have breakfast there and chill out.
So. We got to our new terminal and discover it is gates, really high end, expensive fashion shops (the kind that has like 5 purses in the whole store,) and… not much else. Maybe a coffee shop without real food? However we know the terminal we came from had dining options, so we attempted to go back. Every single employee was utterly baffled we wanted to go back to the other terminal.
“But your gate is here!” Yeah, and there’s nowhere to eat and we’re stuck here for 8 hours.
“But your gate is here!”
After talking to like 5 different employees we finally convinced them to let us take the shuttle bus back to the other terminal, even though they thought it was crazy. Now, the two terminals were ridiculously far away from each other so it’s not like we had any option but take the shuttle. But we have hopped from terminal to terminal in other airports before and it’s never a big deal.
So we went and had a delicious breakfast. And we waited our 8 hours.
And now I guess all these French airport employees have a story about the crazy Americans.
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u/EffectiveVarious8095 9h ago
Was this at CDG? I just had the same experience 2 weeks ago. All those fancy shops right at the gate to meet your last minute need for a $900 scarf, but no coffee to be found.
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u/Gurth-Brooks 8h ago
It’s the worst airport in the fucking world.
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u/Familiar_Childhood32 7h ago
You've obviously never experienced the wonderous hellscape that is the Lisbon airport.
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u/ian9921 8h ago
I hate those shops with a burning passion at every airport I go to. I feel like no matter what airport I go to there are a half dozen places for me to buy wine & wrist watches, and two dozen places for me to buy books & neck pillows, but barely any places for me to grab a cheeseburger or buy things I actually need.
It also just really confuses me. Who is out here doing actual serious shopping in an airport of all places? I've been to airports with full proper LEGO stores. I can think of zero scenarios where it would consistently make sense to buy LEGOs at the airport.
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u/EffectiveVarious8095 8h ago
I think of that every time I see them.
If I were in the market for a swiss watch (assuming I could afford one), I'd probably do some research and find exactly what I wanted at the best price, not at the last minute before jetting out.
Then again, maybe these places appeal to the uber-wealthy who think of these purchases as souvenirs the way I might consider a mug or a magnet. Considering what is likely a minutely small customer base for these stores, I think they may be there more as promotion, writing off losses. How many sales could they possibly be making?
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u/daredeviline 6h ago
I heard it's a lot more than you think. Those shops are tax free, so a lot of rich people will stop at Hermes before leaving for London to pick up items they want because it will cost more where they land.
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u/min_mus 9h ago
We got to our new terminal and discover it is gates, really high end, expensive fashion shops (the kind that has like 5 purses in the whole store,) and… not much else. Maybe a coffee shop without real food?
I know exactly which terminal you're talking about.
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u/UIUC_grad_dude1 8h ago
Don’t make the same mistake at some airports like HND, where once you go to the departures gates, you can’t leave.
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u/sandiegodak 7h ago
Yeah Europe airports are super annoying that way. It's like they zone them like American suburbs. Only gates for miles then put all the businesses in one single area.
Let me have a beer or 4 while I watch my flight board from 10 feet away!
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u/texanfan20 9h ago
This is pretty normal at most airports in the US. People think big international airports are always busy but not many planes take off or land between 10 pm and 4 am so there is no reason to pay people to run a a business when the airport has a handful of people there.
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u/ian9921 8h ago
I recently had a significant flight emergency at midnight in DC and my family was aghast that there was no one at any of the check-in desks. They said "it's a big international airport, there's supposed to always be someone there!" But there was no one to check in, so why would there be anyone there?
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u/PolicyWonka 9h ago
I mean…Taco Bells in BFE rural communities of 5,000 people remain open until midnight or later. It’s hard to think that an international airport would be less busy. And at the end of the day, you still have a captive audience who might have been flying 3+ hours with nothing to eat besides some pretzels.
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u/AllThatKat 9h ago
Yes but anyone can go to the Taco Bell in BFE. Only ticketed passengers can visit restaurants inside security at airports. So the places close when the flights normally stop. Staying open 24/7 would lose them money
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u/BeardySam 13h ago
What’s more insane is that literally one store could open and would make a fortune. Is there some sort of curfew by the airport?
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u/MileHigh_FlyGuy 9h ago
No. It's just that staff schedules are set when flights are scheduled to arrive and depart. They're not going to be able to staff a resurant because of 1 day if delays.
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u/MasemJ 10h ago
you know what would make a killing in such airports? a central restaurant open 24/7 that can drive food to your terminal for a fee (if you don't want to walk).
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u/Emotional-Ocelot-309 9h ago
That’s actually a genius idea. I hate when I go to the gate because I always want to idk… make sure the gate exists or something, but then there’s no food nearby and I don’t want to leave but I could really use some food.
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u/MukdenMan 16h ago
I spent a long delay at LAX with no real food options either. There were more vending machines than here but no real shops or restaurants open (I think the flight was delayed from like 10 to 3am). American airports are just like this.
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u/Winnie1916 9h ago
Stuck overnight at LAX years ago. Alaska airlines terminal had an 24/7 convenience store. They even gave us vouchers to use there.
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u/Unlikely-Key-234 9h ago
I swear it seems like most of you just never travel. I have never in my life landed at an international airport abroad and then decided to just have dinner there. This isn't really possible anyway. When you go through immigration and customs you are spat out into the groundside area. Restaurants are usually airside.
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u/EffectiveVarious8095 8h ago
Some people have connecting flights and long layovers and cannot leave the airport
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u/Smokey_Bagel 17h ago
I'm a dispatcher, the meltdown at ORD today was crazy
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u/seemunkyz 17h ago
Can I blame you for my cancelled flight then?
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u/Smokey_Bagel 16h ago
Yeah you probably can honestly. Were you on United by chance?
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u/popcornjellybell 15h ago
Had delays after delays . Got on a plane and then off again. The gate attendants were great- they don’t get paid enough .
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u/Smokey_Bagel 15h ago
They for sure don't. Honestly nobody but pilots gets paid enough in this industry. The pilots would probably disagree though
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u/SecondHandSlows 7h ago
Hey, I’m the daughter of a retired United pilot!
He got paid well that time. But the pay schedule is ridiculous. When he got hired in 1986 we were on food stamps until at least 1990. By 1996 we built a new house with a pool.30
u/Flightyler 10h ago
Pilot here we will always want more days off for more money lol
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u/BlindlyCoherent 10h ago
New pilots make decent living wage of $70k/yr and senior pilots can crack $500k.
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u/oznz 17h ago
Oooh I grew up in an ohare flight path but have since moved out of state. I’m still nosy. What happened?
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u/Smokey_Bagel 16h ago edited 16h ago
A fairly small thunderstorm rolled through and they stopped all traffic for quite a while. Then released it so all the earlier diversions tried to go again, then they just kept starting and stopping all arrivals from various centers leaving the diversion recoveries sitting out.
I think ATC was stressed out and short staffed because while there were storms to the east of the airport they were requiring all flights coming from the east to fly all the way to a point 60 miles south of St. Louis before joining the arrival despite much closer entry points still clear of the weather. All over flying the same point probably to simplify traffic. It just resulted in terrible delays getting in which left people in ORD waiting for their planes to arrive
Once the weather was clear from ORD they now had to prioritize the flights that had diverted earlier which caused a whole new wave of flights to get delayed
I'm actually still sitting at work watching two flights that are more than 4 hours delayed out of ORD
Edit: Even though the storm was fairly small it passed right over the field so it makes sense they stopped traffic. The routings after the fact and constant changing of programs was a little less typical
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u/redvelvet418 16h ago
My 3:50 flight was canceled after a 3 hr delay. I managed to get on a 9pm flight and it finally boarded at 11:30. Currently sitting at the gate as of 12:17 hoping we move.
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u/Smokey_Bagel 16h ago
Dang that's brutal. Glad they managed to get you rebooked. Everything looks good out there now. Taxi out times are nice and short right now too. My last guy got off in less than 20 minutes from blockout which is mad fast for ORD, so I think you'll make it
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u/Western-Tale57 16h ago
Ooohh, flight delays stories
9:30 am flight out of Vegas to Chicago which took off at 11:00 and end up getting diverted to Milwaukee and landed at 5:30. Ended up back on the same flight to Chicago and landed about 11:30pm. About 2 minutes from home as I type this.
Best of luck to you and everyone else who dealt with or is dealing with this.
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u/Worldly_Arugula_288 11h ago
So you were delayed for 5 hours at an airport that’s a 2 hour drive from Chicago? That’s frustrating
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u/YouMeanWhatIKnow10 15h ago
Agreed, thanks for the insight. Just got to my hotel outside of Philly. We were delayed a few hours and sat at gate waiting for additional pilot to land and get over to our plane. I know there was another Philly flight after mine that looked like it was a go too. Happy United didn’t end up cancelling my flight. Thanks for your hard work.
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u/Smokey_Bagel 15h ago
Hey thanks for flying United and keeping me employed. Glad your flight made it
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u/ughliterallycanteven 16h ago
This was weird considering that ATC is really good most of the time. I know Skywest got hit with lots of cancellations. United is recovering decently as I know it’s forecast again for today.
I watched things going on as the plane coming from ORD with first weather, then maintenance, then crew then weather again.
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u/Smokey_Bagel 16h ago
Yeah I'd never talk trash on ATC their job is brutal and they normally do a fantastic job. I know they've been having staffing issues lately especially in some of the busiest US airspaces, New York center is pretty critically understaffed I believe. I think that staffing has really interfered with their ability to handle IROPs. I've noticed on days where it seems they would have been able to mostly vector everyone in sometimes they'll just go into extended holding these days. My guess is they just don't have the manpower to give each flight that much attention anymore
Edit: I can't speak for anyone else, but United is pretty well recovered by now. We're getting pretty accustomed to recovering from these situations since weather this summer has been a mess
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u/LimeeSdaa 16h ago
Thanks for the insight. My flight was around 6 hours delayed from CLE. Nightmare.
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u/Smokey_Bagel 16h ago
Ah yeah that sucks. At least it still went. We took a decent number of cancels today
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u/physco827 15h ago edited 15h ago
Thanks for the insight! Just home from my Alaska Airlines flight that was supposed to leave at 830 AM to ORD and we didn’t get to a gate until 1130 PM after being diverted to MSP. What a nightmare, was wondering what was going on with such a small storm.
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u/Smokey_Bagel 15h ago
Hopefully they got you in a gate at MSP quick so you could stretch your legs. Big kudos to all the smaller stations that handled all those diversions they did a great job
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u/leetle_bumblebee 9h ago
I just wanted to chime in and say that I've read about ATC conditions recently, and I am really grateful for what you guys are doing. It sounds like the job keeps getting more stressful, but somehow you're keeping people safe and airports running, even with delays. So we see you and are very aware you deserve a raise.
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u/Numerous-Hawk1471 16h ago
There is a Dunkin Donuts open 24 hours if you walk a bit to the food court. I spent a night there when my plane froze this winter.
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u/BrainwaveWizard 16h ago
Same, back in 2022 when snow cancelled flights. I didn’t find out until the morning that they have cots that you could sleep on.
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u/Busy-Incident 4h ago
Was there last night/morning… took over an hour just to get a donut, it was insufferable.
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u/misterphuzz YELLOW! 17h ago
I give thumbs up to this one being mildly infuriating. You can't necessarily control when you get into an airport, especially since it seems like every airport is having delays all the time. Then you're hungry AF and you got nowhere to go. There really should be something available other than Cobb salad.
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u/No_Safety_6803 8h ago
Always travel with snacks and water, it’s pretty easy for this to happen while traveling. I’ve been there many times, especially at small and medium airports.
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u/CurlSagan ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 17h ago
This marks the first time in Chicago history that anyone has ever stood in line for a salad.
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u/alternativepuffin 14h ago
I'm sad they're in Chicago and eating a salad. There's a reason everyone's fat. It's because the food is god damn amazing.
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u/gourdhoarder1166 16h ago
There's a mcds about five minute walk
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u/Different-Pair7251 16h ago
I was gonna say, can't ya just go around the corner to another terminal?
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u/PonyThug 7h ago
Yes. I’ve walked past 5 letters worth of terminals in 10 mins just last month. Probably 40 restaurants
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u/vitaminalgas 17h ago
There's 24 hour Dunkin donuts in terminals 1,2,3 and 5, there's 24 hour Starbucks in terminals 1,2, and 3...
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u/archy319 8h ago
You can walk between terminals 1,2,3 in OHare in less than 5 minutes and never leave airside
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u/neverseen_neverhear 16h ago
I have arrived to airports late due to flight delays. They all have this problem. Almost all the restaurants are closed up at night. The plane doesn’t serve food either. It’s a terrible system.
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u/Excellent_Garlic2549 17h ago
I agree that if they're servicing flights still they should try to keep as many restaurants open as possible.
Hardly anybody does it anymore though. You'd figure one of them would want money because you know their employees don't get paid dick.
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u/eigervector 17h ago
I’m pretty sure the employees don’t care because they have zero incentive. If they could make a lot of extra money, they’d probably stay open.
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u/KoolaidKoll123 16h ago
Ding ding. I work in a place where I get tips and can stay open late if I want to and make extra, boss is fine with it. I just don't get paid a wage increase..
I never stay open late unless there's more than 6 people in the place and they're still spending money. As someone who works in food...unless there's lots of tips, my base wage ain't keeping me there late.
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u/loulan 15h ago
It's not the employees who decide when to close?
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u/KoolaidKoll123 15h ago
No, but they can refuse schedule changes or just simply get a different fast food job because they're a dime a dozen and all pay within a buck or two an hour of eachother, at least around me.
Where I work I can because of seniority, and because it's not corporate with overlords.
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u/Hot_Towel_85 17h ago
Homie. No airport authority is going to pay them to stay open, and the restaurants are run by franchisees who extra dont give a fuck.
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u/godihatepeople 16h ago
That would be the discretion of each individual restaurant, which all have their own private management and employees. It's not as simple as just staying open late, they have their own logistics to deal with too.
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u/RadosAvocados 15h ago
I used to work in an airport restaurant and when this happened, we would actually run out of food. Concession space is expensive and fridge space is limited so we would get what we need trucked in at 5am every morning. When there were mass cancelations or were especially busy, we would run out of "real" food and could only sell chips and bottles of pop. Even if we wanted to stay open late we couldn't sell much.
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u/Unilted_Match1176 15h ago
Vending machine that serves cobb salad= diarrhea machine.
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u/TheConsequenceFairy 6h ago
While I appreciate the fact that the OP could have made better choices over the course of his day,... IS no one is going to remark about the fact that the only option is a SALAD vending machine in a region that is STILL having explosive diarrhea issues caused by contaminated lettuces?
'Cause that little tidbit of info makes the ENTIRE situation that much more ridiculous.
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u/icehot54321 17h ago
Not sure how much you travel, but pretty much every airport in the world closes food shops at 10pm
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u/midnightdiabetic 17h ago
My least favorite major airport in the entire world (I guess SO FAR, but O'Hare is legitimately busy so terrible)
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u/TheRealFlowerChild 17h ago
CDG is a million times worse imo
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u/chafe3232 16h ago
I always thought people were dramatic about CDG, then I flew through it a couple times. It’s the worst airport I’ve been to, and I’ve flown through over 300
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u/SignificantOtter80 16h ago
I purposely re-scheduled a flight to avoid CDG. I will transit AMS any day. CDG can fuck right off
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u/lilshortyy420 17h ago
I feel this way with CLT. It’s like herding cattle in there.
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u/MukdenMan 16h ago
It used to be nice. It hasn’t scaled up with the times and its own rising importance as a hub. I used to actually enjoy the rocking chairs area.
RDU is pretty nice but obviously a lot less of a hub… you often have to connect through CLT.
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u/nomnomsquirrel 16h ago
Yep, I am flying direct to Miami from RDU in December, and then have to fly back through Charlotte. And since I normally fly from Asheville, if I fly American, I get to spend half my travel time sitting in Charlotte each time I fly for work.
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u/more_cheese_please_ 15h ago
Worst airport by far and it’s not even close! Fuck CLT
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u/Thewrongbakedpotato 16h ago
SEATAC and Portland pretty much close up entirely after 10, so you're going to be scrounging vending machine food there.
The worst international airport I've ever been to, though, is Manila. Whoo boy that terminal is literal hot garbage.
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u/shpongleyes 15h ago
Idk if this is what you're referring to, but that reminded me of the Kona international airport in Hawaii, where it's almost all outdoors. Not fun getting a delay in the hot Hawaiian summer.
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u/Brave_Meet8430 17h ago
I guess you haven’t been through EWR terminal C or A yet :-)
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u/ProtoMan3 16h ago
I don't mind EWR A, but I do dislike B and C. Also, transferring between terminals is a disgrace there.
Still, ORD is much worse to me.
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u/OGConsuela 16h ago
Haven’t been to O’Hare since I was a kid and don’t remember it, is it worse than LAX and Munich? Those two are easily the worst I’ve been to.
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u/PitchBlac 16h ago
Munich I only hated because of the long ass walk around just to get to your flight that was at one point looking at you from 10ft away
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u/Local-Finance8389 15h ago
My husband has a degree in economics and hates spending money unnecessarily. His exception to this is avoiding flights that connect through O’Hare in which he does not care how much money is spent. Do you have any idea what it takes for a man who lives his life by financial principles to just say fuck it?
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u/Dino_Spaceman 6h ago
It amazes me that Airports don’t keep at least one place open per terminal to service late flyers.
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u/rdg5220 17h ago
Had one of those salads last flight and it was rather tasty.
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u/tydeze 14h ago
Was gonna say this, as far as vending machines go, farmers fridge is solid.
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u/TheDotCaptin 17h ago
There should be an open 24hr McDonald's just a few minutes walk down.
How far is walking distance for you?
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u/Competitive-Elk-5077 10h ago
So I usually toss a couple uncrustable sandwiches in my bag before I leave, just in case I end up in this exact situation
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u/the_throw_away4728 9h ago
I feel like I have to shout out the Salt Lake City airport here. Our flight was delayed we took off at 1 am (😭). Many restaurants were closed but they had a handful still serving food and multiple shops open.
Plus their bathroom stall doors go all the way to the floor 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 Cleanest airport I’ve ever been in. I was impressed
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u/DiligentDust9755 5h ago
I experienced bathroom doors to the floor in Italy. What are we doing here? Why is this not a thing in America everywhere?? It’s the best!
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u/Slinky_Malingki 9h ago
Yeah, O'Hare fucking sucks. You'd think that one of the biggest, busiest airports in the world would have be better designed and have some shit but no. Actually one of the worst airports I've been through, and I've been through that shithouse too many times.
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u/wills2003 9h ago
I had this happen in Atlanta a couple of years ago. It was 9:00 p.m. Airport busy with people and there was a single solitary sandwich shop open in a completely different concourse. I wandered over there - there were 30 people in line including a ton of flight crew. When I finally got up to the counter the cashier told me they were out of bread. This is a post-Covid thing, right? Didn't there used to be 24-hour restaurants in big international airports?
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u/BobaButt4508 17h ago
I freakin love the Farmers Fridge for plane food. Healthy, portable, usually fully stocked when everything else is failing at the airport. Sorry about your delays
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u/DaBingeGirl 17h ago
Their Crunchy Thai Bowl is really good! All the stuff is good, but that one is my favorite.
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u/Fearless_Hedgehog491 9h ago
My father’s advice was to throw a few bars in your bag just in case. I later joined the military and his advice has saved my butt several times as I was stranded in many airports at 2am with no food available.
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u/HeavilyInvestedDonut 8h ago
A line of three people lmao.
I mean, everything else you said is for sure mildly infuriating, but the line being pointed out is kind of hilarious
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u/TurtleTheThink 17h ago
real ones know midway is the best and all the midway hate is just people gatekeeping it so less people fly through it so it remains the most efficient airport in all of the united states
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u/Fat_Feline 17h ago edited 17h ago
No, the Midway hate is because of the shitty airline that dominates it. Nobody chooses O'Hare willingly.
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u/BarcaJeremy4Gov 9h ago
as somebody in milwaukee who likes direct flights to anywhere not orlando or vegas, i do.
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u/elginsk8r 17h ago
I prefer O'Hare since I don't have a far travel from the house. I was never a fan of driving to Cicero.
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u/BigVanilla5678 15h ago
Oh I had one of those salads before from that vending machine... Absolutely delicious. I would buy stock in the company.
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u/JellyfishSpirits 10h ago
O'Hare doesnt have a "B terminal", they have Terminals 1, 2, 3, and 5.
You were too lazy to walk out of that smaller concourse section and to a main wing that had a restaurant open.
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u/No-Picture4119 14h ago
Somewhat related story. I was flying out of a regional airport in South Carolina to connect in Charlotte. The actual place escapes me, this was a work trip, probably 15 years ago. The airport was kind of in the middle of nowhere, farms surrounding it. I was flying in a little regional plane, and it was overweight. Rather than kick a family of four off, they booted me. It’s maybe 1030 in the morning and I was planning on grabbing a sandwich at CLT, as I hadn’t eaten yet. No big deal, I’ll sit in the airport, eat and work.
So the plane leaves and there’s no place to eat, just vending machines. As I’m trying to figure this out, TSA comes by and says I need to leave until 2 hours before my rescheduled flight, which was like 5 hours later. They shoo me out, and literally lock the doors to the space beyond tsa.
I’m in the lobby, which is the size of my house, no food and nowhere really to sit and work. There’s also nobody around, like deserted, and about a dozen cars in the parking lot. I started walking toward town and wound up thumbing a ride and sitting at a Bojangles restaurant for three hours. Called a cab back to the airport, which was another clusterfuck because he only took cash. Nice day for a walk though, I probably walked a mile along a farm before someone realized I was an idiot and offered me a ride.
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u/Cottabus 9h ago
I feel your pain. In the 90s, I was in the same terminal waiting for boarding, and they had to close down the ramp for thunderstorms. All the ramp folks stopped working and went inside. I ended up spending all night in the terminal. I was told later by a more-experienced traveler that the international terminal had food available overnight and that there was a balcony where you could watch people go through customs. For entertainment. 😀
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u/500rockin 17h ago
You’re at B20 in terminal 1, of course there’s not much open right there at 10pm. The restaurants are closer to the beginning of B who would still be serving food (not a bunch of travelers eating dinner after 10 as number of flights lessen after 9pm)
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u/Outside-Pear9429 17h ago
Not even any vending machines is wild
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u/vitaminalgas 17h ago
There's tons of vending machines and also 24/7 Dunkin and Starbucks in most terminals, op just doesn't want to walk
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u/Attack_of_clams 15h ago
Why are there not 24h places in airports
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u/TehWildMan_ 12h ago
Most US airports are dead quiet after midnight, with the only traffic being arrivals already delayed or a few last flights that had a departure delayed multiple hours.
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u/Gau17SafingSectorPin 10h ago
There is. This person just didn’t want to walk 10 min…
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u/melodypowers 13h ago
Most airports don't actually run 24 hours. There is usually a lull from about 11 pm until 5 am (depending on the airport). So there is no need for 24 hour services. International terminals could be open over night, but not domestic flights.
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u/scottynoble 11h ago
You’d think one of the busiest airports would have round the clock services.
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u/RutabagaChance5382 11h ago
You can't just walk to the numerous open restaurants in other terminals?
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u/FreedomBread 6h ago
I always bring snacks, or buy snacks when something is open, if I'm going to be travelling at late evening hours. Or I expect that I will have to wander a bit to find out what my options are.
It doesn't make sense to keep cooks and servers working to serve a handful of people at odd hours, the math won't math. And you should expect to have to hike to find food generally in a big airport at odd hours. O'Hare has a lot of moving walkways to assist the longer distance to walk because it handles so much air traffic.
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u/RockStar5132 10h ago
Atlanta is the same way. Went through on Sunday and forgot that everything closes at 10pm when the place still has a ton of 11pm or later flights out of there
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u/PJKetelaar3 11h ago
That bathroom 'bout to have a line after the doo-doo lettuce kicks in.
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u/ForegroundEclipse 17h ago
I gotta start a vending machine business at O'hare is what you're telling me.