Delays and cancellations at MCO

[Girl of the South]

I have been reading about flights into MCO being curtailed, the airport shutting down for a few hours. About to get in the TA cruise tomorrow - getting to London was a bit worrisome (delays at EWR) but I made it!

Has anyone had any issues flying in or out of MCO due to the shutdown? Maybe I should reserve a car and consider driving home from FL if this is not resolved in 2 weeks.

Google says 10 hours . .

 

[OKW Lover]

Not that it will really help until you are actually in transit, but this website is interesting:
https://www.flightaware.com/miserymap/

 

[gottalovepluto]

If you absolutely must be home I’d reserve a refundable car. If not I’d let it ride since 2 weeks is forever from now and hope the threat of an impacted thanksgiving is enough to cause an outbreak of common sense in DC.

 

[Girl of the South]

Thanks for the FlightAware link! I assume it updates? When I looked it was for 4 - 8 am. Sett re ms to me when I flew over here, that the likelihood of delays increased later in the day.

The only thing about “must” being home is the added expense of a hotel room in FL and increased mass of angry people!

Really thought it would be over by now. But I thought that about Covid every week . .

Thanks!

 

[OKW Lover]

Thanks for the FlightAware link! I assume it updates?

I believe it updates every minute. Click on the arrow at the bottom to see how the "misery" changed over the past 1-2 days.

 

[Doingitagain]

Not that it will really help until you are actually in transit, but this website is interesting:
https://www.flightaware.com/miserymap/

Interesting, I read about issues at MCO and I don’t see it listed.

 

[DCLMP]

I have been reading about flights into MCO being curtailed, the airport shutting down for a few hours. About to get in the TA cruise tomorrow - getting to London was a bit worrisome (delays at EWR) but I made it!

Has anyone had any issues flying in or out of MCO due to the shutdown? Maybe I should reserve a car and consider driving home from FL if this is not resolved in 2 weeks.

Google says 10 hours . .

I don't think anyone can predict that. There will probably be continued ground stops and cancellations throughout the shut down. Having a back up plan is probably a good idea.

 

[Chuck96]

We flew home yesterday from MCO (to DCA ["Washington National Airport"]). Four gate changes and took off three hours late, but I counted my blessings. Massive Kudos to the airport and JetBlue staff. I won't fly again until the ATCs are getting paid.

 

[LuvOrlando]

DH flew around to multiple cities when all this started and it helped a lot to have both Amtrak seats reserved as a backup with good cancellation policy (I think it was 2 hrs before) and a rental car reserved from way back when the trip was originally booked. Once the shutdown happened there were no rental cars available to be reserved from EWR - not a single one - but we have friends and family in the area as backup. In the end the flight worked ok with a few hours of delay so he canceled the train tickets but it was totally worth the effort to have peace of mind, the refunds came though no issue and I doubt Amtrack had any trouble selling the tickets to people with flights later in the day.

If I was to book travel right now I suppose I would book the earliest possible flight and a red eye train as a backup because the delays can be quite lengthly but I would still rather a plane to a long train or drive so I'd be a hold out - yikes to all that.

 

[lanejudy]

Interesting, I read about issues at MCO and I don’t see it listed.

If you click on "all cancellations today" in the upper right you can search by airport. It looks like today (11/3) so far there have been 108 delays and 3 cancellations both inbound and outbound. For outbound it's 60 delays and 1 cancellation.

 

[DCLMP]

I guess another alternative would be to book two flights on different airlines and hope one of them takes off. Most rates are refundable. Even a better strategy if you can use miles.