Flight Delay/Cancellation

[jujubiee4]

Just wondering if there are any recent reports of anyone getting major delays or cancellations from
flights. Just booked a cruise for fall and leaving the day before (in the morning). Is that still sufficient?

Last month had a harried experience with Jetblue for our Fantasy sailing and won't be using them this trip.

* Just read an article there are major pilot shortages that will be here for a while.

 

[lklgoodman]

Just wondering if there are any recent reports of anyone getting major delays or cancellations from
flights. Just booked a cruise for fall and leaving the day before (in the morning). Is that still sufficient?

Last month had a harried experience with Jetblue for our Fantasy sailing and won't be using them this trip.

Haven't flown since March, but I just saw on the news that United and Delta have major pilot shortages right now.

 

[GusterFan]

We bought tickets to Vancouver leaving at times that were great for us and left plenty of time. The problem was that since we bought them so far out, the flight schedules and availability of flights have changed so much that now our times will work totally fine regarding the ship, but are going to be pretty rough on us travel wise. All I can really advise is book the best you can with what's available and when they start to make changes. If they're ones that just aren't going to work for you, try and switch or cancel? I'm sure that's nothing you don't already know, This was just the first time we've had our flights changed so wildly from what we signed up for, so now I know a little better what to expect regarding changes.

If you're on a red eye with us and our 6 year old on June 6th that leaves at almost midnight, my apologies in advance!

 

[jujubiee4]

If you're on a red eye with us and our 6 year old on June 6th that leaves at almost midnight, my apologies in advance!

The ship leaves on a Saturday. I have booked us for Friday morning 7 am departure. Im now
wondering if we should take a red eye Thursday . Normally red eyes don't bother me but this
time around will be brutal. I know Sept is still hot in Florida and won't be able to check hotel
until later.

 

[jlynch924]

I think you’ll be fine coming in the day before. Just stay away from same-day flights.

 

[Rob1872]

The ship leaves on a Saturday. I have booked us for Friday morning 7 am departure. Im now
wondering if we should take a red eye Thursday .

Moving up to Thursday seems a little excessive. You are going out early Friday; if there was an unexpected maintenance failure you have all day to fall back on, PLUS still being able to go Saturday morning in an emergency. I'd only move the departure up to Thursday if you wanted to have a day at a theme park/water park on Friday.

 

[DCLMP]

The ship leaves on a Saturday. I have booked us for Friday morning 7 am departure. Im now
wondering if we should take a red eye Thursday . Normally red eyes don't bother me but this
time around will be brutal. I know Sept is still hot in Florida and won't be able to check hotel
until later.

How would anyone know what the weather is going to be like in September? I think your asking a question that’s impossible to answer. You can always book a day room.

 

[Sykes]

Airlines are still running without a lot of slack in the system, so relatively minor issues can cascade into pretty major delays. I also wouldn't get too attached to the flights you've booked--domestic flight schedules this far out only represent a rough approximation of what the airline will actually end up flying, and the real flight schedules aren't being firmed up until between 30 and 60 days before departure. Having said that, I wouldn't have any concerns about taking an early flight the day before the cruise--I'd just avoid flying the day of the cruise (and if you can avoid it I'd think twice about taking the last flight of the day before your embarkation day).

 

[tvguy]

I'll be driving everywhere for at least the next year. The entire Travel Industry is a mess right now between staffing shortages and covid.

 

[shananigans]

Coming home from Spring Break, Sun Country canceled our flight the day of departure. Had to book on Delta, first class was all that was left. Flight delayed once. We FINALLY get on board. Then hear the flight attendant and co-pilot talking about how they didn’t have a pilot. We were asked to get off of the plane, delayed again, while we waited for a pilot to arrive.

We are flying out Thursday evening for a Memorial Day cruise on the Dream to the Bahamas. Sincerely hoping all goes to plan. We are already flying out at 6 pm that night, just keeping our fingers crossed!

 

[Cruising Engineer]

We almost missed a cruise (Celebrity) even flying in one full day+ ahead of embarkation. DFW was closed because of high winds, diverted to San Antonio, and rented a car to drive to DFW (nothing from San Antonio to Ft. Lauderdale). Got the last 2 seats the next morning out of DFW. Our luggage never made it to the ship. So now it's two days prior for us and we carry all our stuff on the aircraft. Totally up to your level of risk.

 

[Dug720]

When I flew on the 15th - flight booked by DCL, but it was the first Delta of the morning of the day before my cruise. I felt ok with it and MY flight turned out to be fine.

But there was a lesson in why to NOT do the day-of flights just down the terminal. I heard a huge commotion with yelling about "We have a cruise!" and such and looked up at the departures board. Flight to MIA getting in before 3pm - CANCELLED. Flight to West Palm Beach getting in before 1pm - CANCELLED. ONE flight to FLL getting in with enough time to make a cruise was still a go, but from the yelling that continued, it was full with a huge standby list.

If my only option is the day before, I'll be on the earliest flight I can be that day so there is some wiggle room. I'm already planning to request a vacation day the Friday when our Feb Break would start at 2:50pm so that I've got the option of a flight on Thursday night or the first one out Friday morning with a Saturday cruise.

One thing to keep in mind is that weather doesn't have to be where you are to cause a problem. Weather in one part of the country can have ripple to wave effects across the entire system.

 

[Calantha]

I'll be on the earliest flight I can be that day so there is some wiggle room

Yes, I think this is my new mantra - we can't adjust the flights for Alaska (although it is pretty much the earliest flight we could get out of DC - I might have gone the day before), but when I book for this Fall (Fantasy Saturday departure), we'll be flying out first thing Friday morning (instead of mid-afternoon).

 

[Travel60]

Every flight any member of my family has flown on this year has been delayed or cancelled. Some were weather related but exacerbated by tight schedules and personnel issues.

DS missed race he was supposed to run and ended up driving from Orlando to Atlanta to get a flight home the next day. SIL's plane pulled up to gate (again Orlando) and promptly went to cancelled leaving him and 4 year old stranded. Sun was shining. He had to find a rental car with car seat and drive to Atlanta to get a flight home.

DIL got stranded on cross country trip to visit her parents. Her parents' flight cross country a month later for their grandson's baptism got cancelled and they had to scramble and shorten trip to make it in time. And several more.

Then, the airlines jack up the prices on any remaining flights. MCO to DCA, usually $200-300, jumped to over $1,000 during a recent debacle.

I think the airlines have scrimped and cut so much that a rainstorm in one part of the country messes up the whole system. There's no redundancy for emergency.

 

[belle032]

We just flew Southwest & Delta from Upstate NY to Jacksonville and back. Slight delays on 3 out of the 4 legs - approximately 30-45 minutes. Our SW flight going down was the only flight of the day and the Delta back was one of the first flights out.

I'd still be 100% fine booking a flight the day before a cruise. We tend to stick with major airlines and prefer first flights out of the day in general, so I'm comfortable with that. If it were Allegiant/Spirit/Frontier/whatever that tend to only have one flight out every 3 days? I'd probably spend the extra money for piece of mind.

 

[MomOTwins]

I always look at exactly what backup options are available if our flight is cancelled. With our cruise from Miami earlier this year, I was comfortable flying in the morning on the day before because if I included airports within a couple hours drive of the port, there were close to a dozen options of direct flights to get me there, and I could drive as a last resort (a miserable 17 hour drive, but possible all the same). So I knew I was not gonna miss that cruise. For my Alaska cruise this summer, coming in the day before would give me only 2 other direct flight options, one the day of the cruise, and driving that distance would not be feasible.

On that Miami cruise, we did end up having some severe east coast weather, leading to a delayed start and a very weird and long flight path that took us from our midwest airport down south over the Gulf and back up around to Miami. We had many in our cruise group who were coming from the east coast and were not as lucky, as the weather was all along the coast and their flights were just cancelled outright, and they weren't able to get rescheduled in time, so they did the option of the looooong drive. Felt so bad for them as that is an exhausting start to the vaycay.

Another thing to consider is if you book flights through the cruise line, they will do whatever they can to help you out, sometimes will even hold the ship if you are arriving late or send you out to meet the ship at the next port. That can be a good option if you are worried about getting there on time.

 

[RedHead0186]

One thing to keep in mind is that weather doesn't have to be where you are to cause a problem. Weather in one part of the country can have ripple to wave effects across the entire system.

Excellent point! I've seen so many complaints of "but there wasn't weather in my area." But, if there's weather at a major hub, like Chicago, for example, you better believe that's going to have huge ripple effects on getting planes to other parts of the country. Also, I've experienced a couple of times flying to Orlando when there wasn't weather in Orlando, but there was around the northern part of Florida. Even though Orlando was fine, our flight was delayed because they couldn't get 'around' the weather, I guess?

 

[DCSWO]

Friday morning should be more than adequate. I think if you booked a Thursday redeye, you would feel a bit silly after you get there so early, and at the cost of losing sleep. There are always horror stories of things happening to people but that is nothing you can predict - especially 4 months away. I avoid budget airlines because budget doesn't stop at the price of the ticket - but to each their own. Bigger airlines seem to have a little more flexibility in getting you to your destination if things go sideways. You can see how your flight(s) historically does for on time, cancellations, etc. on www.flightaware.com and other sites. Type in the airline and flight number at the top (AAL80 for example), hit enter, and scroll to the bottom to see the previous 2 weeks of flight arrival / departure times.

 

[DCLMP]

I'll be driving everywhere for at least the next year. The entire Travel Industry is a mess right now between staffing shortages and covid.

I’ve flown somewhere every month this year without any issues. I’m not sure what Covid has to do with anything.

 

[tvguy]

I’ve flown somewhere every month this year without any issues. I’m not sure what Covid has to do with anything.

The airlines are the ones saying that. They say staff are refusing to return to work since the mask requirement on planes was lifted. They would know.