After visiting Hawaii, I took three consecutive, domestic flights to Chicago on mainland United States. On hindsight, I was very fortunate that none of these flights had any delay. Because if there were, then there would likely be a cascading effect. I would probably miss my subsequent connections to Chicago.
The first flight is on United Airlines from Honolulu to San Francisco.
Night skyline of Chicago
It is an overnight flight on a B777-200 aircraft, I think, reaching San Francisco in the early morning hours. There is no PTV, though United offers free entertainment streaming on its app in-flight. On U.S. domestic flights, there is no complimentary meal service in economy class, even if the flight duration is quite long. Only complimentary drink and snacks are served.
My breakfast at San Francisco airport
On my second flight from San Francisco to Seattle, there is PTV at each seat.
Only complimentary drinks and snacks are served in U.S. domestic economy class
On my third flight, I'm taking Delta Airlines A319 aircraft, fitted with PTV at every seat. This is actually my favourite U.S. airline.
A generous serving of snacks and drinks
Across the North American continent
It was sunset upon landing in Chicago
Due to flight scheduling, I'm not able to explore San Francisco and Seattle while in transit. It's alright with me as I have been to both cities before. I did manage to set aside a longer connection time in Chicago so that I can visit the city for the first time.
After landing in Chicago, I wanted to find luggage storage to store my bag while I wander around the city. Fortunately, the airport hotel receptionist offers to hold my luggage for a small fee even though I'm not staying at the hotel. He didn't specify how much though so I gave US$5 upfront. Not sure if that's too much or too little haha! I got a receipt which I need to keep to retrieve my bag.
After which, I took the airport train to downtown Chicago for a self-guided night tour.
My impression is that Chicago isn't really a tourist city. Rather, it is a business city with many skyscrapers. There are hardly any tourists wandering around. Previously, I have read an article on the clean-up of the Chicago river and the addition of a river boardwalk. After alighting from the train, I walked along the city skyscrapers to get to hard rock cafe, then walked along the length of the river boardwalk. It was clean, though it was deserted at some parts. There could be more lighting in the dark. But otherwise, I still felt safe.
With that, I returned to the airport, retrieved my luggage and checked in for my Asiana Airlines flight back to Asia!
