Government shutdown - flights?

[beccasmom]

We are not flying until 11/20 (not to WDW, but to another hub city from PHL on American). So we fortunately have some time to make our decision to cancel. The issue I’m grappling with is that our return home flight is the Tuesday of Thanksgiving week. If this situation continues, the domino effect of cancelled/rescheduled flights is something to seriously consider (driving home would be possible, but at 1,000-plus miles, not a particularly attractive alternative). I hope everyone’s individual situations work out well.

 

[sndral]

Very stressed about our upcoming vacation. We are supposed to fly out of SeaTac on Alaska Airlines on November 15, home on the 23. After the year we have had, this would really suck if we had to cancel. This is a reschedule of a vacation that was supposed to happen the first week of May. My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma in late April and we postponed the vacation until November. Bought MMVCP tickets to ease the pain a bit for the new trip, and I know Disney does not refund party tickets. Already lost money on the May trip. We are not flexible with our time (had to coordinate 3 work vacation schedules) and driving from the Seattle area is not an option.

Even if they reach the 10% cancellation being threatened, that’s still 90% of flights that will fly, so more than likely you’ll be fine.
In your favor, Alaskan flies 3 non stops to MCO from Seattle most days & Delta flies two. I don’t know which one you’re on, but if it’s the early morning one you have a chance to get on one of the other two if your flight is cancelled.
Also, assuming you have a non stop you don’t have to worry about making it to a connecting airport on time to catch your next leg or if that second leg will be cancelled.
Keep an eye on what’s happening w/ SEA - MCO flights in the days leading up to your flight & be ready to pivot. Keep a close eye on your flight & know what other flights will get you where you want to go - so that if your flight cancels you’re ready to jump on your back up flight & reschedule before everyone else on your canceled flight grabs the remaining seats on the next flight, personally if my flight canceled early enough I’d try to move to the red eye the night before.

 

[pens4821]

We are going to Lauderdale Sunday for a cruise. Our flight says unavailable to book. Hoping it’s actually just sold out and not on the chopping block. We can make the 18 hour drive, but I’d rather not. And I hope we know tomorrow afternoon or Saturday morning. Would really hate to get to the airport Sunday morning, then cancel, and drive 18 hours straight.

Our flight was cancelled about 1 pm today. Glad we had plenty of notice. We decided to drive. Not looking forward to the long drive, but I don’t want to book another flight, then that flight have issues. So just figure we know we will be there driving.

 

[Little E]

@pens4821 Can I ask what airline you were flying? This is what we've been planning to do if our flight is cancelled. We've been agonizing for several days trying to determine what to do...fly or drive? We are flying Delta and there is a message on the app that says "Delta is reducing flights at 40 US airports to comply with federal directives. Planned FAA-directed cancellations for Nov. 7-9 are complete. Explore options to change or cancel flights without penalty." We're hoping that since we fly out on 11/9 and haven't gotten a cancel notice that we might be ok? I messaged with Delta and asked them to make our flight direct instead of two legs with a layover and they were able to do that, keep our assigned seats, all without a charge. Now we just have to hope that that one leg of the flight isn't delayed/cancelled.

Also, if our flight is totally screwed up, we plan to drive to WDW right from the airport. But that will make us arrive one day late for our check in to Boardwalk. I called Disney today and the cast member I spoke with was lovely. He said Disney understands the travel chaos right now, and if we will arrive to our resort a day late we need to call the main WDW number and ask to be connected to guest services, and they will do everything they can to work with us. So, file that away...it sounds like Disney is going to be pretty understanding of cancellations and rescheduling.

 

[pens4821]

@pens4821 Can I ask what airline you were flying? This is what we've been planning to do if our flight is cancelled. We've been agonizing for several days trying to determine what to do...fly or drive? We are flying Delta and there is a message on the app that says "Delta is reducing flights at 40 US airports to comply with federal directives. Planned FAA-directed cancellations for Nov. 7-9 are complete. Explore options to change or cancel flights without penalty." We're hoping that since we fly out on 11/9 and haven't gotten a cancel notice that we might be ok? I messaged with Delta and asked them to make our flight direct instead of two legs with a layover and they were able to do that, keep our assigned seats, all without a charge. Now we just have to hope that that one leg of the flight isn't delayed/cancelled.

We were flying southwest. I noticed that our plane was coming from Tampa for a direct flight to Lauderdale. That Tampa flight is no longer showing either so I’m assuming that got cancelled and everywhere that plane was going Sunday is probably now canceled too. Just a guess

 

[ddluvsdisney]

Our SW flight was delayed 1 1/2 hours today. I’m grateful it wasn’t cancelled.

 

[DCLMP]

We were flying southwest. I noticed that our plane was coming from Tampa for a direct flight to Lauderdale. That Tampa flight is no longer showing either so I’m assuming that got cancelled and everywhere that plane was going Sunday is probably now canceled too. Just a guess

Southwest has had the most cancellations at our airport. I'm not surprised by this. They don't have hubs and they don't have regional carriers.

 

[DCLMP]

@pens4821 Can I ask what airline you were flying? This is what we've been planning to do if our flight is cancelled. We've been agonizing for several days trying to determine what to do...fly or drive? We are flying Delta and there is a message on the app that says "Delta is reducing flights at 40 US airports to comply with federal directives. Planned FAA-directed cancellations for Nov. 7-9 are complete. Explore options to change or cancel flights without penalty." We're hoping that since we fly out on 11/9 and haven't gotten a cancel notice that we might be ok? I messaged with Delta and asked them to make our flight direct instead of two legs with a layover and they were able to do that, keep our assigned seats, all without a charge. Now we just have to hope that that one leg of the flight isn't delayed/cancelled.

Also, if our flight is totally screwed up, we plan to drive to WDW right from the airport. But that will make us arrive one day late for our check in to Boardwalk. I called Disney today and the cast member I spoke with was lovely. He said Disney understands the travel chaos right now, and if we will arrive to our resort a day late we need to call the main WDW number and ask to be connected to guest services, and they will do everything they can to work with us. So, file that away...it sounds like Disney is going to be pretty understanding of cancellations and rescheduling.

I'm sure WDW will work with you without any issue. I feel bad for people missing their cruises. The ships don't wait.