A Lot of Flights Being Canceled?

[katmigordon]

Are a lot of flights being canceled these days? I knew it was happening last year, but is it still a big issue? The way they're talking on one of the threads on here it's as likely to happen as not and now I'm freaking out about our flight into Florida in October and wondering if we should plan to get there more than one day early.

 

[MICHAELB1]

Are a lot of flights being canceled these days? I knew it was happening last year, but is it still a big issue? The way they're talking on one of the threads on here it's as likely to happen as not and now I'm freaking out about our flight into Florida in October and wondering if we should plan to get there more than one day early.

I flew to and from Texas last week, didn't see that many cancellations on the boards other than Miami and Jacksonville, they were having pretty bad weather down there. I think you will be fine overall, it is mostly isolated to weather events, completely early. I am getting to California prior to my December cruise 2 days early so I have time to go to DL and DCA prior, and I think overall unless you are doing that the day before is good. Just make sure it isn't a super late flight.

 

[Cruising Engineer]

Are a lot of flights being canceled these days? I knew it was happening last year, but is it still a big issue? The way they're talking on one of the threads on here it's as likely to happen as not and now I'm freaking out about our flight into Florida in October and wondering if we should plan to get there more than one day early.

October is a long way off and anything could change between now and then. We also fly in two days early prior to cruise day because we almost missed the ship with a one-day early arrival due to the weather between Albuquerque and DFW (DFW was closed because of high winds). Two days is peace of mind for us and one day in EPCOT.

 

[sjuncfan]

We did the Magic out of Miami last week and while we were not particularly impacted, it was a miserable travel weekend.

We flew down Friday before the Saturday cruise and were delayed a couple hours, but we were lucky. Numerous people posted on the cruise FB site about cancelled flights, finding nothing available to get to the cruise in time, and driving from all over creation (Pittsburgh, Nashville, DC, Atlanta, etc) to make the cruise. There were a handful coming from the west coast that didn't make it. Similar stories to a much lesser extent flying home after the cruise.

I also had several non-cruising friends have their spring break plans significantly altered due to cancelled flights.

Yeah, it's been bad lately. I think the airlines are operating with no room for error so any issue hoses everything. And we're paying a sh*t ton for the experience. Good times.

 

[tvguy]

Network news did a story last Friday on this. Not enough staff to operate the planes seems to be the biggest problem.

 

[Akck]

We follow a UK vblogger who flew in to a cruise the day before. He never adjusted to the time change and recommended flying in at least 2 days before, which we now follow. Also, with living in Alaska, we’re very familiar with flight delays and cancellations due to weather. We’ve planned in the past to fly out a day early just in case of bad weather. So now I’m trained to have contingency plans in the back of my mind, which hopefully will work well with the current flight cancellation problems.

 

[melissa723]

We had a cruise scheduled for March 13th and our flight (along with several others) were cancelled right before boarding. Missed the ship, our luggage went to Florida without us and later found out it was all due to staffing issues. Even if we had booked our flight the day before it wouldn't have helped because they had started cancelling the flights two days prior to our departure. We were able to rebook a cruise for two weeks later and decided to drive this time because we didn't want to risk it. The Saturday we got off the ship (April 2nd) it happened again (software and weather issues this time) and a lot of the passengers from our ship had cancelled flights and delays. We were so happy we had our car with us. I know it's not always feasible to drive, but we are planning on going on another Disney cruise in June, and we're prepared to drive down again. The cost of flights and the risk of delays are a little too high right now.

 

[Dug720]

I'd do the flight earlier in October simply for the fact that it gives you more wiggle room in case of a hurricane. That's kind of the higher point of hurricane season.

 

[randumb0]

October is a long way off but one day early should be fine

 

[mickeybaby]

We were caught up in a weekend of canceled flights returning from Miami after our Spring Break cruise. Pure chaos resulting in a > 1000 miles drive home!

 

[KT2038]

You never know with flights. One day should be fine, but if it would give you peace of mind and less anxiety to fly in earlier then go for it

 

[robinb]

There have been recent cancellations. Who knows what things will be like in October?

I think that if you're worried about not making it to your cruise you should buy trip insurance. Given the price tag of your trip you should have trip insurance anyway and one that includes medical evacuation. We did that for our small $2K NCL cruise in September, I wouldn't think about not having trip insurance for a $10K+ cruise.

 

[katmigordon]

We're actually planning to fly in as early as humanly possible in the morning. And we aren't planning Disney before because why risk coming up positive on the test and not being able to get on board... I mean no offense because I see that you are, it's just not a risk we're personally willing to take. And we are flying in as early as possible the day BEFORE the cruise.

I flew to and from Texas last week, didn't see that many cancellations on the boards other than Miami and Jacksonville, they were having pretty bad weather down there. I think you will be fine overall, it is mostly isolated to weather events, completely early. I am getting to California prior to my December cruise 2 days early so I have time to go to DL and DCA prior, and I think overall unless you are doing that the day before is good. Just make sure it isn't a super late flight.

 

[soniam]

Expect flight delays. They have been happening since last year and are continuing this year. Flights job are not easily or quickly filled either.

 

[Akck]

I suggest getting the Flightaware app on your phone. You can then start checking flights say a week before to see if any were canceled or delayed. If there are cancellations just before your trip, you can look into going earlier. I also like the app for gate info when we have connecting flights and to gauge the chances of arriving late/early base on the last couple of flights.

As for testing positive, I’ve read that it takes 4-6 days after being exposed for it to show on a test.

 

[wfjny]

Weather delays and cancellation are always an issue, especially this time of year.

There have been a few airlines that have also experienced staffing issues. JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines had issues last weekend because of that. JetBlue plans to proactively cut flights for the rest of April and it also expects to reduce its summer flight schedule by at least 8% to 10%.

Alaska Airlines has sited training delays causing flight cancelations.

This is not just a US based problem. British Airways and Easy Jet have been canceling flights due to staffing shortages caused by a soaring number of coronavirus cases.

Of course, a lack of flights also means a lack of a backup plan if things do go wrong. If the 2:00 PM flight on Jet Blue is cancelled, that is one thing. But if American Airlines got rid of the the 4:00 flight, well, there is not enough excess room to move people around.

 

[Husker Mike]

On Saturday, 4/2, it appeared that over half of that afternoon's flights were cancelled due to a large cluster of storms that extended from the Atlantic over Orlando to south of New Orleans. Six families on a April 4 cruise resorted to driving after their flights were cancelled and couldn't get rescheduled in time. Last week, American was offering $1200 for people to reschedule flights to Orlando, and on my return flight Sunday afternoon, I got eight different delay notices that were quickly reversed as their agents realized how many people they were going to need to reschedule.

Airlines are like nearly every other businesses. They are struggling to staff back up as the economy returns to normal.

 

[TammiMcMan]

I had already booked flights for our September cruise and was notified that our return flight was cancelled and we were rebooked on an earlier flight. Luckily we are arriving 2 days before the cruise and staying an additional day, Flying with Delta.

 

[sjuncfan]

Weather delays and cancellation are always an issue, especially this time of year.

There have been a few airlines that have also experienced staffing issues. JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines had issues last weekend because of that. JetBlue plans to proactively cut flights for the rest of April and it also expects to reduce its summer flight schedule by at least 8% to 10%.

Alaska Airlines has sited training delays causing flight cancelations.

This is not just a US based problem. British Airways and Easy Jet have been canceling flights due to staffing shortages caused by a soaring number of coronavirus cases.

Of course, a lack of flights also means a lack of a backup plan if things do go wrong. If the 2:00 PM flight on Jet Blue is cancelled, that is one thing. But if American Airlines got rid of the the 4:00 flight, well, there is not enough excess room to move people around.

I would argue that "this time of year" should be the most calm. No snow storms (winter), no thunderstorms (summer), no hurricanes (fall). Plus summer and winter are generally busier travel times.

Spring should be the best time to fly so if it's this bad now, the summer and fall are going to be an absolute disaster. Things do get busy with spring break but the weekend I saw so many issues should not have been a huge spring break time... the weeks before and after Easter are likely much more popular spring break weeks.

 

[lklgoodman]

It's Spring

I would argue that "this time of year" should be the most calm. No snow storms (winter), no thunderstorms (spring), no hurricanes (fall). Plus summer and winter are generally busier travel times.

Spring should be the best time to fly so if it's this bad now, the summer and fall are going to be an absolute disaster. Things do get busy with spring break but the weekend I saw so many issues should not have been a huge spring break time... the weeks before and after Easter are likely much more popular spring break weeks.

Wondering where you live. Spring time is when there are more storms in large parts of the country. I grew up in Oklahoma, right in the middle of tornado alley. March to June is when severe thunderstorms and tornadoes hit a large section of the US. We were at MCO earlier this month for over 8hrs when severe thunderstorms kept rolling into Orlando. We had cruises for many years in Jan and luckily never ran into bad weather. Have done 3 cruises in March and have had weather delays on all 3. Next cruise is in June, so hoping we won't have issues then since we're sailing out of Seattle and will be flying from Ohio.