My husband's wondering if he'll ever get home
 

His planned visit to our DS, DDIL, and grandaughters in Germany was 4/8-4/18. His return was delayed until 4/21, and now has been delayed until 4/26. He's willing to fly from any airport in Europe to any airport in the continental US--no luck! And so many others are in the same fix. At least he has a free place to stay with family--but I susect his welcome is wearing thin. And I don't know how understanding his employer is.

At least he has several million others to commiserate with.

True enough--and we are well aware that, for us, this is a significant inconvenience, but not, by any means, a tragedy. Unless he loses his job, which I don't think is likely.

I think as long as he keeps in touch (by e-mail or phone) with his employer to let them know he DOES have a re-scheduled flight, he is much better off than many others. Best wishes to him & the many other travelers that they get safely to their destinations as soon as possible. Your hubby can turn the extra time into an adventure & explore a bit more with the relatives (or independently). The 26th will arrive before anyone knows it anyway.

My husband's employer is being very understanding, for which we're very grateful.

Between trying to work remotely and helping care for a 4 year old, 14 month old, and 1 month old, going on adventures isn't an option!

I have a friend stuck in Hamburg. Was supposed to return on the 20th and now his ticket was pushed to the 30th.
I called today and got him upped to the 27th and was told that he should go to the airport every morning to double check. The flights are now listed as full but some of the people will go to alternate airports and their seats will/might become available.
Hamburg was waiting for planes coming in from Newark Airport. They are finally flying today and I can't believe they don't put a larger aircraft on to get some of these poor people home.
Good luck to your hubby

<i>I can't believe they don't put a larger aircraft on to get some of these poor people home.</i>

Right, of course, all the airlines have lots of extra airplanes and flight crews just sitting around idle, waiting for an event like this.

Continental did use larger planes on certain flights over the past few days for flights to Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Oslo and Stockholm; when their larger planes couldn't fly to London, Frankfurt, Paris, etc.

And today for St. John's, Newfoundland.

Thanks rkkwan - I thought I read that. So, Rizzuto - I guess they do:)

Guess what? First Continental flight from LHR departed with about 50 empty seats.

50 empty seats and people who can't get on a flight--how frustrating!!

Probably what happpened is that people didn't CANCEL their reservatiosn when they found a way to "Madrid" or someplace else and flew home on another airline/ticket. If they don't cancel then the airline has to assume that they are going to show up.

I have read several stories of folks buying two and three tickets to "get home". The "double booking" is going to create this type of issue.

Abram

Pays to keep going to the airport. My friend got on the plane this morning from Hamburg. From what I can see, the plane left with a few empty seats.

So if you are waiting at the airport and they have empty seats just before taking off.. are you able to get a seat?

Darlene - Yes, for almost all airlines that were affected in the previous days.

I expect Rkkwan is right... but then there is the "do you want to just hang around an airport" for waht could be days with no gurantee????

It's a trade off.

Fortunately my friend was only 5-10 minutes from the airport.

The window opened at 7am and he was able to get on the 9am flight. Not bad considering the situation.

"At least he has a free place to stay with family--but I susect his welcome is wearing thin"

Not if he's helping care for a 4 year old, 14 month old, and 1 month old. They'll probably hate to see him go.

I was able to get him a business class seat on a flight home Saturday. Then, when he called today, he was able to get on a flight tomorrow. We had planned a theater weekend in NYC, and I decided to go alone (leaving tonight)--but now, he's flying into JFK tomorrow, and we'll fly home together Sunday.

Great news, thanks for the update abram.

Well here we are still stuck in London - now scheduled for return Sunday. When the skies reopened for aviation we tried for earlier but CO said nothing available so we just resigned ourselves to staying until Sunday. Aside from the unanticipated expense it has actually been great to have this little getaway. And we've even been managing to keep that somewhat under control that by eating a lot of meals in the apartment. Makes it easier to justify the theatre ticket purchases.
BTW despite the volcanic cloud the weather has been simply terrific, better than average with blue skies and pleasant temps.

Seamus, you know the old saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade," and that is what you have done. There are much worse lemons in life than being stuck in London. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Hi, P_M - the weather has been so delightful, the apartment and related logistics so blessedly simple that it is like lemons to limoncello!

Very nice to see some people taking advantage of a poor situation.

There are worse places to be stuck then London.

If it wasn't for the expense, but it sounds like Seamus has the right attitude.

The one thing I have seen is lots of wasted effort on trying to control the 'uncontrollable' instead of taking a deep breath and dealing with it.

The expense part is the kicker with most I would imagine. But since we cannot control nature, I figure most people just roll with it. What else can you do??

i suppose if i had a wife and kids i would feel differently, but that just sounds like an extended vacation. score!


ps. hope he makes it back safe :)