Question about airline weather delays

[disneysteve]

I wasn't sure where to post this so mods feel free to move it.

We are scheduled to fly from Philly to San Diego tomorrow with a connection in Dallas/Ft. Worth. Hundreds of flights in and out of those airports have been delayed and cancelled over the past couple of days due to the winter storm. I'm wondering how that will impact our travel assuming that the airports are fully functional by tomorrow afternoon. What happens to all of those cancelled and delayed flights and all of the people stranded at the airport as a result? How do they work through that backlog and get back on schedule?

 

[OKW Lover]

Good questions. Basically the people that were on canceled flights will be booked onto flights the following day(s) subject to seat availability. People already booked on those flights don't get bumped to other flights. The airline will do as much as it can do, including re-routing passengers, to get everybody to their destination. However, they don't have spare planes hanging around so recovery from a storm is often a multi-day effort.

 

[disneysteve]

Thanks Jeff. So if our flight can leave on time, it will, and our reserved spots on that flight aren't in jeopardy. Now I just have to hope that we don't get more snow tomorrow, which is a possibility.

 

[sayhello]

Thanks Jeff. So if our flight can leave on time, it will, and our reserved spots on that flight aren't in jeopardy. Now I just have to hope that we don't get more snow tomorrow, which is a possibility.

Just be sure you're on time. Because if you're late, they WILL give away your seat to someone waiting on standby!

Sayhello

 

[disneysteve]

We're back from our trip. Flights went off pretty smoothly although there was one very strange thing on our departing trip.

We were booked from Philly to Dallas; Dallas to San Diego. The morning of our flight, I went online and checked the status and it still showed the flight being on time. I clicked to do online check in and went through the process only to have it check me into a flight going through Chicago instead. The site was still showing the Dallas flight so I have no idea how that happened. I called the airline and they confirmed that we were going through Chicago and could offer no explanation of why it had been changed. When I got to the airport, I asked again and they couldn't explain it either. The Dallas flight was still scheduled. As it turned out, the Dallas flight got delayed and didn't leave until a little before the Chicago flight anyway but I still have no idea why we ended up going through Chicago.