Chicago O’Hare International Airport

Nintendo’s pop-up airport lounges

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Nintendo pop-up lounge at Dallas Love Field

Calling all Nintendo fans. Or anyone wanting some entertainment while they’re stuck at the airport.

Nintendo has rolled out a cluster of pop-up game lounges at four airports just in time for the spring break travel season,

The Nintendo Switch On The Go pop-up airport lounges are at Washington Dulles (IAD), Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA), O’Hare International (ORD) and Dallas Love Field (DAL) airports.

Each lounge gives travelers hands-on time with game demos using Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite.

According to Nintendo, anyone who visits one of these Switch On The Go lounges can order Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite systems and receive a free carrying case with their order.

Another promised bonus for anyone who stops by is a free Nintendo Switch branded luggage handle wrap and a $10 coupon from Target to use on any Nintendo purchase of $75 or more – “available while supplies last.”

Nintendo pop-up lounge at SEA airport

But: We stopped by the SEA pop-up lounge on Monday, the first day Nintendo’s pop-up lounge was opened. Although the attendants were friendly and chatty and offered to take our photo, no luggage handle wraps or coupons were offered. So, if you’re interested in that, be sure to speak up.  

Look for the pop-up lounges through March 29, 2020 at these airports:

Help upgrade the food at O’Hare International Airport

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Have you ever complained about the food at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (ORD)?

If so, here’s your chance to make a difference.

The airport is partnering once again with HMSHost and inviting chefs of all abilities from across the country to enter the Channel Your Inner Chef competition.

Entrants may be “aspiring, connoisseur, or otherwise.”

The event takes place at O’Hare on March 24, 2020. And while you don’t need to be a master chef to enter this live cooking competition, you do need to get busy.

Entrants need to make an up-to-five-minute video of themselves preparing a favorite original recipe. The video entries need to be submitted by February 17 at the Channel Your Inner Chef website.

Five finalists will be selected from the video entries. Those finalists will be flown to Chicago to compete in a live cook-off in front of an audience and a panel of judges at O’Hare on March 24, 2020.

During the 30-minute cook-off, finalists will be challenged to create an original recipe using some of the food ingredients laid out before them.

The winning dish will be featured on the menu of an O’Hare restaurant.

The grand prize winner will win a VIP experience for two to the James Beard Awards Gala being held on May 4, 2020, in Chicago. The winner will also get two roundtrip airline tickets for a flight anywhere within the continental U.S.

Sound like something for you or someone you know? Find more details at Channel Your Inner Chef.

Below is a video from last year’s event.

StuckatTheAirport.com was on-site for last year’s competition. We got a kick out the fact that, after competing against each other, the contestants got together to cook themselves a feast with some of the fresh fish, meats and other unused ingredients that had been fanned out for them.

“We’re cooks,” one contestant told us, “We not going to let good food go to waste.”

Airport amenity of the week: free snacks at O’Hare and Midway Airports

Food, , ,

Free food at the airport? Yes, thank-you.

The Taste of Chicago music and food festival takes place in Chicago’s Grant Park July 10 to 14, 2019, but there are also free tastings and special discounts being offering for travelers passing through O’Hare International and Midway Airports this week.

And although it is only Wednesday, we’re declaring this StuckatTheAirport.com’s Airport Amenity of the Week.

Atlanta International Airport shows off lighted canopy

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Hatsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport recently tested the lighting on the first three sections of its North Terminal canopy.

ATL Airport - green canopy

This canopy is one of a half dozen major construction projects under way at ATL as part of a major 20-year long development program, dubbed ATL Next, that the airport says is designed to boost capacity, renew and replace existing facilities and “enhance ATL’s aesthetic appeal.”

There will be canopies in front of the North and South passenger terminals and the full length of each canopy will be covered in a plastic material that will be able to be illuminated in different colors and patterns by thousands of embedded LED lights.

Work on the ATL’s North Canopy should be done by the fall. The South canopy is expected to be completed in Fall 2019.

The airport did a test run on the lights on part of the North Canopy last week. Neutral white light is expected to be the default color but on special occasions the canopies will be illuminated to mark specific events such as red, white and blue to honor Independence Day.

Other options already under consideration: red and black to celebrate a Falcons Super Bowl victory, or green to mark Earth Day.

Of course, ATL isn’t the first to get a cool lighted architectural feature.

Chicago’s O’Hare Airport has the “Sky’s the Limit” underground neon walkway.

OHARE NEON TUNNEL courtesy ORD

Detroit Metropolitan Airport has a lighted tunnel.

 

And Los Angeles International Airport has lighted pylons at it entrance that are often lit up in different color patterns to honor a holiday or special event.

What other cool lighted architectural features at airports should we add to this list?

Makeover for Terminal 5 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport

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Will a ribbon cutting and this snazzy video, on Tuesday the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA) and Westfield Concession Management unveiled plans for significant renovations at Terminal 5 at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

Coming in Fall 2013: a totally new look, 15 new dining and retail brands and a variety of other amenities.

It’s the first make-over since the terminal was constructed, in 1993. Since then, as we all know, air travel has changed significantly and so this project will move the dining at retail options from pre to post-security locations.

What’s in store?

A new food court with performance kitchens, more efficient TSA checkpoints, a European-style pass-through duty-free store and dining options that will include Tortas Frontera by local award-winning chef Rick Bayless, Natural Break (salads, sandwiches and juices), Tocco (pizza/pasta), Hub 51 (sushi, gourmet tacos, burgers), Urban Olive (modern Mediterranean cuisine), Big Bowl (Chinese/Thai) and Wow Bao (hot Asian buns).

On the retail side: Hudson News outlets, Swatch brings, Chicago-based Vosges Haut Chocolat (yum!), I Love Chicago (art/accessories) and XpresSpa, which will offer massage services and salon treatments such as manicures, pedicures and facials.