Took the hotel shuttle to O’Hare which was a quick 10 minute ride getting me to Terminal 2 for 11:50 for my 2pm flight. Continental have a slightly odd system whereby you check-in your baggage in Terminal 2 yet the flights depart from Terminal 1. However, as Terminals 1, 2 and 3 are all connected airside, it doesn’t really matter where the check-in facilities are located. There was only one TSA guard on passport-checking duty and only one lane for security screening so the security line moved rather slowly, taking about 25 minutes. Once airside, I took a little wander around Terminals 1 and 2 before settling for a burger and enormous iced tea from Johnny Rockets. Fully stuffed, I wandered over to Terminal 1 and our departure gate around 1pm where the flight was shown to be on time.
Boarding began at about 1.45 onto the small Embraer RJ145 and as I was seated in 3B, I was one of the last to board. Unfortunately this meant there was hardly any storage space left so had to leave my bag in one of the overhead lockers at the back of the plane. Once everything was ready, a manual safety demo followed by us taking off about 15 minutes late, heading towards Detroit before turning to New York. However, the flight time was only 90 minutes rather than the scheduled 2 hours 20 minutes which meant we were due to land in Newark early. Once airborne, there was only really time for the drinks service before the descent began. Not sure whether the sunny weather outside played a part, but the cabin became rather uncomfortably hot and I began to feel slightly nauseous – the last time this happened was also on an Embraer while coming into land in Quebec City – not sure whether the size of the plane had anything to do with it. Anyway, we managed a smooth landing arriving at 4.50pm, plenty of time to make my 7.20pm connection. Again, a perfectly acceptable flight – nothing outstanding, but also nothing disastrous. Once off the plane, I headed towards the shuttle bound for Terminal C...
Jonathan
