<p>I'm trying to minimize the amount of time son will have to miss from school to get up to Marquette for the scholarship day, and also really trying to get a direct flight back to New Orleans on Sunday. I can get a direct flight from Chicago Midway to New Orleans on Sunday, and was wondering if anyone can give me any advice on getting from Milwaukee to Midway. We are from the south and would rather not drive during the winter up there, so I'm thinking either a shuttle bus or maybe Amtrak. Any recommendations? We will probably stay in the Marriott properties at the Shops at Grand, so don't know how near that is to the Amtrak or bus station. Don't mind if it's a hefty cab fare. Would rather be safe than thrifty.</p>
<p>We may even do the same on the way up, so we don't have to spend all day traveling on Thursday to make sure we arrive on time for the competition on Saturday.</p>
<p>The shops at Grand are near the train station – a few blocks. Amtrak would take you into downtown Chicago to Union Station. From there, you could cab it to Midway or walk over to the elevated train to Midway.
I do not know if there is a shuttle bus.</p>
<p>dbwes, does the Orange line run from Union Station to Midway? If so, Montegut it’s a straight shot, completely brainless. The line terminates at the airport. No transfers, nothing tricky.</p>
<p>No, you can’t pick it up at Union Station. You need to walk about three blocks east to Quincy/Wells. And you’re right, it is the Orange Line.
Montegut, have never made that cab ride so I can’t tell you what it would cost.
In bad weather, cabs certainly run – you might want to allot more time. Having it be a Sunday will definitely help with traffic.</p>
<p>Thanks for the DFW tip. I remember you suggesting it before. I’m trying to do Southwest, and I think Southwest’s hub is Love Field, rather than DFW, though I will check into this. I’d really rather take a direct flight from New Orleans to perhaps Chicago, and then take ground transportation to Milwaukee. I will not have spare days to miss a connecting flight. But I will look into the Midwest connection you suggest. Thanks again!</p>
<p>I’m trying to not have too many nonrefundable flights out there. Although wanna get away from Southwest does allow you to cancel the flight, you must use the flight credit in a year. As my husband hates to fly, I don’t want to have too many unused flights out there. We’re thinking, since we’ll rent a car, that we may just fly in and out of Midway, and rent a car to drive to and from Milwaukee, thus using only direct flights to and from Chicago and New Orleans and only having one rental car, which we’ll pick up and turn in at Midway. Still haven’t made these reservations yet, though. Don’t want to wait too long, so don’t miss the low fare.</p>
<p>What kind of car would y’all suggest we rent, as it may be snowing and we have never driven in snow? It will be on interstate roads, so hopefully, they’ll be cleared, but need advice on what type: SUV, minivan, four wheel drive, or just regular car?</p>
<p>Montegut, I tried sending this to you in a private message but your inbox was full…</p>
<p>You had mentioned a preference against driving in the winter.</p>
<p>Either flying into Chicago (taking CoachUSA to Milwaukee) or Flying into Milwaukee (using the Airport Shuttle, about $12 one way trip), renting a car is completely optional. Milwaukee is a very dense city and walking is easy if you don’t mind the weather. Staying at a downtown hotel such as the Hilton or Doubletree (there are others within or block or two of that), you’ll be a 15 minute walk from Marquette. Marquette is 2 miles from Lake Michigan, with downtown Milwaukee in between…so if you get a hotel in downtown, at worst you are 1 mile from Marquette and 1 mile from the Lake. Make sure you get a hotel in downtown though, there are some on the west side of campus you don’t want to stay at (Ambassador Hotel is on the near west side of campus and is acceptable in terms of safety/distance, but you’d much rather be downtown)</p>
<p>Downside of not having a car is you can’t explore the area, but your visit will be short and there is plenty to occupy you in downtown Milwaukee for a short stay…all within walking distance or within range of your hotel shuttle if they offer one. If you are worried about trekking through the snow, find a hotel that offers complimentary shuttle service throughout downtown.</p>
<p>A purely superfluous comment : the Ambassador is, however, an Art Deco masterpiece that’s been painstakingly redone. Just standing in the lobby is an experience. But I’m sure you’re right, RingOut. Even as a newbie to Mke I could see that it was clearly on the border of the good and not-so-good areas of town.</p>
<p>We are considering flying into Midway, renting a car there, driving up to Milwaukee, using the car to go to and from campus for the scholarship competition, and then driving back to Chicago on Sunday to fly from Chicago to New Orleans on Sunday.</p>
<p>Husband does not want to take Amtrak because too many transfers: plane, cab, train, cab, rental car. He wants to fly direct, get a car, and fly back direct.</p>
<p>However, I have seen many posts a while back that there was a lot of construction between Chicago and Milwaukee, and what is supposed to be a 90 minute drive turns into a 3 or 4 hour drive. Since we’ll be flying in Friday, hopefully, we’ll still make it for the scholarship competition, but since we have to fly out Chicago on Sunday, worried about missing our flight back.</p>
<p>Do you think it would be better to book the shuttle between Chicago Midway and Milwaukee for trips up and back and just use cabs for the short trips we’ll have between the terminal and the hotel and the hotel and the campus?</p>
<p>My grandma flies into Midway and gets to Union Station every time she visits (on the el, I think). If she can do it with her luggage, I’m sure it would be relatively simple for you guys to do it. And once you get there, it’s just the Amtrak up to Milwaukee. I took that once, and it was pretty quick (too quick- I like train rides). Also occasionally scenic, if I recall. Driving up on Friday this time of year I’d assume you’ll get some traffic going in any direction to and from the city. Add in the bad weather and construction and it could be a while. Correct me if I’m wrong here.</p>
<p>Okay. I just booked a flight from NO to MKE on Friday, with a plane change at BWI. I’ve got a two hour leeway in between. I’ve flown into BWI before, and it’s not too bad, so hopefully, I’ll make the connection and all will be well. Start those novenas now!</p>
<p>I checked other airlines for returns from Milwaukee to New Orleans and found a flight with a two hour layover with plane change in Denver. </p>
<p>So, I know there’s a parent on here from Denver way and wonder if he/she can enlighten me on the Denver airport. Is it a large airport, I know this is relative, but is two hour layover long enough to get our luggage and get from terminal to terminal? I’m still exploring, but thought I’d get some feedback from the Denver contingent out there. This is on an airline that does not have refundable tickets, as fas as I know, and one we did have a bad experience with, but I can change planes at an airport other than Atlanta and O’Hare, so I thought I’d look into it.</p>
<p>Thanks, Senior, for the Amtrak suggestion. Husband and I love the train and were hoping that son would get to experience it before heading up to Marquette full time. He hopes to use this mode of travel often to visit Chicago and his cousin in Ann Arbor while up there. Husband is just trying to make it simple for this trip, but we will definitely consider it in the future.</p>
<p>By the way, the New Orleans/Milwaukee with a layover in BWI is exchangeable, Southwest, using credits from previous cancelled flights, so please feel free to offer alternatives if you know of an easier/quicker way. </p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming!</p>
<p>Maybe I am asking the obvious, but do you really need to check luggage for that short of a trip? I try to always carry on unless I am going to be gone for more than 4-5 days.</p>
<p>Great point, Stacey. One reason we like to travel Southwest. They use the same planes and we can bring a regular size carry on. Thanks for the reminder. That is what we’ll do for this trip.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, when we flew home from Milwaukee that time, our flight from Milwaukee was not only delayed, but we were not allowed to bring carry-ons, but had to gate check our carry-ons. Only carry-ons the size of a backpack were permitted, because of the smaller plane. So, not only did our originating flight leave late, but we had to go ON THE TARMAC to retrieve our gate checked bags, which cut into the time to get to our connecting flight. Although we arrived at the gate at take off time, they would not permit us on. </p>
<p>So thank you so much for the reminder about only taking a carry on, but if we are forced to take a smaller plane because of the carrier we wind up using, we may be forced to gate check our bags and be in a time crunch to get a connecting flight.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your suggestions. Keep them coming!</p>
<p>I did an expedia search and found Midwest Airlines, which I know is Milwaukee’s
“home” airline. It seems they operate in conjunction with Northwest now, as we can layover in Memphis on the way back, so we may go with this on Sunday. On a hunch, I did find a similar connection flying from New Orleans to Milwaukee that would actually get us in earlier on Friday. </p>
<p>So, before I change my Southwest flights yet again, thank goodness they’re exchangeable, wanted to get some feedback on Midwest. </p>
<p>Also, are there things going on Friday evening before the scholarship day that we might want to take advantage of? I’m sure we’ll be in too late to sit in on classes, but if there’s any kind of program the Friday before the engineering scholarship day, we might want to participate in that.</p>
<p>Thanks again for all your help and suggestions.</p>
<p>Last year they had some sort of meeting and a low-key “casino night” with prizes the Friday night before. Not sure if they are doing that again or not.</p>
<p>Midwest is a fine airline and is the main carrier coming out of Milwaukee. They also fly a lot of smaller regional jets, so you might have to gate check there too.</p>
<p>Thanks, Ring. Luckily, they do list the carriers on the flights, so I’ll be prepared for gate check. Just hoping the connections work out. We would like to fly earlier in the day in case we do miss connections, so we can catch up later on. Thanks for the reply. Always good to hear from someone who has actually flown an airline before I book a flight. I’ll talk to them personally about rewards options, etc, before making the nonrefundable purchase, but don’t want to wait too long, because can get a pretty good rate right now, not too much more than the Southwest flights. Thanks again for all your help.</p>
: the Ambassador is, however, an Art Deco masterpiece that’s been painstakingly redone. Just standing in the lobby is an experience. But I’m sure you’re right, RingOut. Even as a newbie to Mke I could see that it was clearly on the border of the good and not-so-good areas of town.</p>