Weather Delays/School Vacation

[Bowen9475]

We are scheduled to fly out of Providence on Thursday February 17th and home on Tuesday March 1. For those who fly around school vacation week, if you have ever run into weather delays, is it very difficult to get rescheduled on another flight? Have you ever missed a trip or a big part of one? We are flying Southwest and many of the flights around out date are sold out. Just looking for some information.

 

[TaraPA]

We were supposed to fly out Pres. Weekend back in 2006 & our flights were cancelled due to snow & ice. We were able to get on a flight the next afternoon - but this was on a major airline that had many flights coming & going. You're smart to check the other SW flights around yours - even a day or 2 ahead, to see what would be available. I would just have a Plan B - take all the phone numbers you need in case you need to figure out how to re-route yourself. Twice, while at the airport, my flights were cancelled. Since I had the airline phone number with me, I was able to re-book myself via cell phone in about 5 minutes. There were about 50 frustrated people in line at the counter in the airport, and many of them had to wait until the next day to fly out because everything was full. It's much quicker to call & re-book yourself!

 

[debster812]

Ooh, Ooh, pick me, pick me!!!!!!!

We have been flying to FL from either BOS or PVD for the past 8 or 9 years. Some years we have NO bumps in the road whatsoever. Other years, our trips are challenging, to say the least, and have been 'well documented' here on the Transportation Board.

Our WORST experience was the Valentine's Day storm, the year Jet Blue had their epic melt down. We were flying Delta, and were scheduled to fly out on Wednesday morning. We spent about 8 hours at the airport, boarding and deplaning, until the flight was ultimately canceled. Delta could not re-book us until Saturday night! And, they could not get us into Ft Myers, they got us as far as Tampa, and we drove the rest of the way. So we missed 4 days of our vacation. However, we stay with my parents, so we did not lose out on any hotel fees.

Last year we were supposed to fly the Wednesday before School Vacation, and they were predicting blockbuster snow in MA. My cousin and her family were scheduled to fly the day before us on SWA, and got canceled Monday night for their Tuesday flight. They were connecting through BWI, which got HAMMERED. She called me, and we scrapped our plans to fly, figuring nothing would be getting out of Logan the next day, and we rented a Chevy Tahoe, and drove. 4 adults, 3 12 year olds, 29 hours.

With the way this winter has gone, we hedged our bets, and rented a car a couple of weeks ago, just in case.

So, my advice, is to read through the "What to do if your flight is canceled" thread, start exploring some other options, and keep a 'weather eye' on things.

If you're flying SWA and the weather is BAD in NE, look into possibly renting a car one way, driving the 5 or so hours to PHL, and flying out of PA? You'd only be paying the difference in fare, and if it's weather related, I wonder if SWA would work with you?

 

[JennSaint]

Out of about 10 years in a row going away around President's week last year was our first weather mishap.
We were suppose to fly out the Wednesday before President's day and the day before on Tuesday Delta canceled our 7am nonstop flight from Boston to Orlando. We spent about 2 hours on the phone and after speaking with a rep then a manager he was able to rebook us out of Manchester NH with a connection in Detroit but arriving in Sarasota. I didn't care I said we'll take it and I booked us a one way rental from Sarasota to Orlando. Well when we arrived in Detroit we walked by a gate that was starting to board for Orlando and my hubby said we should see if there's any room on that flight. We walked up and the agent said just have a seat and we might be able to get you on the flight. Well after some craziness of a couple of guys getting kicked off the plane and another lady too scared to fly because it was snowing we were able to get on the plane. Well we did but our luggage was still going to Sarasota. Thankfully we packed extra stuff in our carryons. We arrived in Orlando and our luggage arrived the next day.
Other than last year we have been very lucky!!! We leave Sunday the 20th and believe me after last year I have been researching other options the day before and other airports just in case.
Good luck to all of us flying within the next few weeks!! It has been a trying winter!!

 

[Bowen9475]

Thank you all for the information We have flown to Orlando around this time for the past several years and never had any weather problems. This year just seems to be so much worse weather-wise. I have read the post about what to do in case of delays and I have started looking at different dates/airports. I have now widened my search area. Thanks again and good luck to all travelling in the next few weeks.

 

[HeatherC]

We have never had a problem, but friends of ours have every year! We always fly within a day or two of each other and they have been so unlucky.

One suggestion on something they did last year was wait until they got closer to their date. The weather, once again, was going to be bad so they booked refundable tickets for a flight out the next day on SW. Sure enough, their original flight was cancelled, but SW let them use their reservation for the following day and credited them back the refundable fare due to weather.

Sounds risky to me, but it worked for them. That way they had seats on a flight that wound up being overbooked due to everyone trying to get on that flight.

I think I would prefer to wait for the weather...if a storm was coming, I would leave a day or two early. Seems much easier to get a flight before a storm than after.

But they are saying the weather pattern is slowly changing so hopefully you will not have any problems!