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Have you ever had a food craving before? You know; one of those mouth-watering thought consuming food-overtaking-the-frontal-cortex sort of cravings. Well maybe let’s not go that far, but if you’ve had authentic Chicago Deep Dish Pizza before and ever wished that you could instantly have one in front of you then buckle up for this 24-hour adventure!
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It all started on a cold Buffalo evening when I was sitting down to a slice of Buffalo’s finest when it hit me…I need something more in my life. I pulled out my trusty MacBook Pro and took a look at some Round Trip Southwest Flights from Buffalo, NY to Chicago IL. By using the Low Fare Calendar, I was able to find a quick 1-hour flight from BUF to MDW for 5,773 Points on Saturday Morning and back the following morning for 6,386 Points. I instantly booked the flights and added Dave using my Companion Pass paying only the mandatory taxes and fees, $11.20 each way bringing my grand total to $22.40!

Since this isn’t our first rodeo to Chicago, I know that not only are there a ton of affordable hotel options near the Midway Airport, but the Famous Giordano’s is serving that mouth-watering pizza 1 mile from the airport!

I knew that we would be in a red alert food-coma after accomplishing our mission and that it would be important to find accommodations nearby to recover. A quick Hotels.com search brought up a Motel 6 for $53.18 for the night. Hotels.com is a partner with Rakuten (formerly ebates) which offers an additional 10% off after enabling the offer. Because I knew that we were hungry and would need to save every penny for this dinner, I decided to use my Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card to pay for the hotel enabling 10X Hotels.com partnership. The 10x Capital One Hotels.com partnership has ended as of January 31, 2020.
Capital One Venture Credit Card
Earn 75,000 welcome miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. This is equal to $750 in travel.
Basic Thoughts: We love these Venture Miles as they are incredibly easy to use and redeem. You also always earn an unlimited 2x miles on every purchase, every day.
Learn More Here.

Touching down in Chicago at 11:25 am, we arrived at Giordano’s just in time for lunch and YES it was everything that I know and love about Deep Dish Pizza. A pro-tip when visiting Giordanos is to request a window seat facing Cicero Avenue so that you can watch the planes land right over the top of the restaurant. It is the very best way to countdown the 45 minutes that it takes to make the pizza. The bill came to $73.55 plus tip which was $7.99 more than our round-trip flights and hotel room!!
All in all, every bite was amazing and it truly made for an awesome weekend getaway!
Basic Travel Couple Big Breakdown:
- 2 Roundtrip Flights from Buffalo to Chicago for $22.40 + 12,159 points
- 1 Hotel Room for $53.18
- Minus Rakuten 10% or $5.32
- Minus Capital One Venture
10x Hotels.com Bonus470 Miles or $4.70 - Brings cost of Hotel Room $53.18 – $10.02 = $43.16
Grand Total = $65.56 For two flight and hotel room for one night Dinner for two at the Famous Giordano's = $73.55
Capital One Venture Credit Card
Earn 75,000 welcome miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. This is equal to $750 in travel.
Basic Thoughts: We love these Venture Miles as they are incredibly easy to use and redeem. You also always earn an unlimited 2x miles on every purchase, every day.
Learn More Here.
A Basic Travel Couple 24 Weekend Getaway for Deep Dish Pizza = Priceless
Basic Travel Couple, LLC has partnered with CardRatings and MileValue.com for our coverage of credit card products and may receive a commission from card issuers. Editorial Disclaimer: Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
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17 comments
WOW! But as long as you felt that the experience was worth it, that is what truly counts 🙂
Haha yeah definitely!!
Wow! What a bargain for the trip and hotel!
Btw, that pizza looks amazingly good.
It was SO GOOD! I’m ready for another slice lol!
I envy your spontaneous wandering! I am so looking forward to time when I can just hop a plane and take off for a day or weekend! Thanks for sharing your tips!
We are loving it right now!! Let us know if you ever need any customized tips! We can help you plan a trip!
Jeepers! You did good with this score! Show more of these! That was awesome!
Thank you!! Working on our next article now for NYC!
Brilliant excuse for a road trip. Might be a bit more expensive from New Zealand, but that pizza looks worth the trip!
Definitely a bit more expensive from NZ!! lol, maybe you can hop over to Aussie?? (I know, not the same, but NZ to Chicago is definitely a LONG flight! I’ve taken one from Aus to LAX).
wow that was a great article there !! loved it
thanks for sharing
Thank you so much!!
Beautiful narration…money doesn’t matter as long as the pizza is worth it…I can see you enjoyed the experience..that’s what matters .
hahaha, exactly!! Pizza was so great, and such a fun time!
Dddaaammmmnnnnnn….you had my heart skipping 2 beats there, wondering about the exact kind of pizza it would take for me to consume!
haha! We did a bunch of veggies in our pizza. So good!!