Airport parking fees

[AshlandDad]

I'm in Northern Wisconsin, and can fly fairly easily from Minneapolis (4 hours away). The fare is
$198. Or I can drive to Chicago (8 hours) and the fare is $110. There are 4 four of us, so the savings would be $352. Question is...is it worth the aggravation of driving all the way to Chicago? I have friends in Minneapolis that will let me park in their driveway for a week. No cost. But if we go to Chicago, I'll have to pay the parking fees, and probably have to spend a night in a hotel.
I'm guessing that's not worth it. I'd save a little, but not enough to make it worth the hassle.
Any thoughts?

 

[apagano]

That savings will disappear fast if you drive to Chicago. I don't know how long your vacation is going to be, but if you figure the price of gas plus one night's hotel (well over $100 in Chi-Town) along with parking fees of $15 a day or more, it proboably wouldn't be worth it. You can also factor in that your plane is much more likely to be delayed in Chicago as opposed to Minneapolis.

However...and I can't vouch for this in Chicago, but here in Cleveland certain airport hotels will let you park free for a whole week even if you only stay one night. This might not hold true in Chicago given the fact that it's a much bigger and more expensive market than Cleveland, but you might want to call around the airport hotels and find out.

 

[dvc_john]

For what it's worth, a number of airport area hotels and motels allow you to leave your car parked on their property (for no extra charge) if you stay a night. Then they will shuttle you to the airport. I did this at the Courtyard by Marriott near the airport some time ago.
I think the remote parking at Ohare is in the $7 or $8/day range. (Actually, they have a number of rates, the cheapest is the really remote lot where you take a bus to the fairly remote lot to catch a shuttle train to the terminal).

(A weekend night at the above mentioned hotel runs about $76 to $89/night, depending on whether or not you are eligible for a discount like AAA or AARP).