6ix9ineYearFlow

Does anyone here commute to any of the DAL bases out of ORD? If so, which, in your experience, has been the easiest base to commute to?

MSP? DTW? JFK/LGA?

717Alpha

DTW and MSP both have quite a few commuters to ORD but both have quite a few mainline flights each day. JFK is always a pain to get to because it’s all RJ’s maybe 4 or 5 a day. LGA has the most frequency with hourly shuttle flights on mainline now ( used to be all RJ) but any weather between ord and Lga creates havoc, and 8 hour delays aren’t uncommon when the weather hits. All in all a very easy city to commute to from any of those bases and Atlanta.

freezingflyboy

I'll echo 717Alpha. DTW and MSP are popular and therefore competitive, especially with the number of AA and UA commuters plus FAs. NYC is popular for the seniority but it comes with headaches. Id throw ATL into your thought process. A friend did it for a long time and liked it. Longer flight but 12ish mainline flights a day and less competition for the JS.

Big E 757

I’ve commuted to NYC, ATL, MSP, and DTW out of ORD. As was stated, the NYC commute had tons of flights to LGA but in the summer, commuting home in the afternoon is a PITA! 7 months a year it’s very easy though. ATL is pretty easy. Flights are full but I’ve never had a hard time booking the jumpseat. MSP is no problem. Lots of mainline flights. DTW is the shortest flight and drivable if needed, at 4.5 to 5 hours. The only problem I have with DTW is that if a Delta flight doesn’t work out (flights are about every other hour most of the day) to catch United or AA, you have to go out and catch a shuttle to the North terminal, then go back through KCM, and UA and AA gates are at different ends of the terminal so if you’re having a bad day commuting, you can be walking back and forth to their gates trying to get home.

New Years Eve several years ago, I had an 11:15 am jumpseat home. We only had one more flight and it was at 4:20 pm or something. I get to the gate and I find out I’ve been bumped by an FAA guy doing a line check (yeah, on NYE he’s doing a line check to ORD). I ran over to AA and listed for the jumpseat but there were 2-3 pilots ahead of me and the flight was full. Michigan State was playing in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, so everyone that wasn’t flying nonstop on us, was going through ORD on UAL and AA, after 4 tries on both United and American, and about 3 miles of walking back and forth, I rented a car and drove home. But other than that, DTW is probably the better commute, but MSP is easy too. ATL has flights every hour, but is a little longer of a flight.

In terms of flight frequency they’d rank:
LGA
ATL
MSP & DTW tie

In terms of flight length:
DTW :45
MSP. :55-1:05
ATL. 1:25
LGA. 1:45

freezingflyboy

Ha! Done the same! DTW-ORD on a major holiday is almost always a guaranteed drive for me. The schedule just gets cut so much. But the upside is that on the worst days, you always have a 4 hour drive in your back pocket.

Big E 757

It is nice, knowing you can drive. If I had a trip that finished late on the last day, I would drive sometimes. In the winter back a few years ago, the last flight to ORD was at 7:15 pm or something like that. If I was finishing after that, sometimes I’d just drive. That’s way better to me, than getting a hotel room and waiting until the next day.

gliderguider

Same here as well. Just drove it before New Years this last year as the holiday schedule was reduced down to Skywest which is always a guarantee to not get on. Left the house at 0430 from the NW burbs and was parked in Clarion DTW 4:10 later. Fortunately RJ’s seem to be less common on ORD-DTW and if anything capacity is increasing from 717’s to more 319/320’s.

Big E 757

MSP is going to 320’s from 717’s too.

Turbo1

Do yourself a favor and move to where you wanna be without commuting especially if you were just starting out

Turbo1

Also be advised that we recently lost our employee parking lot that we've had for about 50 years and are now forced to park in public lots and expense after each trip