Corporate group transportation from O'Hare for 20 to 50 people

Sprinters or a coach: corporate group transportation from O'Hare

The headcount sets the floor, and the flights decide the rest. A coach is cheapest per seat when the whole group is in one place at one time, which is true for a charter flight or a team traveling on one booking. Executive Sprinters are the better tool when people arrive on different airlines, because each one can leave when its riders are aboard. The Executive Sprinter shows a price as you book; the mini coach and the motor coach are quoted.

Leave a few empty seats. A group that exactly fills a vehicle has no room for the colleague who changed flights, the client who joined late or the bag that would not fit overhead.

Not everyone needs to ride with the group. A CEO, a keynote speaker or a client the team is courting can be met separately in a sedan, an Escalade or the BMW 7 Series, which is quoted, and taken straight to the hotel. It costs one more car and saves the most important person in the group from waiting on the slowest bag at the carousel.

Staggered flights: plan in waves

Sort the flight list by landing time and look for natural gaps. Arrivals within about 90 minutes of each other form one wave; a longer gap starts the next. Each wave gets a vehicle sized to its own headcount, and the coach, if there is one, goes to the biggest wave.

Every flight is tracked, so an early or late landing moves the pickup without anyone calling, and each pickup includes 1 hour of free waiting at the airport. That hour covers a normal walk to baggage claim; for an international arrival at Terminal 5, plan the wave around passport control as well as the landing time.

1. Sort the manifest by scheduled landing time and terminal.
2. Group flights that land within about 90 minutes of each other into one wave.
3. Size a vehicle to each wave, with a few spare seats.
4. Send the first wave to the hotel as soon as it is aboard; do not hold it for the next one.
5. Keep one coordinator at the airport until the last wave has left.

Where commercial vehicles pick up at O'Hare

O'Hare separates its pickup traffic by vehicle type, and the airport's own pages set out where each one may stop. Charter buses have their own commercial lanes, and they are not allowed at the Multi-Modal Facility used by scheduled regional buses, so the coach meets the group at the terminal itself.

For a pre-arranged car, the airport tells travelers to call the service once they have their luggage, and the company gives them a plate number, a description of the vehicle or a door number. Drivers can also meet arriving passengers in the baggage claim area, which is where a meet & greet for a group leader usually happens.

Brief the travelers before they fly, not after they land. Send each one a short message with the meeting point for their terminal, the coordinator's mobile number and the instruction to wait inside rather than walk to the curb. A group that scatters along the arrivals level is the slowest kind to load, because the chauffeur cannot leave the lane to look for anyone.

Luggage: count it like a passenger

Bags decide the vehicle as often as people do. A sedan takes 3 bags and an SUV 6, but for Sprinters and coaches the number to send is your own count: checked bags, carry-ons, and anything oversized such as exhibit cases, golf bags or a box of samples. The motor coach has overhead luggage racks for carry-ons, so tell us the full count and we plan where the larger pieces ride.

When a group travels with more than a suitcase each, the simplest fix is a Transit Van for 14 that runs alongside the coach with the luggage, or a separate SUV for the bags. It costs less than discovering at the curb that the cases will not fit.

The manifest: one list, one owner

A group arrival works when one person owns the list and everyone else has to ask them. Build the manifest in a spreadsheet, send it to the transportation company a few days ahead, and send updates as flights change rather than letting travelers call in their own changes.

On the day, the coordinator ticks names off as people reach the meeting point and tells the chauffeur when a wave is complete. Anyone missing gets a call before the vehicle leaves, not after. A traveler who misses a connection is moved to a later wave on the list instead of becoming a separate pickup nobody planned for.

• Full name, as the chauffeur should ask for it
• Mobile number that works on arrival
• Airline, flight number and scheduled landing time
• Terminal, and whether the flight is international
• Number of checked bags and any oversized items
• Destination: hotel, office or venue
• Assigned wave and vehicle
• Who needs a separate car, such as an executive leaving early

Pick one meeting point per terminal

United flies from Terminal 1 and American from Terminal 3, while international arrivals clear customs at Terminal 5. A group landing at several terminals needs one meeting point in each, written into the confirmation everyone receives: the baggage claim carousel, an information desk or a numbered door. O'Hare's Airport Transit System train links the terminals, so a straggler can reach the group's main terminal instead of being collected separately.

Tell travelers to go to the meeting point and wait, not to head for the curb on their own. The coordinator does the headcount there, the chauffeur helps with the bags, and the vehicle leaves when the list says everyone is aboard.

From O'Hare to the hotel or the venue

Most corporate groups go to a downtown hotel, McCormick Place or the conference hotels in the suburbs. Add 15 to 20 minutes to these free-flow times for loading at the terminal, and more at rush hour. Companies that move groups regularly can open a corporate account so each arrival is booked against the same billing and contact details.

Plan the departure day in the same planning session. It is the arrival in reverse, with one difference: the earliest flight sets the time. Sort the return flights, group them into waves again, and work back from each wave's earliest departure with enough time for check-in, bag drop and security. International passengers at Terminal 5 need the most, so they usually make up the first wave out of the hotel.