CarolA

I have a flight to Paris tomorrow. Just out of curiosity I checked today's flights. My flight into Atlanta is running 2 hours late. The flight from Atlanta to Paris is still showing on time.

I have this intersting feeling that the weather tomorrow will be the same way and I will miss my flight to Paris. Should be fun!

Singletail

What makes you think the "delays" were caused by weather? Could there have been any other factors involved?

Scarlett

I hope the weather gives you a break. A friend's husband missed something like 2 flights or more this past week, storms creating havoc in the US keeping him from getting to Gatwick.
The only time I ever missed a plane was Atlanta and as I ran towards them, I saw them closing that door and the plane pulling away..sigh~

rkkwan

Sure I have. HKG-SFO was like 90 minutes late leaving HKG. Definitely will not make afternoon connection to IAH, so have to wait until red-eye at around 1am. UA let me chose between a day-room at a hotel or shuttle to downtown; plus meal ticket. Had a fun time to going to Fisherman's Wharf, Colt Tower, etc...

Not a bad delay, for me...

Otherwise, I'm pretty lucky. Never missed another connection.

MelJ

For several years I always missed the America West flight from Newark to Columbus, following arrival on BA from London. There was only one flight out and it was about 1.5 hours after arrival but, with customs, etc., I missed it about 5 times. They always put me up in a hotel and got me out on the first flight the next morning.

Now I just book a room myself and book the morning flight from the get go.

Nikki

Oh yes. There was the time we got to Providence at 6 AM, in plenty of time to make our connection in Detroit. Going to Orlando, and yes, it's not exactly on the way, but it's February vacation week so we take what we can get.

They're looking for volunteers to take a later flight from Boston to Orlando; they have first class seats. We volunteer, but they won't send us to Boston until the flight takes off from Providence. Providence is fogged in. Finally the plane is ready to take off, and they decide they don't need our seats after all. It is now too late for us to make our connection in Detroit, but we have to get on the plane anyway.

When we get to Detroit, our flight to Orlando has just left. The woman at the ticket counter is checking all sorts of ideas, can't get the four of us on the same flight, can send three of us through Memphis and one through Dallas the next day, or something like that.

My husband says what about those four first class seats on the later plane from Boston? I say don't be ridiculous. The woman behind the counter says it might work. Sure enough, there's a flight leaving for Boston in ten minutes, we race across the airport, fly on an empty plane from Detroit to Boston, and end up on the same Boston to Orlando flight we were going to get bumped to that morning.

The flight is delayed, there are men crawling around on the wings, in the engines, but eventually they decide there is no problem and the plane goes to Orlando. Our luggage has arrived before us and is waiting for us. By the time we get to our hotel, it's 2:00 AM. We're standing in line to check in, and somebody calls my husband's name. It's a guy he works with. Has a worse story than we do. Was routed through Chicago. Had to go through Newark. His bags were missing, and the rental car was gone. We feel lucky to be there.

CarolA

I am pretty sure the delay in Atlanta is the "Infamous" late afternoon thunderstorms which are forecast for tomorrow also.

I will just see what what happens. Not much else you can do.

I have missed lots of domestic flights and missed my connection from Singapore to Nashville several years ago. SO it's not like it's a new experience just one I don't like.

I thought about trying an earlier flight to Atlanta, but they are sold out and I don't want to just hang around the Nashville airport!

CarolA

Well, it turns out I MIGHT have made the connection today. While the Nashville flight arrived 2 hours late, the Paris flight left 50 minutes after the Nashville flight landed. That I could have done.

Statia

I've missed a lot of connections due to weather and mechanical delays. I've even had to overnight in various cities on occassion. I just look at is as part of air travel.

However, I recently missed a flight at MIA because my incoming flight from SXM was delayed by three hours. My mother was in ICU and more or less on her deathbed at the time. I was so upset because I ran and ran thru the terminal after reaching MIA, and only missed the connecting flight by mere minutes. All I could think of was that I wouldn't get there "in time."

Luckily, I arrived IAH very late that night and the ICU nurses broke the rules and allowed me in to see her. I'm happy to report that she's doing much better now and made it thru her ordeal. But, THAT is the only time that missing a flight has truly "affected" me. The rest, IMO, is just part of the life of being a travel fanatic.

ms_go

I've had my share of episodes sitting in a cab in traffic on the Triborough Bridge knowing that there was no way I'd make it.... Fortunately, I was only heading home to Chicago, and there were always later flights.

I did have a very close call once at Hartsfield, on my way to Ireland. My flight left Chicago late, and I can still remember the sight of my mother (whom I was meeting in Atlanta) standing out in the concourse frantically looking for me as they were getting ready to close the doors.

StCirq

I've never missed an outgoing flight, though I've had those delayed. But coming home - which is really odious, when you're ticked-off that the vacation is over and just ready to pack it all in - I've missed a bunch.

Coming home from France in April, my flight out of Paris was delayed an hour, and then the plane got inexplicably delayed because of "storms and an airplane in distress" over Philly for almost 2.5 hours. Result - I missed my connecting flight from Philly and spent 7 hours at the aiport and ended up traveling for something like 30 hours just to get home from Paris.

Never again will I take a connecting flight, even though the price was fantastic.

I don't know about Atlanta, but here in the DC area, we've had thunderstorm warnings for about 7 days in a row, none of which has turned out to be anything to be concerned with. I haven't even seen a bolt of lightning here in Alexandria, heard a rumble of thunder, or seen a drop of rain.

Betsy

Thanks for the DC weather report, St. Cirq. All hell will probably break loose weather-wise Saturday night just as I land at PHL

Seen any cicadas yet? The TV news here in SF is calling the phenomenon "cicadamania."

kaudrey

Betzy and StCirq,

I also live in Alexandria (first time I realized you were in the same town, StCirq!), and yesterday I saw a pair of cicada wings - but no bodies or loud noises yet. I have heard others saying they are all over their backyards, though...

As for the topic that started this thread, I had to fly from DC to Detroit to Tampa in January 2 years ago. DC flight was delayed because of mechanical problems so we were going to miss the connection to Tampa. I called the airline from the plane to change the flight, and had to fly into Orlando instead. It was a mess, mostly because I ended up paying a fortune to get a rental car in Orlando in January at the last minute!

Karen

StCirq

This morning was the first time I saw any cicadas - they were all over my son's bicycle (but none to be seen on the bushes and trees - odd). Their bright red eyes are just short of gruesome!

Ivy

Just my two cents: I also live in the D.C. area (vienna, virginia) so howdy neighbors! I leave for italy on tuesday so we will miss the big start of the cicadas. We're back the first week of June so I expect they'll be in full swing then! I also worry about these supposed thunderstorms delaying my flight as I have a pretty tight connection oin Frankfurt but, what can you do? Gotta roll with the punches I suppose. At least if I am stranded in Frankfurt, I'll be in Germany and can drown my sorrows in pretzels and beer!

Vicky

Cool topic - plenty of stories here. Most of my trips go off without a hitch, including being on the only flight that left on time (for Rome)from Philly during a Jan snowstorm. I've been on hundreds of flights and maybe 5 have been screwed up. Flying back from Venice - thru Paris and Miami - flight from Paris left late; my bag was LAST one out in Miami so I missed connection from Miami to Sarasota and lost it since I was so tired. Had to go back to Air France who was the reason I got in late and they had to give me a hotel voucher; luckily American Eagle DID get me on plane next morning without any change fees. Also got stuck in Atlanta coming back from being in PA over Christmas, spent night in hotel paid for by airlines. Recently, flight from Frankfurt could not land in DC due to storms, flew to PHL, flew back to DC about 2 hours late, but miraculously my flight to Tampa was also delayed and since I only had a carry on, I got thru customs FAST and just made it! I was really freaked out in March as I was flying Sarasota-Atlanta-Milan-Florence - and only had an hour in Milan and NO MORE flights by anybody till next morning to Florence. I did all kinds of research about trains, etc. Problem was I was meeting my brother in Milan airport and we were on the same flight to Florence. I was afraid he would make it and I wouldn't and it was his first time overseas. So I was pretty anxious but everything did work out.

P_M

I live in a non-hub city, so just about every trip I take involves at least one connection. I have lost count of how many times I've missed connections due to flight delays. They always put me on the next flight so with one exception, I've never lost more than 2 hours or so. This usually happens to me on the way home because when I book my tickets, I do not allow them to give me a short layover on the outbound. When coming home, I'm willing to take a few more chances.

CarolA, have a great time in Paris, and please do not worry about something you can't control. If you get delayed, Paris will still be there, waiting patiently for you!!

Rookie

For CarolA -

Appears the Travel Gods are shining on your arrival into Atlanta. Our forecast for today no longer includes afternoon thundershowers. Temps are cooler and very scattered light rain showers early this morning with overcast skies should keep the temps down this afternoon as well. Hopefully there'll be nothing from the west to interfere with your flight leaving Nashville.

Hope you have a wonderful time in Paris.

PegS

I was on a business trip with a few other colleagues, flying into Chicago on United to connect to a flight back home to SFO. Due to the weather, we were delayed and knew we'd cut it really close. We spoke to the flight attendant even, and she said there wasn't that much she could do but since it was another United flight she'd try.

We got off the plane and ran as fast as we could to the other gate. They had just closed the door and wouldn't let us on. The annoying thing was that one of our colleagues, who had been in first class and so had gotten off the plane before us, had actually made it on the plane. She even begged the gate crew to wait just a few minutes before closing the gate because we were just a few aisles behind her on the plane. No dice. I've hated United ever since.

Vicky

An airline (Delta?) did hold a flight for me. I told the flight attendent ont he first flight(which had been delayed) that there were no more flights to Sarasota that night and could they call ahead that I was coming. They must have because when I ran to the gate, everyone was on the plane but they let me on. Whew!