Bad weather delays Christmas travelers in West

[Midnight Mike]

LOS ANGELES – Colleen Stone and her family left their Illinois home Saturday hoping to fly to Seattle and spend Christmas with her parents.

But two days, two canceled flights, a car ride and $600 later, they weren't even close. They were at Los Angeles International Airport, desperately trying to get out by plane, bus, train or rental car.

The Stones were among frustrated travelers across the West stuck Monday at airports, at bus stations and along roadways because of the weekend's stormy winter weather.

"I work for the Red Cross back home and we're trained to be prepared for when disasters strike," said Stone, 51. "This is a disaster and the airlines are not prepared for it."

There were long, snaking lines at customer service counters, and some travelers said they spent three hours waiting to rebook flights to the snowy Pacific Northwest.

The Greyhound terminals in Portland, Ore., and Seattle remained shut down due to the weather Monday — no buses in, no buses out.

More than 100 stranded passengers in Seattle were sent to homeless shelters or allowed to stay at the station. At the Old Town station in Portland, about 100 people had set up a second home.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_ ... er_weather (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081223/ap_on_re_us/winter_weather)

[moose135]

I feel sorry for these people (not just these specifically, but for those caught in situations like this). The airlines always say that they are not responsible for delays/cancellations caused by weather, and I understand that, but every year we hear horror stories about people stranded in terminals or on airplanes due to weather, and I always get the feeling that the airlines are taken by surprise. You would think by now they would have better procedures to deal with this sort of thing. It's not like this is the first winter we have had snow in the US.

[lijk604]

Way back when, (early 90's) when I worked for UAL, when we would get a bad snow day that cancelled a bunch of flights, the next day they could operate, they ran what we called "Extra sections." These were basically flights that used the "spare" 767 or 757 that was build into the scheduls and used it to clean up the terminals of stranded passengers. Now granted, those were the days where having a "spare" in the fleet was normal, not an excess.

[Matt Molnar]

I feel sorry for these people (not just these specifically, but for those caught in situations like this). The airlines always say that they are not responsible for delays/cancellations caused by weather, and I understand that, but every year we hear horror stories about people stranded in terminals or on airplanes due to weather, and I always get the feeling that the airlines are taken by surprise. You would think by now they would have better procedures to deal with this sort of thing. It's not like this is the first winter we have had snow in the US.

Travelers see these stories every year and it seems they're caught by surprise, too. I think the airlines should probably offer blankets and water and even MREs under certain circumstances, such as if all the hotels at a particular airport are full. But travelers should budget an extra day or two if you're traveling during the winter. Not always easy to do, but if you're picky about things like sleeping in the airport, it's a lot better than the alternative.

I flew back from STL last night (delayed 3 hours due to EWR weather), and the UA baggage claim at EWR was littered with hundreds and hundreds of apparently misconnected bags.

[Jetinder]

I am sorry to hear that.

Here in the UK we don't get weather as bad as that, today in London it was a mild dry winters day and weather men say tomorrow will not be snowing in London.

I personnaly would love to have the kind of deep snow weather you guys in the states have as it makes the world look pretty........ but last time we got deep snow was in 1981-82.....

With global warming happening deep snow in London is now sadly a thing of the past.

[AA 777]

Way back when, (early 90's) when I worked for UAL, when we would get a bad snow day that cancelled a bunch of flights, the next day they could operate, they ran what we called "Extra sections." These were basically flights that used the "spare" 767 or 757 that was build into the scheduls and used it to clean up the terminals of stranded passengers. Now granted, those were the days where having a "spare" in the fleet was normal, not an excess.


Still done a lot lately. This past week AA has run numerous extra sections out of NY, including a 767 out of JFK to ORD. Last night they ran AAL9207 down to DFW out of LGA. Doesnt clean everything up, but it helps

[USAF Pilot 07]

Travelers see these stories every year and it seems they're caught by surprise, too. I think the airlines should probably offer blankets and water and even MREs under certain circumstances, such as if all the hotels at a particular airport are full. But travelers should budget an extra day or two if you're traveling during the winter. Not always easy to do, but if you're picky about things like sleeping in the airport, it's a lot better than the alternative.

I flew back from STL last night (delayed 3 hours due to EWR weather), and the UA baggage claim at EWR was littered with hundreds and hundreds of apparently misconnected bags.

Also, a lot of the people we see "stranded" every winter book flights with connections in known winter "problem" areas because it's the cheapest option. For example, we'll see people traveling to San Fransisco via Chicago or Denver on the busiest travel days of the year, and then when there is a blizzard in Chicago or Denver, they are either stranded at their origin because all the other direct or connecting flights through clear cities are already oversold, or are stuck in the problem city.
I try my hardest to avoid connecting in winter storm prone cities (CHI, CLE, DEN etc...) and will even pay more to connect through a "warm" city (Dallas, Houston, ATL) to avoid the possibility of running into winter storm travel nightmares.
Sometimes it's unavoidable to connect through some of these problem cities, but many times there are other options, they just are more expensive....

[Gerard]

>I try my hardest to avoid connecting in winter storm prone cities (CHI, CLE, DEN etc...) and will even pay more to connect through a "warm" city (Dallas, Houston, ATL) to avoid the possibility of running into winter storm travel nightmares.
Sometimes it's unavoidable to connect through some of these problem cities, but many times there are other options, they just are more expensive....[/quote]<

One of the first things we were told to do when booking trips for my son from Tucson (AZ) back to L.I. was to avoid Chicago
in the wintertime. DUH!! LOL!! For Xmas he used Continental which switches through Houston but even there he had problems
on Dec 15 because of winds in Houston. His flight was delayed three hours but luckily he was able to get onto the earlier flight
that had also been delayed three hours.Then in Houston he almost missed the connecting flight but thankfully the pilots to that
flight were also delayed so he was alright. It seems this time a year it is pretty much a crap shoot where to fly in and out of to
avoid delays.