Stranded at the Airport?
 

Have you been stuck somewhere because of the dreaded combination of holiday travel and foul weather? Are your friends and family delayed to return (or leave)? Share your story here, plus any tips for coping.

Whatever the travel situation, I try to remind myself to always pack one thing: patience!

There's always Facebook, right?

dukey1 - funny but what inspired me to post this was a friend's facebook post about "hotel JFK" - complete with sad picture of the crowded scene at that airport

well, I was just thinking. . .

http://www.fodors.com/community/fodo...t-for-days.cfm

Hi Cate. Luckily we haven't been stranded this winter (yet). However, we spent one entire weekend at the DTW airport on our way from MSP to LGA.

Due to a winter storm on the East Coast, our flight out of MSP was canceled. I worried and begged at the ticket counter because we had Broadway theater tickets for the next afternoon. Even an early morning flight from MSP wouldn't get us into NY in time for our show. The agent suggested that we fly as far as DTW the first day and then fly on very early the next morning to NY from DTW. Great plan.

Unfortunately the storm was moving west (pretty uncommon) and no sooner had we landed in DTW than the airport was closed -- and remained closed for 3 days! Thank heavens I had the presence of mind to phone the Westin Hotel (inside the DTW airport) from my cell phone while we waited to board our MSP flight. I made a "just in case" reservation at a good rate. By the time we needed the room, they were booked solid and the rates were sky high. Lots and lots of people slept on the floor in the airport waiting to get out that weekend.

My advice:
-Use your cell phone to make or change reservations ahead of the crowd when flying during dicey weather.
-Always have a Plan B.
-Make sure you have any necessities, like medications, with you in a sufficient supply for extra days out.

I hope everyone gets home safely this time around. Happy New Year.

We've had one trip cancelled due to bad weather for our Friday departure, first available flight out would be the next Tuesday and our return was to be Thursday, so only one day which we decided was not worth it. This was the old days and a travel agent handled all the cancellations of hotel and car and arranged for the air to be applied to the next trip.

Another time we planned a trip with two other couples and snow was predicted for our departure day. One of the fellows called (Southwest) and told them we would be willing to fly a day earlier so they wouldn't have to figure out how to get us out there after the storm. They were happy to make the change with no extra charge.

If you know its coming, it pays to try the change before there is a problem.

One of the oung women that works for me is delayed returning from FL by the bad weather. But there is no "stranded". Don;t understand how people can be stranded.

When she found out her flight was cancelled she contacted the airline and rebooked for the next available flight - then extended her hotel reservation until then.

IMHO people should always check before going to the airport - and usually can find out in advance the flight is cancelled and make alternate arragnements from where they are. If you are unluky enough that the flight is cancelled while you are en route to the airport - when ou get there 1) get yourself a new hotel room or return home and 2) on the way get onto the airline and get a new flight.

I cannot comprehend just sitting in an airport somewhere. It simply makes no sense. If money for a hotel room for a couple of days is a problem - then you shouldn't have been traveling - until you have at least a tiny cushion in case of problems - at least $1000 or so on your CC you can use for emergencies.

Cate-W, Do you mean right now, these past week or two, when you ask "have you been...?"

Yes I've been stuck more than once, not being able to get home (most often from Mexico back to Seattle in the winter) because of bad weather, but no I'm not currently.

Your continued lack of compassion and the supposition that only people of a certain means should travel boggles the mind.

I'd like to drop you off at an airport with $20 in your pocket and freeze all your credit cards and then see if there is a single drop of compassionate blood in your veins after a 48 hour stint sleeping in the airport because taking a cab home or getting a hotel room could never be an option.

<i>"I cannot comprehend just sitting in an airport somewhere. It simply makes no sense."</i>

Sorry nytraveler, on this one, I have to agree with Kealalani. You've lived a pretty sheltered life if you can't imagine <u>any</u> circumstance under which a person would end up sitting at an airport hoping for a flight out. Your remarks are naive, indicating that you probably haven't flown all that much.

As many have stated, they can't even get through on the phone to a airline for rebooking, the web sites are frozen, and the airlines really don't have a clue if or when flights will resume. When we were stranded in DTW, the hotel was completely full as were all the hotels one might stagger to in a blinding snow-storm. No taxis were running, no shuttle buses to anywhere, no rental cars. What would you have suggested to all those travels? Just go out in the storm and start walking toward Detroit?

Trust me, when our friends were in Cancun and hurricane Wilma hit - they were stranded! No ifs, ands or buts about it. All the hotels were closed due to storm surge and tidal waves. They had to take refuge in an elementary school for three days.

When I was in China on 9/11, there were no inbound flights to the entire USA. We had no idea when we would be able to get a flight home. While we are financially able to pick up the cost of added hotel days, an extra week at several hundred per night will take a serious chunk out of next month's mortgage for most people.

My points is this....there are always circumstances over which people have no control. They aren't stranded because they are too cheap to go to a hotel. I hope this never happens to you, but if it does, let us know how you get along.

Wow only 9 posts in and already a fight.

I found my old report… to add to it, there were people in the airport walking with expression of disbelief and shock, their planes were diverted, and they clearly didn’t know how to handle the situation. Most of them were on cell or pay phones.

http://www.fodors.com/community/mexi...nas-report.cfm

There was a tornado in Texas and Mexico, houses destroyed, people killed. When I came to the airport to check in for the return flight, got a red message: the first leg is delayed by 3 hours. Eventually the flight was cancelled. Luckily, I was allowed on another plane, arriving 2 hours later than the initial one.

To make the matters even worse, I couldn’t call my husband to let him know about the delay. Called the phone company, they said our phone is off the hook. Turned out, our answering machine got un-programmed killing all phone connections. Sure, it happened on the day I needed it the most! The younger son lives a couple of blocks away; I left a message on his cell phone. That night he was playing hockey leaving the cell phone in his apartment. Oh, well, we managed.

<i>"Wow only 9 posts in and already a fight."</i>

Oh, I think that's wishful thinking on your part, Suze. Clarification is a better definition.

<You've lived a pretty sheltered life>
is not picking a fight?

I don't find that phrase to be picking a fight at all. It is stating what has been said, and what was said that is unless you have the means to travel and have an extra $1000, then you should not be travelling at all.

I don't think you need a thousand bucks necessarily, but I do think it's only smart to have at least enough cash or credit to be able to take a taxi home or get a hotel room in an unforseen or emergency situation.

I think we are trying to say this isn't always about money. Many times travelers are unable to do anything at any price.

Sorry for anyone who disagrees but I have flown a LOT - as in many hundreds of times. Granted many were for business - for several years I had a job that involved 60 to 70 trips (not flights but trips) per year. Other jobs have required less frequent travel - perhaps 12 to 20 trips per year. Plus numerous vacation trips.

I have landed in O'Hare in a snowstorm as the last plane in - when my outgoing flight was cancelled. And called one of the airport hotels and got them to pick me up. Have also had several flights cancelled and had to change plans and extend hotel stays.

You're right - I don;t get ANYONE being in the airport with $20 in their pocket. How can anyone walk around anywhere with $20 in their pocket? If you're traveling you need to have a minimal amount of cash or credit in case of an emergency. And yes, if you have no cash or credit you probably shouldn't be traveling. That may sound harsh - but it's simply irresponsible to spend your assets down to zero to go on a trip. (Perhaps the people who think this makes sense are the ones with the worst financial problems now.)

I can understand that students might not have much money - but that is the time to cave in and call the parents for enough to get by for a couple of days - then pay them back.

We're not talking large amounts of money here - just enough for a hotel and meals for a couple of nights.

And no - I cannot imagine traveling with no "cushion". the first time I went to europe - when I was a poor 19 year old student - I made sure I had $200 in cash hidden away in my purse (a reasonable amount in 1975) as well as more than $500 in my bank account at home.

Unless someone is flying for a very unexpected family emergency - I still insist that flying with no emergency "cushion" is irresponsible.

And I don;t see how travelers can't do anything unless the airport is actually snowed in. And if it is - why did they go there? In my experience flights are very rarely cancelled at the very last minute based on weather. Usually it is several hours in advance - either since the airport knows it will close or because incoming flights have been cancelled and the equipment for the ongoing flight is stuck somewhere else.

I think that many people don;t check their flights right before leaving home/the hotel - something that my vast amount of travel has always taught me to do. It is possible to be stuck if your flight arrives and your ongoing flight has been cancelled. But you can always get some sort of transit into town - or to an airport hotel - and it's always possible to get a room somewhere. If I couldn't reserve a room at a hotel I would still head for the largest hotel I could find and ask for a room when I got there. Even if there is no room a chair in the lobby and hot meals in a restaurant are better than sitting in an airport.

It appears to me that way too many people expect the airline to cope with bad weather - when it fact it is the passenger's responsibility to have alternative plans and resources.

Cate, I'll tell you my story from this week's travel. I'm not sure I can add any profound advice but there are a couple of things I wish I knew to ask to avoid some hassle.

We were due to fly out of Cancun and into Philadelphia at the height of the storm Sunday. At 12:30 Sat night DH decided that it would be a good idea to get a jump on things (as emalloy suggested)and switch our flight to a Monday flight. USAir was offering to waive any change fees for passengers that would switch their flights.

Since it was an international flight, we couldn't make the changes online and had to do it by phone. DH spent hours trying to get through before he finally did Sunday morning and switched us to a flight the following day. Well, that original flight took off and landed on-time in Philadelphia during the storm. Our rescheduled flight was delayed multiple times before it was finally cancelled.

We already at the airport when I received word that our flight was cancelled. I sent the kids to one very long line at one desk while I searched for and found another desk with a shorter line. In the meantime I also called the Marriott central reservation line for a room at the airport Courtyard and was told it was full. I asked for the local phone number for that Courtyard, called them directly and was able to get a room.

When I reached the front of the line for the gate desk, the desk closed but the agent allowed me to follow him to his new assignment where he arranged seats for us on a Tuesday flight. He was also arranging lodging, transportation, and meal vouchers for all the rescheduled passengers. Some on our cancelled flight were unable to get seats until Wednesday.He was sending everyone to the B2B Hotel but since I had already made a reservation he gave me a voucher for the Courtyard.

Everyone that was rescheduled had to wait as a group until the last passenger had been taken care of. We had to wait until our luggage was pulled and then had to exit through customs again. It was hours after we rescheduled before we were able to leave the airport.

When I rescheduled at the desk, I was told that I wouldn't need boarding passes. Well, customs wanted to see our boarding passes. Luckily they accepted our baggage tags instead. Next time I'll insist on boarding passes.

I'll also ask for the return of our immigration papers. I thought since they had collected them when we checked in for the canceled flight, they would have a record of them. Apparently that isn't always so. When we checked in the next day, they asked for them and told us they should have been returned to us. If they hadn't found a record of them we could have been fined.

We had to drive through the night to get back home to Virginia two days later than was planned but we were leaving Cancun and were stuck there not in snowy Philadelphia waiting to begin our vacation.

This is a good question because anticipation is preparation. Here in New England, we don't leave for a winter car trip without a full tank of gas, warm clothes, gloves, a hat, maybe a blanket, and something to eat and drink in the car because many of us know from experience that we may very quickly find oneself in a difficult situation. On Sunday, December 26, friends took six hours to drive from Hyannis to Worcester, MA, normally a two hour drive. What would happen to them if they ran out of gas while stuck in traffic?

Similarly, experienced flyers like nytraveler know that there is a lot you can and should do to prepare for a trip at any of the times of year when there is likely to be bad weather: winter snow, May and June thunderstorm and tornado season, and hurricane season in September and October. There will always be lots of cancellations and delays during these periods, and if your plane originates in the US, the airline essentially does not have to do anything for you.

If you know that, it follows that you have to have a Plan B. You should look at the weather that is somewhere else but will hit you on flying day, and you should look at the weather in the area your plane will be coming from to assess your danger of being delayed or cancelled. You should at least think about where you will sleep and how you will eat if you are delayed one, two, or three days. Do you have enough money? Will you find a hotel? Will you be able to get there? Will you have anything to read if you don't have wifi? Because the airline essentially does not have to do anything for you.

Plan C is something you need to think about in relation to the other end. You are going to Disney World, let's say, for a week, and you can't get there until late on Day 4 and still have to return on Day 7. Is it worth going? Will Disney let you cancel or reschedule your stay? Should you have insurance to cover the loss if you can't go?

It would be great if the travel industry could do standard brochures explaining things like this, but no one ever wants to admit that vacation travel can be anything but bliss.

The one good side of all this is that if you live in the orginating city, have a flight out the day after the storm, and aren't in a hurry (you are going to your own condo in FL or AZ), you can almost always offer to go standby to a later date and wind up flying free or better.

All of the airports servicing New York City were closed last week. That left thousands of people without flights. Those of you who were lucky enough to find hotel rooms--good for you. When there is such a HUGE volume of cancelled flights, hotels in the area book up quickly...hence...stranded at the airport IS a possibility no matter how much cash you have with you.
How about a little compassion instead of bashing your fellow travelors!

Let us not forget all the military who travel to get home to their families. I see them in the airports each time I fly. I doubt they have much cash in their pockets or a ton of credit on their cards - yet, like everyone else, they can get stranded with few options.

Seems there are two types of "stranded". The biggies like a natural disaster or weather event where no amount of preparation or money can get you out. And individually stranded, where you simply were not as well prepared as you could have been to deal with the unexpected situations that come up when traveling.

Hi! We have been stranded in the airport last vacation not because of the weather but with airplane issue. We should be boarding at 6PM but 12midnight we were still there waiting. The airline company offered us free meal and gave us one way ticket free valid for 1 year!

Ah, yes, mechanical failure, critique. That is a different set of rules. And of course, if you are in Europe and your flight is cancelled, you generally have more rights, even on a US airline.

Speaking of military personnel, my grandson got home on leave before Delta cancelled at their flights, or most of them anyway, out of Atlanta. He is not flying back until after NY's
and so far from what I have heard there will not be a problem.

Just a note. We have my grandson's checking a/c number and if he was stranded and running out of cash one of us can deposit money into his checking a/c and of course he can retrieve at an ATM.

Even with plenty of cash and lots of hotel availability, it's no fun to get "stranded". The airlines have a way of stringing you along for hours and hours without being able to tell you that after all is said and done, you're not going anywhere after all. You don't want to book a hotel until you're sure that you're plane is going to depart...because hotels don't refund within their 24 hr cancellation period.
And whenever I've had bad luck, it always seems that they finally tell me at midnight that the flight is definitely grounded, and then book me on the 6am flight in the morning. This puts me into a hotel for about 3 hours...and I get a great night's sleep :). Only to call the airline in the morning to hear that all systems are go at 6am, and then to arrive at the airport and wait until noon until we finally leave.

Cash and pre-planning has little to do with it. Even if it is "mechanical failure" and the airline pays for the hotel, what good is two hours sleep?....Most times I should have just stayed in the airport and snoozed rather than worry all night that the hotel shuttle bus wasn't going to show up in the snowy morning.

And how's about getting stuck in the plane, on the tarmac for ten hours??? What good is a credit card going to do you?

Sure obviously there are situations a credit card will be of no help. But there are plenty when it could save the day.

I have a question for Cate_W...

Why did you choose to post this question in the United States forum? Isn't this the type of thread you want us to put in The Lounge?

I have been stuck on an airplane, from SFO to PHL during thunderstorms. I prefer not flying to the east coast during the winter, but hadn't realized that summer storms can wreck havoc as well.

Since I had eaten breakfast before the 5 hour flight, and we were planning on eating with family when we arrived, I hadn't taken any food or snacks with me, so when we were delayed and diverted for an additional 4-5 hours, I was ravenous.

So, my "tip for coping" is to take regional snacking gifts representative of my origin or destination on board with me so that I can raid my stash if necessary, and even distribute them generously to the starved among me. This also can include gifts for the people at your destination, like sourdough bread in alligator shapes, and local cheeses.

Most of the time this involves a six-pack of Mauna Loa macadamia nuts from the Kona Costco. They are the best, because the small cans keep the nuts fresh and crisp.

I also buy delicious cookies from the airport deli. My friend always brings spicy nuts for the gang from Mexico. I just try to buy something unique and reasonably nutritious.

Sorry - most big cities have a huge number of hotel rooms and there is almost always someplace that has room. and as I mentioned - better to sit in the warm comfy lobby of a large hotel than a drab, dismal uncomfortable airport with no food. Just head into town to be very large hotel.

as for airlines stringing you along - it;s your job to be smarter than they are. If you are flying from O'Hare to LGA and see that the flights from further west are grounded - even if the airline doesn;t tell you - it's obvious your flight will not depart.

I'm always amazed at people interviewed who say they cam to the airport because their plane was scheduled - ignoring every piece of information that there will be no flight. Do not trust the airlines - figure out what's actually going on and ct accordingly.

Dear nytraveler, It is very difficult to understand your insistence that travelers who are stranded are doing so solely out of mismanagement. Even in the face of all the examples given, you seem unwilling to compromise. What is the point you wish to make?

I believe the point nytraveler is trying to make is that he/she is smarter than all the rest of us and that they have NO compassion for other people.

I think ya'll scared Cate away! :-D

I put Cate to sleep with my long post.

nytraveler, trying to outsmart the airline was what got us into trouble in the first place. We thought they wouldn't fly. They did. We were wrong and got stuck.

suze - I posted in the U.S. forum because of all my relatives stuck in the Northeast with the storm last week.

Birdie and iamq - I think I was busy traveling myself and then digging out a parking spot for my car when you posted! Shoveling the snow only took 30 minutes, which is nothing given the season.

Thanks to everyone who shared their stories!