Review of United flight from Milwaukee to Chicago in Economy

This set of domestic reports will be from a recent trip to MKE that had some interesting aspects to it.

I had picked a SFO-DEN-MKE routing outbound based on shortest timetable, which essentially cuts the trip in half by distance. But for the return, I opted for a MKE-ORD-SFO routing back so that I could have a longer flight block. I originally was tempted to just drive to ORD and only book ORD-SFO, but the shuttle flight was only $10 more and a drive to ORD in the winter at rush-hour presented too many potential variables so I bit the bullet and added the shuttle to my return leg. The MKE-ORD shuttle is currently operated 6x daily operated by a mix of ERJ-175s and CRJ-200s. I picked the 16:00 departure to avoid the last flight of the day since it would likely incur the largest delays.

This report will cover the (not so) short hop from Milwaukee to Chicago O'Hare aboard SkyWest's CRJ-200s.

Pre-flight

I arrived to MKE at 14:45, which I was told was more than ample enough time. Since the rental car center is in the attached parking garage, It is a short walk to the terminal in the comfort of an indoor bridge on this cold winter day in Milwaukee.

Entering the terminal, you are met with the option of heading to one of three concourses. United operates from C along with WN, so it will be to the left for me.

The vintage clock adoring the lobby.

Each concourse has its own security. With PreCheck I was airside within 10 minutes of returning my car.

There is no reason to get to MKE early. There are no lounges and in the case of Concourse C, there is very little on offer for food.

The only nice thing about this airport is the fancy floor mosaics throughout (although not so easy on rolling luggage).

There is also very little spotting in Concourse C, other than the UA operations to IAH and DEN leaving at the same time, there was just some WN flights leaving at the end of the pier. The UA A319 boarding for DEN as a SY B738 pulls into the international terminal that looks to contain only one gate at a satellite building.

Our gate for today, C12.

At 15:10, our plane was spotted arriving from ORD.

Our 19 year-old CRJ-200 will be in SkyWest livery, she has served DL and UA in her lifetime joining SkyWest in 2014.

flight

United Airlines, UA5502
Equipment: Bombardier CRJ-200LR [N854UA, delivered January 2005]
Departure: 16:00 (ATD: 16:05)
Arrival: 17:04 (ATA: 17:00)
Flight time: 0:55

After deplaning was complete, we started boarding right on time at 15:35. Group 1 was just 5 of us, we were all handed gate check tags for our luggage by the robotic gate agent who didn't speak a word. Bags were dropped at the end of the jetbridge.

We get to walk the gang plank into our little CRJ.

The pilots completing their paperwork.

The cramped Y50 configuration of the CRJ-200s is highlighted by this guy. I must have hit my head at least 10 times boarding/deplaning.

Some strafing shots of the cabin making my way to the back of the bus.

My seat, 12D, for this fight. There is no advantage sitting in the front since everyone has to wait for the gate checked bags so I opted for the seat that would give my engine/wing views. The flight would go out 100% full.

Sigh, our window would be covered in some sort of grease and cracks so there will be abhorrent photography for the rest of the flight.

Seat pitch is quite good on the CRJ-200s, but there is some diminished legroom on the window seats due to the curvature of the plane.

The seats were clearly from the ash tray days, though now capped with plastic.

The basic seatback, no WiFi or any charging ports on this flight.

The seatback contents containing the safety card, Hemispheres, and barf bag.

The PSU.

The front door closed at 15:50 and we pushed back at 15:55.

The turbines started with a puff of smoke and we started our taxi out past the UA A319 still waiting to leave for DEN. They started boarding before our plane even got to the gate showing how fast the turnaround is on these regional jets.

We align on runway 25L and take-off at 16:05 to start our 70 mile run down to ORD.

Goodbye MKE.

There is no service on this flight, but the FA does have the time to go down the aisle hawking adverts for MileagePlus credit cards. The pilots asked for the cabin to be prepared for landing at 16:17 pretty much as soon as we reached our "cruise" at 10,000 feet.

Downtown Chicago at sunset would have been beautiful except for these greasy windows as we turn to head out to Lake Michigan for approach.

After 7 minutes over the water, we cross back into the city to start our short final into ORD to land at 16:33, ~25 minutes early.

Passing the Allstate Arena, when we suddenly throttle it out of there and retract our landing gear.

We pick up some altitude and loop over Chicago Executive Airport as the pilot comes on and explains to us that they saw “a bird on the runway” so decided to abort the landing. My short layover in ORD will be shorter.

We make another looping circle out to Lake Michigan and try our landing again.

This time we touch down at ORD at 16:58. The go around doubled the flight time meaning it took us 55 minutes to travel 70 miles. I quickly check the UA app and I can relax a little since my ORD-SFO flight will also be delayed giving me some breathing room.

Since we landed way out on runway 27R, we had the long painful taxi back to T2. Pulling into Concourse F by our AA siblings.

Plenty of CRJs here.

After a 20-minute taxi, we finally reached our gate next to our twins at 17:19.

I was the last to deplane, a look back at our ride today.

We all stood huddled in the cold jetbridge waiting on the gate checked bags to be carried up one by one.

I finally got my bag at 17:28 (nearly 2 hours after boarding in MKE^^), and head up the jetbridge and into the drab Concourse F. Boarding was due to start for my flight to SFO, but with its delay departing EWR, our plane was now scheduled to board at 18:00 giving me some time to leisurely head over to Concourse B.

This is where I will leave of this report as I start my layover in ORD, thanks for stopping by!

flight details