Reassurance please

[Dznypal]

were set to leave Milwaukee on tues. there calling for snow starting sun and all day mon. Our flight doesn’t leave until 1230 Tuesday afternoon not sure what to expect. What are our chances we’ll actually get out of here. Will the airport be a mess yet from Monday’s snow. Any thoughts or advice. We love getting out of here if only for a week in winter but this has me upset. I just hate winter.

 

[JimMIA]

If you are flying with one of the legacy airlines, you should be fine. There obviously will be a lot of disruption on Monday and many of the disrupted passengers will be trying to find flights, but you already have your flight. But snow is not an unusual event for Milwaukee and I'm sure the airport will have everything cleared out quickly.

The question will be the incoming aircraft for your flight, but since you're scheduled to leave at lunchtime there is plenty of time to get an aircraft in. Legacy airlines have huge inventories of aircraft and crews and adapt to bad weather like this daily. It's just part of what they do.

However, if you are flying a very small airline, the situation could be entirely different.

Either way, check directly with your airline; they will have the most up to date, accurate info.

 

[leebee]

My guess is that if the plane you are flying on can get INTO MKE on Tuesday morning, you'll have no problem getting out. Is there any chance you can shift your travel dates one day later with no penalty from the airlines? Sometimes they let you do this without charge; they'd rather have your booking confirmed than have to figure out how to reschedule you... and thousands of other folks. Good luck.

 

[QueenElinor]

In general, snowy parts of the world do fine with lots of snow. It's the un-snowy parts that grind to a halt when it snows because they are not used to handling it.
Milwaukee is definitely in the snowy part. Unless there are high winds or very low visibility you should be fine. Summer thunderstorms are more problematic.

Have they issued a travel waiver for your flight on that day? If not, I wouldn't worry about it. And even if they do, they are very cautious in that regard. Given the timing of the storms I agree that you should be fine.

Like the others have suggested, it might be incoming aircraft that have delays. Flightaware has a function that tells you where your actual plane is so you can see if that's likely. However, the airline might swap it with another, so don't despair even if it shows a delay. And if it shows a delay, still show up at the airport when the flight was originally scheduled to depart because they can make these changes at the very last minute!

I thought I had a three-hour delay for a connecting flight one time in SLC, and was just sitting down to lunch when I got a notification that my flight would be boarding in 10 minutes! Well, it's a Delta hub and they did indeed scare up another plane for us to take. I left mid-sandwich and hustled to the gate.

 

[KayaWildfire]

We fly out of MKE a lot and they are very good at keeping the flights going in and out. Last January, we went to Disney. It snowed 7 inches or something the night before we left, kids had a snow day the day we left, the one hour drive to the airport took two, and our flight still left on time. A bunch of people must have cancelled, there were only 50 people or so on the plane.

 

[Searc]

Delta just issued a waiver for Jan 27-28 for MKE and many other upper Midwest airports.

https://www.delta.com/us/en/advisories/weather-alerts/upper-midwest-Winter-weather

 

[YodasMom]

I have the same worries and we're getting the same storm tonight and tomorrow. But, I fly out of O'hare. Leaving Wednesday morning when it's supposed to be around 25 below. United just sent an advisory about a waiver from today, Jan. 27 thru Feb 1 with change fees waived. My concern is also mainly that the incoming aircraft arrives. I'm staying overnight near the airport so I don't have to bother anyone to take me to the airport in those temps on Wednesday morning. Ugh!

Good luck to you!

 

[Dznypal]

thanks good luck to you also--

were going SW and so far its just an advisory through Monday--Ive been following an hr forecast and the snow is supposed to stop around 6 pm Monday night hopefully it they keep up with it at the airport we should be ok--hopefully
we don't leave till 1220 so its not super early

were planning on just taking a cab to the airport--usually we drive ourselves leave the car at the airport--and when one of kids have time they'll pick it up and bring it back to our house

we thought this time to try a cab--enjoy the world once we all get there safe, sound and warm

 

[QueenElinor]

We fly out of MKE a lot and they are very good at keeping the flights going in and out. Last January, we went to Disney. It snowed 7 inches or something the night before we left, kids had a snow day the day we left, the one hour drive to the airport took two, and our flight still left on time. A bunch of people must have cancelled, there were only 50 people or so on the plane.

That's the airline's rationale behind offering waivers. If people voluntarily re-schedule, it's less of a crunch if the flight is actually canceled because there are fewer people on the flight. But it sounds like you chose not to do that and it worked out well.

Deciding whether to take a waiver depends on so many dynamic weather, geographic & personal variables, too. Sometimes you just have to take your chances, and sometimes you can come up with a work-around. In the last year we've re-routed our flights on a waiver (hurricane Florence), and also turned down a waiver (winter storm Gia), with good results each time.

All you can do is use your best judgement of what's likely to happen, and how desperate you are to get to your destination, unless the flight is canceled in which case the airline has made your decision for you.