Brr Chicago! An adventure to the frozen city with British Airways and Iberia

Brrr! Chicago! An adventure to the frozen city with British Airways and Iberia

• Seriously… go somewhere warmer!!!
• Early morning Heathrow – Off to Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, South Galleries Lounge
• BA458 London Heathrow to Madrid
• A MAD transit
• Iberia IB6725 Madrid to Chicago O’Hare
• Crowne Plaza O’Hare
• Dealing with Chicago Cold
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• More Chicago O’Hare
• BA296 Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow
• Homeward
• Thawing out…

Seriously… Go somewhere warmer!!!

I did that earlier this year. Remember? It was time for me to catch up with my friends in Chicago… and friends can warm you up (as well as keep you sane… or insane as the case may be!).

So with a pre-springtime Chicago Trip, I was sat working out how the heck I was going to get there – and that’s complex.

Not because I won’t pay full price – but because I’m also cheap and am always in the mood for something “different”.

I was hunting around the airline sites, and not having that much luck if I was honest, with the normal Heathrow to Chicago returns pricing into the £500’s plus.

So I did something dangerous for me – and fired up Kayak to see if any interesting options opened up.

Whilst Delta seemed to be dirt-cheap as usual, one option flagged up more than once – and that was an option via Madrid. I was a tight 1-hour connection at Madrid with Iberia.

Hmm. For 80 Tier Points, we’re looking at London to Madrid on BA Short Haul, Madrid to Chicago on Iberia and back to Heathrow on British Airways.

In the end BravoFly had the keenest price – at £476… including a £50 discount if you chose to pay by Mastercard.

£50 off to pay with a Mastercard bit of plastic? What the blazes. I popped my credit card details in, and hoped it would work.

An hour later, a confirmation appeared in my inbox. Buried in that, was a confirmation number.

After engaging in war with the Iberia site (It doesn’t matter what language you use the Iberia site in, it’s akin to full on war), I managed to pull up the itinerary and add my BA frequent flyer number.

This would be important – as it would allow me to choose seats for free and add the extra luggage allowance. More importantly, it would link the booking to the BA Executive Club so I could manage things from the BA site – which as bad as it is, is far better than the Iberia site.

For some reason, two PNRs were generated – but it all seemed to be fine.

For hotels – I’m going to be completely unoriginal – Yes, it’s the Crowne Plaza O’Hare and Hyatt Regency O’Hare again. Why? One is a good hotel after landing, and the other… well I had reason to be there till late each night.

So, some originality, but some of the same – pretty like my normal adventures to Chicago.

There would be one big thing that would be different to previous journeys to Chicago though – and that would be the weather. Previous winter /early spring trips to the Windy City have been the negative-Celsius temperatures. This trip would be a lot colder.

And I mean COLD.

That’s in Degrees Celsius – not Fahrenheit!

Well – here’s a map – let’s begin again as I shiver my way though the frozen city…

Next: National Express and the Heathrow Lounges…

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