snowstorm in the midwest & flight delays

[zeke11]

did the snow across the midwest mess up anyone's flights or connections yesterday or today?

 

We are flying a day early out of Chicago for our cruise at the end of the month, but I'm still nervous....if the airports close for even half a day, would there be any way for us to get another flight, with the backlog of travelers?

 

Has anyone experienced this before?

 

Kris

[chapdaddy]

I was wondering the same thing. All of the flights leaving Chicago are nearly full so even a 2 flight delay would be a huge! number of passengers to get to San Juan. What are some experiences on this.

[JJPNYC]

I've been involved in weather related cancellations a couple of times. Yes, it does stink when it happens as basically those who are affected are put on the first -available- flight, unfortunately sometimes this is a day or two later due to the large number of other displaced passengers who must be reaccommodated and the airline will not bump people on tomorrow's flight just because today's flight was cancelled.

 

With that, here's how I've handled this in the past.

 

- ask the airline to look at unconventional routings just to get out of the affected city - this is 90% of the problem & solution

- sometimes you'll need to go backwards in order to move forward (i.e ORD-DEN-FLL)

- be flexible, sometimes the first objective is to just get out of the affected city where all of the backlog lies

- if its doable, consider driving to near-by airports where there may be seat availability (if in Chicago, consider driving to Milwaukee for instance)

- if the airline says there are no available seats, ask if they are also looking at their code share partners flights

 

I hope that this gives a few ideas for this worst-case scenario.

 

jeff

[wrp96]

Great suggestions from JJPNYC.

 

More suggestions I have:

 

if you get the call the night before that your flight is cancelled, don't accept their first offer of flights. Get on the internet and search out alternatives. A few years ago, our early morning flight was cancelled due to severe storms the night before (we got the call at 11:30 at night). The airline kept offering us flights on Continental or Northwest ONLY, none of which would get us to our destination in time (we were going to a college graduation). We found seats on Delta that would get us there in plenty of time and had the airline put us on those flights - but they never offered those flights to us.

 

Keep your cell phone with you when you are flying. Have the customer service numbers of your airline (and several rental car agencies) programmed into your phone. If your flight is cancelled while you are at the airport, instead of just waiting for your turn to talk to the customer service agent, call the customer service line while you wait in line. Chances are you will get helped before most of the people ahead of you and you can get a jump on the situation. If the airport is shut down due to bad weather, you can call the rental car agencies and see which ones have cars available so you can drive somewhere else - again before all the people that have to walk down and wait in line to see if anything is available.