500 plus flights cancelled

[Kitty 34]

My nephew made it home with a rental at 2:15 last night.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I'm sure most airlines have back ups. Whether they have ENOUGH backups is a different story. I remember when flights resumed following 9/11, we ended up spending the night at ATL because there weren't enough flight attendants for our 75 minute flight home.

You think so? Idk. We flew Southwest twice this past summer and both times there was a lot of scrambling with flights - which we’d never experienced with them before - because, they said, they were having staffing issues. That was months ago. Now, with so many people suddenly sick and out of work, it seems like resources are even more depleted.

 

[RedAngie]

DD and exH made it. Their original connecting flight in Chicago was cancelled, but they were able to get on the next one. The plane just landed and I’m waiting in the cell phone lot for their call.

 

[SMF_mom23]

DD and exH made it. Their original connecting flight in Chicago was cancelled, but they were able to get on the next one. The plane just landed and I’m waiting in the cell phone lot for their call.

I just need to say, huge props to you, your ex, and others who make parenting work with their ex-spouses even when you're no longer together. My parents did great for a while, until one of my step-parents who didn't have children of her own married Dad. She struggled for YEARS to be around my mom and her wife for any length of time. When I got married, I told everyone I wasn't dragging my kids to multiple locations every holiday or doing multiple birthday celebrations for them. Either they figure it out and make it work like adults for a few hours or they'll have to deal with not seeing the grandkids that day. Once she came around things got better and we were even able to have family pictures with all the grandparents and grandkids together and no one visited with one foot already out the door. I cherish those times and pictures, especially now that both my step-mom and mom have passed.

Sorry to get off on a tangent there.... I'm just trying to say thanks, on behalf of your daughter. IDK if she's old enough to realize what a gift she has yet, but she will some day.

 

[sam_gordon]

You think so? Idk. We flew Southwest twice this past summer and both times there was a lot of scrambling with flights - which we’d never experienced with them before - because, they said, they were having staffing issues. That was months ago. Now, with so many people suddenly sick and out of work, it seems like resources are even more depleted.

If there were NO backups, there would be multiple flights cancelled every day. Even before Covid, you'd have folks get sick, miss their connecting flight, or otherwise not be available.

 

[RedAngie]

Sorry to get off on a tangent there.... I'm just trying to say thanks, on behalf of your daughter. IDK if she's old enough to realize what a gift she has yet, but she will some day.

Yes, younger DD is grown, 28.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

For the back up conversation, ideally they have backups but sometimes they just don't. My husband in 2019 had a delayed flight coming home from CA because they didn't have any available flight crews at that time so they had to wait for new ones to come in. The issue had zero to do with sickness and 100% due to the present crew had met their number of hours they legally could work.

A few years back we actually had a connection in Vegas coming home and we got off the plane and actually reboarded the exact same plane. The flight number was always different though so we just thought we were getting a different plane. Nope it was a flight crew switch out.

Both of the above was with SWA.

Under normal circumstances they typically have back up crews, ones on standby that can come in quickly enough although sometimes it just doesn't work out that they have someone so a flight may be cancelled or delayed just due to that, but with labor shortages (and flying planes for crew members generally suck right now due to passenger behaviors and the pandemic itself) and covid cases on the rise whatever plans they had were already tight.

Delta has been one of the main airlines affected by labor shortages throughout this pandemic it's not surprising they were one of the airlines to cut flights.

 

[ronandannette]

We made it out just fine Christmas Eve and on time. Who knows what will happen on the return.

Are you flying WestJet? They've been a gong-show for months and months now. The latest flight change I've had to deal with is for FLL in February. The ever-so-helpful WJ agent, who I spent over an hour of quality time with trying to get the flights re-booked, sweetly informed me that all WJ flights are reviewed for revision during the last week of every month. Oh joy! That's two more chances for those February plans to be completely up-ended again.

 

[kanerf]

Well made it to MCO without issue on the 23rd. Returning to DCA on the 29th, so we will see. On American.

 

[JimMIA]

DD and her family flew down from Atlanta a couple of days before Christmas with no flight scheduling issues. They did encounter one moron acting out with the flight attendants on SWA about wearing a mask. He had it off and on the whole flight, but fortunately he was a number of rows in front of them so they didn't have any interaction with him. He wasn't drunk or anything, just an ***.

However, they canceled their return flight, rented a car, and are driving back today. The flight is short, but they would have had to put up with the whole airport mess and congestion, so they decided the drive was a better option.