O'Hare or Dulles?
 

Hi! I'm going to be flying to Scotland next month from North Carolina. I will be purchasing my tickets in a week or so, and I've been checking out the airline's website and putting in what days I'm wanting to leave,etc, and basically, no matter what time I leave, I will go from Charlotte to Chicago (O'Hare), then over to London, then Edinburgh. Or, Charlotte, Washington DC (Dulles), London, Edinburgh. Which airport is better, in your opinion, to have to change at? Looks like I'll be there at least an hour or two. I've been to O'Hare as a kid when I lived in Illinois, but I don't remember anything really. Which one is less hectic, if either?

An hour layover in either airport is not very much time. I would deliberately try to get a 2 hour layover.

O'Hare is the busier airport of the two. My only beef about Dulles is that if you need to change terminals, you have to do so via shuttles (there is no train *yet*, and you cannot walk between terminals)...which is why a 1 hour layover is pretty tight for Dulles.

Thanks!

Well, it's kind of up in the air right now. I guess the layovers could be anywhere from 1 1/2 hrs to 4 hours (the most I've seen).

Oh, and I haven't been on a plane in 18 years, so I really don't recall anything about the airports. Why can't you walk from terminal to terminal in Dulles? Taking shuttles/trains?? Wow...are airports that big that you have to do that? Like I said, it's been so long since I've flown, and even then, I was just a kid, so my mom handled everything and I just followed her. lol

But O'Hare does sound like a better idea. Even though, with Dulles, I could just get on, and we're over the ocean in no time. I guess it just seems silly to me to go from the east coast, back track to the midwest, then go east again.

Hmmm . . . why don't you change airlines, fly to New York, or Newark, then direct to Edinburgh?

Why can't you walk from terminal to terminal in Dulles? Because the terminals are in separate buildings and there are no walkways that connect the buildings together. If you were able to slip past security and break free of a terminal building and try to walk to another, you would be walking where all the planes are taxiing to/from their gates. Then you would either get hit by a plane or be arrested. Or both. :)

Actually, there is one walkway from the main terminal to concourse B now...but you probably won't make use of that since you're on a connecting flight.

Taking shuttles/trains?? Wow...are airports that big that you have to do that? YES. Airports are huge. O'hare is about 6 million square feet and about 210k passengers travel through it per day. Dulles has a current land area size of about 12,000 acres -- but far less of that is actual building development. But it's still quite large. Dulles does not have as many passengers per day as O'hare.

Here's a wiki on O'hare...can't find one like this for Dulles.

http://wikitravel.org/en/O'Hare_International_Airport

If you return through Dulles, you will probably board the shuttle directly from your transatlantic flight (it can dock right at the plane doors) for the ride to the international arrivals building. There you go through immigration, claim your bag for customs, stop by the coustoms inspector, then drop your checked bags just outside customs with the airline for forwarding to your domestic flight.
Next you find the shuttle for the terminal where your domestic gate is, ride the shuttle, and walk from the shuttle stop to your gate.
It would be pretty unusual to accomplish all of this in much under 90 mnutes, especially if you are arriving at the midafternoon rush hour for flights from Europe.

Of course O'Hare is no walk in the park either. Decide based on price and convenience of schedule because you could have an unusually good or unusually bad experience at either airport!

O'Hare is very well known for having delays, particularly if you're flying United or American. It's also incredibly busy. I like to avoid O'Hare at all costs, unless it is a huge cost savings. I don't know about Dulles (I always fly into National in DC) but pretty much everything is less hectic than O'Hare.

Why not CLT-EWR EDI looks like the fastest connection/flying time combi.BUT, then you gotta deal with CO's fuel surcharge of $426.00 by far the largest f/s I have heard of.YIKES!! A little steep if ya ask me.

I fly through Dulles all the time as I live in DC, and I would definitely choose it over Ohare, which I hate. You can walk miles within Ohare to get from one connection to another, as I recall (not literally, but it seemed that way). Besides, wouldn't that add on time to your flight? I wouldn't ever go to Europe through the Midwest if I had a choice, or for no reason.

What airlines are u flying? At Dulles your flights could be in the same terminals. Here's a web site for Dulles
http://www.metwashairports.com/Dulles/
I agree that I would not want to go from the East Coast to the Midwest to get to Europe.

Definitely Dulles is an easier airport to deal with then O'Hare in my experiences.

Good info and opinions! Thanks!

See, here's the thing. I have been given frequent flyer miles by a friend. They're through BMI. But it looks like I'll be flying on United from Charlotte and from either Chicago/DC. I won't actually be on a BMI flight til London. So that's the airlines, and that's why I can't switch to someone else.

But, from your experiences, it sounds like I would rather go to Dulles. I just hope I can find these shuttles and that they're on time.

The Dulles shuttles run every two or three minutes; there's usually another one availalable for boarding at the adjacent door when one pulls away.
The hard part is dragging your tired self to the boarding point after that transatlantic flight.

If both flights are on UA, then you'll likely not even be using a shuttle as the majority of their flights are in the same terminal or in terminals right next to each other (Terminals C&D). The walk can be a bit long if you go from one end of Terminal C to the other end of Terminal D. As stated the shuttles run every 5 minutes or so and only take 5 minutes to get to the terminals.

Yestravel is correct as to flights for changing planes on the way to Europe. My posts describe the process on return, when immigration and customs factor into the picture.

Dulles.

If you have not flown in 18 years, be prepared for crowded planes, no food (bring your own) and far less service than you experienced before.

Also, go to TSA.gov and read up on what you can and can not bring on-board in your carry-on. Silly things like nail clippers and bottled water. And how you have to pack liquids in a ziplock bag - all sorts of info there - make sure you read it.

I vote for Dulles.

In our years overseas, we flew only once thru Chicago, Houston, and Atlanta. After that - it was Dulles all the way.

The airport - at least to us - just seemed easier, but a lot depends on your flights to and from NC.

We would fly from overseas to Dulles and then connect to New Orleans. We were usually in one of the 2 main (connecting) terminals. The only time we had to transfer to one of the terminals that served smaller planes was flying to Pittsburgh and flying to New Orleans on a later flight when we missed our usual connection - and even then, the transfer was quick and easy.

I vote for trying to find other routing... as suggested Charlotte - Newark - Edinburgh or Charlotte - JFK - Edinburgh would be my preference...

The extra stop at Heathrow tends to be problematic. Heathrow can be a nightmare for delays and it's likely that you'll have to go thru customs there as well.

Thanks guys! Definately Dulles.

I will try to see if maybe I can get another flight that doesnt go to Heathrow. But since I have to book through BMI, it may be difficult. All the flights I've ever seen through BMI take me to Heathrow or to Gatwick, then I have to find my own way to Heathrow and leave from there to Edinburgh. I don't think there's a way to avoid it with BMI, but I will look.

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Although I'd pick Dulles before backtracking to O'Hare, have you looked into a routing that involves the bmi flight from ORD to Manchester and then Edinburgh. We did that a few years ago and it worked out well (avoiding Heathrow). In that scenario, I'd allow a little longer between flights, as bmi leaves from the international terminal (T5) at O'Hare. Manchester is a very easy airport for bmi connections.

The only flight routes that came up involving Manchester for my days of travel with BMI are Charlotte to London Gatwick (then have to find my own way, ie tube, bus, taxi, to Heathrow), then Heathrow to Manchester, to Edinburgh. I wish there was a way I could select where I want to have the layover at. Apparently, there isn't with BMI.

However, there is one flight on the way back that is Edinburgh to Manchester, Manchester to Chicago, Chicago to Charlotte. I wish they would have that on the way there! Because you're right ms_go...that does sound like a good route.

Beachboi - What CO fuel surcharge? CO's fares on its website doesn't add fuel surcharges, only taxes. Whatever FS one may see on its internal fare structure, the public doesn't see it and is not affected by it.

If they list a high fare on their site, then it just means a high fare for the customers.