<p>Anyone having travel issues? A couple of friends are having trouble getting their kids back to EWR.</p>
<p>I’m glad DS is already back at school. I was originally supposed to go pick him up tomorrow in NJ (end of semester and he’s going to be studying abroad this spring) but luckily we changed that to Friday. It’s probably going to be bad tomorrow as well as today until the weather warms up a bit.</p>
<p>Good luck to anyone traveling!</p>
<p>I was recently unable to travel on the 6th, because although Midway Airport was open, all of the major highways in northern Indiana were closed, as were the local roads. </p>
<p>That was a first for me. There wasn’t even THAT much snow. I think that drifting combined with the immediate deep freeze was the problem.</p>
<p>I just landed in Newark. They are still taxiing. Low visibility, snow, but airplanes are getting in. They seem to be sporadically canceling flights, probably keeping one runway open so they can clear the other, and have to relieve the traffic.</p>
<p>I’m supposed to fly out of here tomorrow morning. Like that’s gonna happen! :(</p>
<p>Son started school last Wednesday. I just noticed he left his snow boots at home. Oops.</p>
<p>We’re supposed to be flying out of Boston tomorrow morning … We’ll see.</p>
<p>^^Mathmom: I believe our son’s are at the same school…we also brought him last week and already mailed out a huge box of things he forgot! I think because he was abroad first semester, it scattered his brain a bit!</p>
<p>How bad is it in NYC right now? My son’s flight was due to land at 5:30, but Spirit cancelled it. I have him flying in tomorrow at 7:30am, but it doesn’t look much better.</p>
<p>Snow is very heavy now about 10 miles west of Newark Airport. Just watched WABC news and they say we are going to have blizzard conditions over the next few hours and the snow fall totals keep increasing. It may stop by midnight…it may not. Sounds like the coastal storm (that met up with midwest storm) is tracking much farther west than they predicted. </p>
<p>Already 4"+ on the ground, I’m expecting over 10". (last night we were in the 4-6" band). </p>
<p>It’s ugly out there…the temps are also dropping, which means salt is not effective and roads are very icy.</p>
<p>It’s pretty bad at JFK right now, if that is where Toledo’s son is supposed to fly into. The current weather is winds gusting up to 28 knots, visibility 1/4 mile, ceiling 800 feet broken, light snow. At his arrival time tomorrow, the forecast is somewhat better, winds gusting up to 30 knots, visibility 3 miles, ceiling 2000 overcast, light snow.</p>
<p>The most important factor in all that is the visibility. It should easily be legal for a flight (even if he’s booked on a commuter jet) to fly into JFK tomorrow, if the forecast holds. It’s all unpredictable though, as you don’t know if the airplane will be stuck elsewhere tonight, if the airline has to limit the flights into these airports and which flights they will cancel, if the crews are stuck out. There are so many variables, but based on that weather, the flight should be okay.</p>
<p>Unfortunately my husband has to fly out of there tonight, and his airplane is there. The weather looks like it will be legal, though challenging, so I’m sure he’ll get out. But it will be a pain in the rear for him. He’d probably rather hang out at the hotel tonight and have a glass of wine.</p>
<p>I looked at the flight board at Newark, and almost every flight for the rest of the day shows cancelled. A couple of international flights still going. Looks like a blizzard out here.</p>
<p>Speaking as someone from northern New England this his amusing. 6 - 10" causes all these issues? Wow</p>
<p>Ugh. He’s booked on a 6am flight from Detroit to Laguardia, which means we have to leave here at 4am.</p>
<p>Spirit is making us pay $240 for the flight, even though they cancelled the flight today. They said if he wanted a “replacement flight”, he had to fly on Thursday. Can you believe that?!!</p>
<p>toledo, it is coming down very heavy, and will continue to do so throughout the night. I don’t know if your son’s flight will take off.</p>
<p>I would challenge Spirit and take the complaint up the ladder of command!</p>
<p>I am supposed to drive down to Boston tomorrow to pick up my daughter’s student visa for Spain (the consulate will not mail visas for some reason). But the forecast includes snow up to a foot and winds gusting to 40 mphs, so I think I will postpone going. Really messes up my work schedule for the rest of the week, because I’d already told a client I would be gone tomorrow.</p>
<p>“Ugh. He’s booked on a 6am flight from Detroit to Laguardia, which means we have to leave here at 4am.”</p>
<p>I sure would make sure he isn’t cancelled before you go to sleep, and when you wake up. I’d be pretty ****ed if they don’t cancel till the last minute!</p>
<p>“Spirit is making us pay $240 for the flight, even though they cancelled the flight today. They said if he wanted a “replacement flight”, he had to fly on Thursday. Can you believe that?!!”</p>
<p>That is total BS. If they had tomorrow’s flight available for money, they should have had it available as a replacement flight. I’d be enraged. Especially if they cancel tomorrow’s flight, what will they do then? What a tacky airline, trying to opportunistically rip people off when they can’t even deliver what they promised.</p>
<p>“I am supposed to drive down to Boston tomorrow to pick up my daughter’s student visa for Spain (the consulate will not mail visas for some reason). But the forecast includes snow up to a foot and winds gusting to 40 mphs, so I think I will postpone going. Really messes up my work schedule for the rest of the week, because I’d already told a client I would be gone tomorrow.”</p>
<p>If the roads look okay, I’d still call them tomorrow and make sure they aren’t going to close. Lots of govt offices shut down in DC today, so who knows what else will be shut. Sounds like a day off for you!</p>
<p>I live about 5 miles from JFK. It is coming down fairly steadily and has been all day. I would guesstimate we have about 8 inches or so on the ground, maybe a bit less. It is pretty windy and the storm is expected to end around 3 AM or so. JFK usually doesn’t totally shut down unless official blizzard white-out conditions because they really try to move international flights in and out. Some international destinations like Africa and the Middle East might only have a handful of flights a week and it is problematic for those flights to be cancelled.</p>
<p>Personally i would doubt that any flights will get into LaGuardia tomorrow before mid-morning/noon although i could be wrong. LaGuardia has more limited runway options than JFK. My DH was once on the Washington DC shuttle that was delayed in D.C. then took off, flew to LaGuardia, couldn’t land and returned to D.C. where he took the Metro and got on Amtrak. Actually that happened twice. </p>
<p>If it was me I would fight Spirit up the chain of command, Consumer Protection Agency, Better Business Bureau and every other place that I could think of.</p>
<p>I agree with you on all counts, bookmama.</p>