TRIP REPORT: Back into the Groove – The Hyatt Regency O’Hare

Back in the Groove
The Hyatt Regency O’Hare

• Something a little different? Maybe… 
• Off to the Land of Milk and Honey. I mean Heathrow Terminal 5
• British Airways Galleries Lounge (South Lounge Complex) 
• British Airways BA295 – London Heathrow to Chicago O’Hare (Club World)
• Into the USA, Crowne Plaza O’Hare
• Hyatt Regency O’Hare
• The Wonder of Micro Center
• More Food Adventures in Chicago
• Exploring China Town in Chicago
• Returning to the wonderful Chicago O’Hare Terminal 5
  
• British Airways Terraces Lounge, Chicago O’Hare T5
• British Airways BA296 – Chicago O’Hare to London Heathrow T5 (World Traveller Plus)
• Welcome back to the United Kingdom
• Well, that’s a bit different

Sic Transit Kevin

I’m going to be honest, sometimes, spending $6 to go one block in an Uber is embarrassing – no matter how much luggage I have when I travel between hotels.

So in this case, I thought I would experience American infrastructure, thinking it would all be pavement all the way between the two venues.

Imagine my lack of surprise when I ran into a gravel trap between the hotel property and the pavement. Carrying that lot was fun. 

Not.

Eventually, I found pavement and settled into a rhythm to walk and roll the luggage down the one block of River Road, crossing it via traffic signal, rolling up Bryn Mwar Avenue and to the front of the Hyatt Regency O’Hare.

Although Not Just Bikes is onto something about walking in the USA. Admittedly, that was on worse infrastructure than what The Village of Rosemont has (Chicago is worse – some of the drop-kerbs are downright dangerous).

Maybe next time, I’ll pay the $6 to avoid the gravel trap.

Hyatt Regency O’Hare

I headed indoors – the door staff having been slimmed down to the point of only a few people now, is a disappointing – but expected thing to see.

Heading indoors, the Hyatt O’Hare remains… the Hyatt Regency O’Hare, with its statue in reception, and its atrium-style interior and … the familiarity of it all.

 

Some say that a frequent flyer will at one point go through here. For me – it’s been a place of gathering with friends. And that’s how I remember this place.

I made it to check in – a little early – but thankfully, was allowed to check in without an excess fee being charged.

With that, it was time to head to the 9th floor.

I do like being on a high floor in the main block at this Hyatt -as the 2 am walk of shame back to the room is a little easier for those who need to come back late a night, without getting lost finding their way to Premier Wing/International wing.

If you’ve been on this blog for any sense of time, you’ll know this property inside out from my review. But if you’re new here,… Well, here we go, again.

Bed

Seat 

Alarm and noise-making machine. 

Desk and coffee. My laptop already took residence.

One year, I’ll get one of those BAe 146 prints to take home…

At least this time, we have a room facing out towards the city – which is nice, compared to previous trips where we’ve been facing out to the convention centre.

The room is a double-double bed, which would be good for my roomie and me. I also set up a camp-out table, with a place to edit and watch planes from.

In the room, there’s a massive TV – and it seems that Hyatt has changed the angle of it, so it doesn’t look like it is about to tip over – a welcome thing to see.

There is also an ironing board. Hear that hotels in Germany… of course not.

Meanwhile, the bathroom is still a Hyatt bathroom. It’s got a bath with the built-in shower attachment, the usual mixture of Hyatt amenities inside it too.

And of course, they’re not bulk packed.

Now, you’ve probably scanned through the titles of this trip report and pondered… hey… there’s no Airplane Art special. What the heck?

I am going to blame the wind. In aviation, aircraft normally take off into the wind, to generate lift.

And lift is part magic that puts us in the air. Along with good pilots, maintenance engineers, airline designers and all the other magic that help aeroplanes fly.

Sadly, it meant that aircraft were taking off away from the hotel. With some of the wild bends that some aircraft were taking, it was a little annoying having four days of minimal photography that needs editing.

But here are some pictures.

American Airlines Airbus A321

Envoy for American Airlines Embraer 175

Aeromexico Boeing 737-800

China Airlines Freight Boeing 747-400F

The hotel room was refreshed every night without prompting – thankfully it seems the skip-stop room servicing has come to an end at the hotel. Even on the discounted rate I’m on, I would expect a room to be serviced daily at this level of the hotel.

I managed to use a few of the hotel amenities – mainly catching up with people in the bar (and realising $4 for diet brown liquid is still $4 a pop).

The same can be said for Perks – the in-hotel coffee bar. At least this place was conducting a consistent trade through the weekend. And at $5 for a large coffee… Yeah.

They know they have a captive audience.

The hotel shuttle bus was well managed as usual, with a 15-minute headway maintained – making it an excellent choice for those going to and from the airport.

Check-out was a simple affair – for me, at least. There were no excess charges or anything else charged to the room.

With that, I was able to dump my luggage for a while and explore more of Chicago.

Overall:

After a couple of visits that have been less than great, its finally good to see this hotel settling back down in some respect in what services are offered, how cleaning is done and the things that make this hotel a “go-to” in Rosemont area (and one that frequent travellers can reliably trust on).

Some things are still a little shakey – such as bellhops, but it seems the hotel has shaken off some of the cutbacks a lot over the past few years, which is good to see.

If they could reintroduce the deep-fried calamari though, that would be good…

Next:

We’re going onto destination travel for a bit – as its something I constantly forget to write about. And we’re going kick of the Wonder… of Micro Center.

---

Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.

Follow me on Twitter at @EconomyBeyond for the latest updates, as well as Mastodon too! You can follow me on Instagram too!

Also, remember that we are part of the BoardingArea community, bringing you the latest frequent flyer news from around the world.