how lenient were the airlines to make these changes since they were weather related?
Check your airline and airport websites. The moment they start changing flights and allowing fee-free changes, they will put that info up. You want to be among the first to call and get things changed. So set alerts and alarms to check regularly.
DH was in Dallas during the ice storm 2, er, 3 Decembers ago. He needed to get back to WA for 24 hours, to see DS's first dance performance as part of Company. It took a LOT of hours on the phone to American, it took diligence in checking flights and his flights and weather, it took an AMAZING cab driver who went slow as a turtle but got DH safely to the airport, it took luck, but we got him home and back to TX in 36 hours. Oh and it also involved a VERY lenient and understanding boss (who was on the work trip still in TX!).
But what it did NOT involve was waiting until the airline started reassigning flights randomly, or the time or two they did, seeing that change immediately and calling to change it again. American Airlines seemed to think that a flight one week later was going to work; no, it wasn't. There were reasons for the 24 hour trip, and a week later would have been useless going either direction.
This week I'm booking flights from the West Coast to Florida for our December cruise. I am avoiding connections in snowy locations for this reason! We plan to fly *over* the snow
Am hoping Atlanta will do the trick . . . does anyone thing there is much chance of that airport being closed down due to a snow storm?
You're booking now for December? Wow. We'll probably book in September for our December flight next year. But anyway, IF Atlanta gets hit, it's trouble. I had to stay in Atlanta for 3 extra loooong days over MLK weekend one year in the 90s when it snowed. Nothing was moving anywhere there. Of course, I was driving, so I don't know about the airport, but I'm not sure how busy the airport could have been, since nothing was moving anywhere on the streets.
And even if your flight doesn't go anywhere snowy, that airplane had to get TO you somehow, and they don't just jump back and forth day after day between the same places. Your airplane might be coming from ND, after all.
Thank you - very good points! I hadn't thought about the incoming plane. We are in Seattle and it's extremely rare that we get weather here that affects flights. But this makes me want to rethink about when to travel. Like a PP, it really wouldn't be about the money for me. Our schedule is tight and we want to go on *this* cruise. And yes we do have
trip insurance. But it's not a simple thing at all to just reschedule.
WE rarely get that sort of weather, but we get planes coming from places that do. I walked into seatac one day a few years back, gorgeous bright blue sunny sky, fabulous day, and it was absolute chaos at the United checkin counters. (not sure of the other airlines, I was on United) There was nasty weather on the east coast, and the planes just couldn't get to us! We were going from SEA to SNA, just a straight shot down the west, but it involved 3 flights (using miles, ugh) and two flights had to be changed because the actual planes we would be on just weren't there in SEA or PDX.