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Airport Express Continental Air Transport Co
Category: Hotels & Travel Transportation Airlines Airlines [Edit]
1200 W 35th St(at Racine Ave)
Chicago, IL 60609
Neighborhood: Bridgeport
(773) 843-2310
4 reviews for Airport Express Continental Air Transport Co
4 reviews in English
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Review from Robyn T.
5/17/2012
It seems like such a good idea to take Airport Express. It's reasonably priced and it's convenient. But then you look at the Yelp reviews and remember just how much they suck. I rarely say a business sucks, but Airport Express truly does.
I recently purchased a Living Social coupon for a one-way trip on Airport Express. After years of boycotting their service (for having to make too many stops on my way to the airport and lack of customer service) I decided to give them another try. I made my reservation online using their recommended time frame and even added an extra ten minutes as a buffer.
Fast forward to day of my trip. I'm going to visit my fiance in LA. I'm excited for my trip. I get down to the lobby of my South Loop high rise (conveniently located just a block from many of the major hotels so not in an out of the way area) 10 minutes early in case they come early (which they've done before). I start to get nervous when 10 minutes go buy. 15. I call and speak to someone; it is exactly 18 minutes after their allotted time frame. They say they have a 20 minute window. I see that somehow I have a voicemail from a driver saying he is at my building in front (I am in front of my building there is no one there). I call back. They make up some BS excuse that the driver "got lost and couldn't find my building". I am on Michigan Avenue. 15 minutes later someone shows up and says she just got a call to come pick me up. It is now after 4 pm. Rush hour from the South Loop to O"Hare? It was a nail biter of a ride let me tell you! We made it to O'Hare and the driver had to stop at a different terminal to check-in with her dispatcher?! Somehow I made it on time and was thank goodness able to check my bag.
Please use my story as a warning. Do not use Airport Express to get to the airport. If you are looking to take it from the airport and have all the time in the world to sit in the van while they troll the concourse waiting for other clients and then have to drop off people at every hotel in the city good for you. If not I recommend a cab or the CTA. -
Review from Mihir S.
Chicago, IL
5/26/2011
I'm so fired up right now I can't sleep.
I had a reservation for a ride from Midway to my pad. The Airport Express desk was closed so I went out to the curb and spoke with a driver who was chatting away with some guy. I finally got his attention and he said he didn't have the reservation but he had room. I showed him my voucher and he shoved it back to me and said it was expired, "I can't take this." He went back to yapping away but my voucher wasn't expired, he read it incorrectly. After a couple of minutes I got his attention and he was cool and took my bag. I got in the van and was ready to go home and crash. It was 12:30am.
He then opened the van door and said I had to get out as a reservation that he didn't think would show up did. I told him a had a reservation as well. It didn't matter. I got out and he said he'd call for another van which he didn't for ten minutes at least. I had to remind him. He went in the van ans supposedly called for a another one and said it'd be another 20-30 minutes.
Did he really think I was going to take his word or wait that long at that time? HELL NO. Asshole. -
Review from erin h.
Santa Monica, CA
4/12/2009
I can't understand how I'm the first to review this service. I've probably screwed this up and have missed the 8,000 reviews hidden under some other variation of the name. But in any case, boo on Airport Express Continental Air Transport Co! And why is your name so freaking long?
Numero Uno. When I arrived in Chicago I called the Hilton I was staying at. Asked if they had a courtesy shuttle from Airport to hotel. She said sure- just jump on this thing.
Awesome! SO I find the thing. Little sis and I jump in. Dude asks us for our ticket. We have no idea what he's talking about. He takes us to another terminal. I get out. I'm directed to ticket booth.
$72 later. Apparently Chicago has a different definition of courtesy shuttle. At LAX each hotel has a free shuttle to get you there and back. Not the case here. I wish I'd known before he'd driven me around the airport with my stuff packed in the back of the van.
So the sister and I are stuck in traffic with a crazy driver for over an hour getting into downtown. When I got in the van I told him the address and name of the hotel. There are apparently more than one Hilton in downtown so I made sure to tell him it was the Magnificent Mile location. Hilton Suites. Delaware Place. He says sure. He asks for one of my potato chips. Little sis and I hide under the seat and silently talk about him via mobile Facebook status updates comments.
A while later we pull up at the Hilton. It looks mighty fancy for the sweet $59 Hotwire rate I booked last minute. I had a feeling the driver had gotten this one wrong. I asked if we were at Magnificent Mile and the Hilton guy said no- other end of Michigan. I look at the driver. He says "I asked you!"
Yes, driver guy, you did, and that's why I gave you so many details about the location of our place including the address. Thanks for listening. I'm sorry I wouldn't share my chips with you.
Luckily he got it right the second time around. I still gave him the obligatory tip, because I always do.
Fast forward to 4am the next morning. We had scheduled our pickup for a 6am flight. Different driver rolls up in front at 4:01 on the dot. Not too shabby. He's friendly, he's alert. We hit the freeway and I felt the acceleration building...70, 80, 90mph....
Once I saw the speedometer creep past 100 I started envisioning the news story. Something to the extent of "Young sisters killed by FUCKINGINSANE airport shuttle guy." I closed my eyes and prepared for the worst.
Luckily, the trip back to the airport was over soon. The sis and I flung the door open before the van had even stopped moving.
Never.
Again. -
Review from S P.
Honolulu, HI
11/6/2011
If there was a 0 rating, that would be it. This is by far the worst $50 I spent for transportation to-and-from an airport. I wanted to make sure I could tell my story while it's still fresh in my mind. When I called to confirm my reservations, the agent was quite rude and said that I didn't need to call them. I just needed to show the driver my voucher. That was my first impression of the company, and should have seen it as a red flag.
Granted, the driver who took me to my hotel was nice, but I had to tell him FIVE times where my hotel was. How hard is it to remember the Downtown Marriott on Michigan Ave?! I was the first one on the shuttle and had to be driven around the airport to pick-up other passengers for 45 minutes! I could've made it to the first session of my conference if I had taken the L (the public rail), but I decided not to get angry since I wanted to enjoy my conference so I just sat and waited for almost an hour and a half before we finally made it to my hotel.
The trip back was even worse. When I called to reserve a spot, the agent repeatedly said that it wouldn't be their fault if I didn't take the recommended time slot. My flight was at 3:15, but she recommended 12:15 pick-up. I was NOT taking an international flight. I told her I wanted the 12:45 pick-up, but she insisted that it wouldn't be their fault if I missed my flight. I wanted to make it to a luncheon I paid $55 for. I got nervous and called back to change it to 12:15. A different agent picked-up the phone and said she didn't have me written down (WTF!!!!!). The previous agent didn't ask for a confirmation number, but this one did. I didn't have it on me because I was in between conference sessions, so I had to go back to my room to get the number. When she asked which airline my drop-off was, I told her Continental/United. She said I needed to be specific with the driver.
The driver "greeted" me with a frown and a sigh. Don't know why. She then started complaining how she had to pick up other customers (isn't that her job?). She proceeded to honk and yell at other drivers as she drove to other hotels and almost ran over 2 pedestrians. On her jacket, I saw "safe driver of the year (2009)," so I hope that wasn't her jacket. Anyway, one of the stops had an elderly man, and I could NOT believe how she was treating him (btw, he is a professor at a very prestigious university, but was a little hard of hearing). Anyway, he didn't have reservations so he wanted to know how much it cost so she got really frustrated with him. I almost stepped in to say something, but realized I knew him from the conference I attended and didn't want to embarrass him. He seemed a little shaken up by her rudeness so I started a conversation with him to get him to relax as she continued to drive like a crazy woman.
We pull up by Continental/United (it's the same drop-off point because it's now one company), and she took so long to get out of her seat that I went to grab my bag. I wanted to leave so I didn't have to end my trip on such a negative tone. She got mad at me for touching the bags and shook her finger at me. She then complained to one of her colleagues standing in the street that she had 2 guys in the back who couldn't speak English. Well, they did, but had an accent.
So, if you're elderly, foreign, and/or Asian, don't use this transportation. I wasted $50 on the transportation cost and $55 on a nice luncheon for the worst experience of my life. I'm going back to Chicago in 2 weeks and will use the L instead.
