ORD is one of the worst airports for delays, cancellations, and missed connections. It's horrible, and I will avoid Chicago at all costs. Even if you are CLEAR international connections are painful and more time is needed than necessary.
I was last in the Delta lounge in Atlanta this November and it was really busy and dirty. I almost wished I had stayed in the main area. They have several lounges and I'm not sure which it was that time. Of course they have food. What level are you, Silver, Gold, higher?
My father has Platinum membership. I'm not sure exactly how. It's been years since he's been on regular flights, but he may just have THAT many frequent flyer miles or a credit card that that keeps him up there. Sometimes I can convince him to book a flight on my behalf and I reap the benefit.
Chicago's Delta lounge JUST got renovated, by the way.
ORD itself is rarely my problem. I'm used to getting in and out, and having the individual security lines at each gate is much appreciated vs the clusterfuckery at Denver or Atlanta. The Blue Line is my friend. Spirit flies on time. American and United, not so much.
jtr, rail travel is generally impractical and terrible over long distance in a country the size of the USA. I know that it works in the Boston to DC corridor, and probably NYC to Philly as well, but as a counter-example, Kalamazoo to South Bend. The two communities are around 75 miles apart by car, something that can be covered in under 90 minutes including time for a bathroom break. Both communities are serviced by Amtrak and they are both college towns that are regional population centers. Amtrak takes just under 12 hours and costs just over $100. That's comically impractical.
(As an aside, my parents live within actual walking distance of McGee Tyson airport, which services Knoxville. It has never, not even one time, been a practical AND inexpensive flight from Chicago. It's either 12 hours with a layover in Atlanta or a $350+ direct flight. Sometimes both. This sort of the thing that makes Midwesterners say "Fuck it, it's only 10 hours in the car!")
I've thought about doing some portion of the Chicago / Denver / Reno / SF California Zephyr route, or to run the Spirit of New Orleans, but in either case, the cost is somewhere around six times what a flight would cost and, depending my needs, take somewhere between eight and twenty times as long in terms of transit time. Unless the route was specifically to be my vacation, that's just not a good solution for travel through the unbelievably vast center of the United States. Unless your specific needs involve a train that runs through Chicago, Kansas City or Minneapolis, East-West is kind of a non-starter. And I'm starting at Chicago, which is arguably the easiest starting point for nationwide train travel. Even in the east, there are some states that are barely serviced by passenger lines, like Maine, Tennessee and Kentucky. You can definitely say that it would be a great investment to improve rail lines across the US, but it's a pipe dream for the 95% of the country that isn't within 50 miles of a major shoreline.
Light rail within big cities is an amazing idea and I'm not dissing that at all, but trains cross-country aren't a good solution.
Smaller airports are no so bad, assuming the planes get there from the other airports.
You choose a trip by purpose and the people are the ages they are. 