NE storm coming and need to get there for check in!

[DeeCee735]

What a fiasco! Part of my family is driving down, supposed to leave Friday a.m. I'm supposed to be flying Saturday afternoon out of JFK!

Wish I knew what to do! Weather first says maybe it'll be a big storm in NYC, maybe not, depends on the jet stream.....first it was going to start Saturday, now Friday! Thinking of cancelling my flight out on Saturday (which was originally booked with a credit and will only cost $50 to cancel, since flight was less than $100 to begin with) and driving down with DH and son (not looking forward to that!) leaving very very early Friday a.m., before acculumations. Gotta take another vacation day to do so!

What would you do? I do know the airlines said they are still backed up from last weeks storm and are just catching up with that. I'm afraid if I leave my original plans to fly out Saturday afternoon and this storm hits Friday into Saturday I'll be cancelled or very delayed.

Should I take the safest way and just drive down, or chance it and leave my flight as is?? It's so frustrating that not even the meteorologists know whats coming our way for sure!

 

[TinkerMouse]

Why is it that you want so badly to not drive down? Compare the "badness" of that reason against the "badness" of having your flight delayed or cancelled. Go with the lesser of your two evils. Is it worse to leave the airport on a flight for Orlando later than to ride down? A flight that is hours to a whole day later than planned?

If I didn't care about being late then I would take the chance of a delayed or possibly cancelled flight. On the other hand a delayed flight could mean spending many hours in the airport. If the flight is cancelled until the next day then in order to be on the first flight you may or may not have to sleep at the airport.

If I knew that everyone had essentially confirmed the oncoming storm and the last few storms were also accurately predicted then I wouldn't want to chance it and I would ride down.

Personally, I kind of like road trips. Although the only time I think I've ever taken one this long (longer) was in elementary school on a coach bus for a class field trip to Canada. I also do not like spending multiple hours in airports thanks to their very uncomfortable seats. Crumbs all over a lot of these seats freak me out too as I like cleanliness.

If the airlines say they are still backed up then it seems to me that there may be the slightest chance that they will be watching the weather very carefully and possibly changing the status of flights ahead of time by a few hours in order to get the best predicted outcome. They could delay a flight once it starts snowing. They could over prepare in order to take precautions.

 

[Iris]

What a fiasco! Part of my family is driving down, supposed to leave Friday a.m. I'm supposed to be flying Saturday afternoon out of JFK!

Wish I knew what to do! Weather first says maybe it'll be a big storm in NYC, maybe not, depends on the jet stream.....first it was going to start Saturday, now Friday! Thinking of cancelling my flight out on Saturday (which was originally booked with a credit and will only cost $50 to cancel, since flight was less than $100 to begin with) and driving down with DH and son (not looking forward to that!) leaving very very early Friday a.m., before acculumations. Gotta take another vacation day to do so!

What would you do? I do know the airlines said they are still backed up from last weeks storm and are just catching up with that. I'm afraid if I leave my original plans to fly out Saturday afternoon and this storm hits Friday into Saturday I'll be cancelled or very delayed.

Should I take the safest way and just drive down, or chance it and leave my flight as is?? It's so frustrating that not even the meteorologists know whats coming our way for sure!

As much as I HATE traveling by car to Florida, I would have to say in this case I would go ahead and change my plans and drive down with the rest of the family, even if it means using up another vacation day to do so. I would always rather fly (why not get there in 2 hours instead of 16) but some things like bad weather makes me a little nervous to fly.

We just flew down to visit our daughter in December and fortunately we missed the big snow storm that hit the midwest and cancelled flights out of OHare and Midway. Some fellow Hoosiers were actually at WDW the same week for Pop Warner Championships and some of them had their return flight cancelled and got stuck in Florida an extra day or two. Lucky for us our flights were before and then after the storm had hit.

If driving down is a possibility and won't interfere too much with original plans, I would do that just to be on the safe side. If the storm never hits then you would have had nothing to lose except to be sitting in a car for a couple of days. If it does hit, you will be happy that you changed your plans.

 

[DeeCee735]

I am. We are driving down leaving tomorrow night, just to get a few hours south before the bad weather. I don't want to chance a flight delay or cancellation, although at this point they are saying it won't be a big deal, just a few inches on Friday and some wind on Saturday. However, that little can wreak havoc on the airport schedules so I'm going to drive down with the fam!

Thanks for the input!