Flying Through Charlotte NC in Winter on US Airways

[Host Caroline]

Just a heads up to anyone making connections in Charlotte and flying in to your port of embarkation the day of your cruise (I never never do that, but that's just me...). Because it's such a hub for USAirways there can be massive delays and cancellations if a snowstorm affects where a connecting flight originates from... i.e. it can be nice here but if the flight you are supposed to get on is a plane that came from Boston where it's snowing.....

And our airport shuts down a lot if the weather ices (which it does more than snow)... soooo.. just a word of caution.. It's not a bad airport to get stuck in, just not where you want to be at 4p.m. on Saturday when you're supposed to be a muster drill in Fort Lauderdale :eek:

[hdawson]

And if flying USAir, you better hang on to your luggage very tightly. Charlotte or anywhere else.

[stephenandrew]

Just a heads up to anyone making connections in Charlotte and flying in to your port of embarkation the day of your cruise (I never never do that, but that's just me...). Because it's such a hub for USAirways there can be massive delays and cancellations if a snowstorm affects where a connecting flight originates from... i.e. it can be nice here but if the flight you are supposed to get on is a plane that came from Boston where it's snowing.....

And our airport shuts down a lot if the weather ices (which it does more than snow)... soooo.. just a word of caution.. It's not a bad airport to get stuck in, just not where you want to be at 4p.m. on Saturday when you're supposed to be a muster drill in Fort Lauderdale :eek:

 

 

Hi-

I have no doubt that this is true, but would mention it is probably true of virtually all major hub airports: Chicago, Cincinnati, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, etc---e.g. if the connecting flight you are supposed to get on comes from a city where it is snowing you may be out of luck if you are connecting to it at a hub airport. Unfortunately, with today's hub and spoke system, air travel is more of a chore than a pleasure. Not sure what else you can do except try to get a direct/non stop flight to your port.

[Host Caroline]

You know USAirways has never lost my luggage! "she said jinxing her future flights";)

And I agree with the above posts re hubs but when I was a TA and to this day there are always a lot of problems here with folks who don't realize that just bec. it's a nice cool winter day here, their originating flight is coming from somewhere where it's not so nice. If everyone could/would fly to port a day early a lot of this would be eliminated everywhere but sometimes it can't be helped. If you are flying through here in the winter on departure day you need to have your cruise line's 800 number.. just meant as helpful advice, not applicable to Charlotte exclusively.

[KevBew]

We are flying out of SFO to SJU to catch the Constellation for T'giving week. We bought the tickets through USAir but because of code share we are SFO to IAD on United and USAir IAD to SJU. I am really worried about the bags not making that connex between airlines at IAD, any suggestions? Should we worry at all? Got a suggestion to check the bags at SFO to IAD, retrieve them at IAD and recheck to SJU at the USAir counter. Is that possible? Should I even bother? It's a red eye getting us to SJU around 1 p.m. prior to the 11 p.m. departure. Thanks in advance!

[caa]

We are flying out of SFO to SJU to catch the Constellation for T'giving week. We bought the tickets through USAir but because of code share we are SFO to IAD on United and USAir IAD to SJU. I am really worried about the bags not making that connex between airlines at IAD, any suggestions? Should we worry at all? Got a suggestion to check the bags at SFO to IAD, retrieve them at IAD and recheck to SJU at the USAir counter. Is that possible? Should I even bother? It's a red eye getting us to SJU around 1 p.m. prior to the 11 p.m. departure. Thanks in advance!

 

Unless your layover at Dulles is extremely long, it won't be practical to pick up and recheck your own bags. You'd have to get off the plane, get on the bus to baggage claim, wait for your bags, go upstairs to departures, wait in line at the ticket counter, recheck your bags at least 40 mins before the next flight leaves, wait in line for security, take the bus back to the terminal. Even a 2 hour layover might cut it close, especially if the flight out of SFO is delayed at all. And, since it's a red-eye you'd have to do this all in the wee hours of the morning which will seem even earlier to you coming from the Pacific timezone. Let the airlines handle the luggage. They are much more likely to get it right than wrong :).

 

You can cross pack, so if you do lose one bag that person won't be without clothing. Also, pack a change of clothes in your carry ons.

[buckeye12]

We have US Airway tickets now and our layover is in NC, how bad will it be in February.... :confused: :confused: :confused:

[MRF777]

The best hub airport to fly into has to be Cleveland even in the winter. This airport has very few delays and is easy to navigate..Plus Continental has a smaller hub there.

[Host Caroline]

We have US Airway tickets now and our layover is in NC, how bad will it be in February.... :confused: :confused: :confused:

 

Oops the new feature made me edit but nothing happened.. oh well it was a quote and then I said:

 

Depends on the weather.. but you have my email (see below the post).. I can always email you my number privately in case you get stuck.. we don't have that much bad weather here actually but it's when we do ::rolleyes::

[KevBew]

Unless your layover at Dulles is extremely long, it won't be practical to pick up and recheck your own bags. You'd have to get off the plane, get on the bus to baggage claim, wait for your bags, go upstairs to departures, wait in line at the ticket counter, recheck your bags at least 40 mins before the next flight leaves, wait in line for security, take the bus back to the terminal. Even a 2 hour layover might cut it close, especially if the flight out of SFO is delayed at all. And, since it's a red-eye you'd have to do this all in the wee hours of the morning which will seem even earlier to you coming from the Pacific timezone. Let the airlines handle the luggage. They are much more likely to get it right than wrong :).

 

You can cross pack, so if you do lose one bag that person won't be without clothing. Also, pack a change of clothes in your carry ons.

 

Forgot about those "mobile lounges" at IAD, that would add some extra time to the whole process. We'll try the cross-packing idea and keep our fingers crossed. I've never code-shared connecting flights before and it makes me a little nervous. There is little time for error in San Juan or for buying a weeks worth of clothes.:)

[mom23guys]

We flew through Charlotte in the summer on a clear day on US Air and just about made our flight. We had an hour and a half between flights but our take-off was delayed because someone got sick on the plane before take-off. Nothing major just stomach problems but we had to wait while they changed the seat. This delayed take-off even more because we had to wait for more planes in line to depart. We still might have made the flight on time but we had a waved off landing in Charlotte due to another plane on the runway. We had to make a new approach etc so this delayed us another half hour. They held the plane for us but our luggage didn't make it. Luckily we had crossed packed. One bag arrived two days later but the other took 4 days.

 

I will always pack as much as I can in my carry-on whenever we have to change planes. I had a small carry-on but am buying a much bigger one for our summer cruise. We had never lost luggage before and hope to never again but it pays to be prepared.