I recently went on a bike trip to the Pyranees in France. I trained for this for over six months, slaving away in my basement on a trainer as well as doing other workouts in the hostile winter here in exchange for two weeks of payoff on the mountains in France. Everything went wonderfully on the trip (more on this later). I was pretty excited when I was packing and leaving. It was the sort of feeling that you got in college when you knew you were going to ace a test. All the preparation and pre-work was done, it was simply time to perform.
There are not any options for international travel here in Madison, so I hopped a bus to O Hare. Pleasant trip. I got to terminal five and the check in was professional and fast. I breezed through my passport check with a pretty short line.
I wanted a drink to celebrate my accomplishment of training so hard and being so dedicated to my goal so I looked for the bar in the international terminal. I ran into this booze stand.
I scratched my head a bit and said to myself – this simply cannot be the only place to get a drink in this terminal. Well it was.
I still can’t figure this out. All they had at the O Hare International Terminal Five was two of these booze cart type things, and a couple of walls of duty free crap such as booze, smokes and perfume (as always).
This is what the City of Chicago wants foreign passengers to see when they arrive at their airport? Can anyone explain why they don’t have a decent cafe, restaurant or bar in this terminal? I just found it weird and frankly, pretty backward.
I was hoping to read about your bike trip. But in response to your question, I want to know 1) who has the drink concession and 2) how much they charge. I assume that the bidding process is competitive and open to any relative of the mayor or airport manager without regard to race, creed, religion, national origin or sexual orientation.
That terminal 5 is an abomination. You also forgot to mention how ugly it is.
You were lucky you didn’t get jumped for taking a photo in the airport by the crack homeland security squad. Knowledge of that booze cart’s whereabouts is classified info.
Jonathan – bike trip posts coming soon.
Here’s a comparison
http://stpancras.com/Drink
Most airports are run by local governments. Most local governments are run by people that have little or no experience in private enterprise much like our current administration in Washington. The concession awards are routed through politicians with their hands out. Payoffs are of course under the table in the form of cash or jobs for relatives. Privately owned shopping malls fill their spaces with profit and losses in mind and the result is no corruption and great shopping areas with friendly service. Has everyone forgotten how the USSR ran stores and hotels. A bar operator will not invest in plush seating and expensive decorating when his franchise can be taken away at the whim of some corrupt politician.
Speaking of payoffs, Los Angeles has been building a light rail system for 20 years. One place it does not go is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Why ?
You would have to ask the taxi and shuttle concessionaires.
Dunce: It is worse than that. The Obama Administration is run by guys who weren’t savvy enough to rise in the Cook County Democrat Party.