<p>I’ve taken the train between Boston and Chicago. It’s fine. The question is whether you can get a seat at this season. Roomettes will be booked, but Amtrak shows coach seats available on the Saturday train that gets into Chicago Sunday morning. If you want to go that route, I’d buy it immediately…Friday and Sunday are already sold out.</p>
<p>If the OP’s daughter can get a flight Sunday out of Manchester, that’s easy - all she needs is a place to stay Saturday night and a reservation on one of the airport shuttles to get her from Logan up to Manchester on Sunday. It won’t be expensive, and if she can stay with a friend’s family Saturday night, it really won’t cost her much at all. It will be much, much easier (and less expensive!) than to try and get home by train. If the Southwest flight out of Manchester is still available, take it!</p>
<p>Really, Manchester isn’t that far, and it’s a tiny, easy-to-navgiate airport (comparable to Sacramento, perhaps?). Just do a google search for “Manchester NH airport shuttle” and you’ll find the various options for getting there from Logan.</p>
<p>Southwest also flies out of Providence. Not sure if they fly to Minneapolis from Providence. Delta is major carrier to Minneapolis. I know that you can fly from LaGuardia to Minneapolis, not sure about Logan. I would also recommend flying out of Manchester. It is not a bad option at all. I would think that Brandeis would have some options available…maybe even at another Boston college…just a thought, but if not, you should be able to find an inexpensive hotel.
This appears to be a major storm …so maybe no other options but in general, would try to avoid flying through Chicago whenever possible.</p>
<p>We may end up in the same boat tomorrow. If we do, we will bank the SW money for a future SW flight and pay whatever it takes to get the kid home…on whatever airline has a seat.</p>
<p>try delta.</p>
<p>They sell out less quickly IME</p>
<p>Nothing to offer, but I hope she makes it home soon!!!</p>
<p>Well, we found a flight with another airline on Sun. It’s not the best solution, but that’s what we’re going with. Winter traveling can be unpredictable. Just want her to get home safely, even if it takes awhile! And, I will think twice about booking a flight through Chicago in the winter now! The Manchester thing probably would have worked okay, too. She just seemed a bit nervous about trying to get a shuttle there in the wee hours. Happy Holidays, everyone! May all of your kiddos make it home safely!</p>
<p>Glad it worked out, Mstee. For the future, Manchester is sometimes a cheaper option, even with the bus or shuttle. I always check both airports when I fly. The bus stops at the bus terminal at the other end of town but a cab is easy to get-it’s a pretty small city so not very long to one terminal from the other. Delta is also a good option into Manchester, sometimes even cheaper than Southwest. The shuttles can be called directly from the airport or pre-arranged to get from MHT to Boston-worth keeping on your radar. Hope your D has a good flight home!</p>
<p>Yea, I try to avoid flights that go thru Chicago or Denver, preferring to minimize potential storm delays and cancellations. Denver is especially problematic for me, since it’s at such high altitude. I generally try to connect in Texas or a CA city and so far have not had rerouting due to weather.</p>
<p>If others find themselves in the same boat: there is currently no weather problem in MSP–we got about an inch of snow, pretty trivial. Chicago got hit pretty hard, but any non-stops from East Coast or West Coast cities to MSP should not be a problem. Delta uses MSP as a hub with non-stops to most major cities nationwide, but other airlines also run non-stops from their own hubs to MSP (e.g., US Airways from PHL, American from DFW and EWR, United from DEN, SFO, LAX, IAD, etc.).</p>
<p>Actually, the big storm that was supposed to hit Chicago really never materialized. But the flights were cancelled anyway.</p>
<p>Mstee-- Hope your D gets hoe safely today! I know you will be so excited to see her</p>
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<p>When D1 landed here from Boston yesterday, one of the first things she said was, “I thought you guys got a blizzard here… where’s all the snow?”</p>
<p>And while we didn’t really get much snow (less than 1"), it was very, very windy - that alone was enough to cancel flights.</p>
<p>When there are flight cancellations like these, airlines reserve seats and flights that show sold out for the public are not really full. These seats can be assigned only at the airport. This may not have been helpful in OP’s case but is applicable if you missed a connection for instance or when flights resume</p>
<p>It is always best not to book a flight with a connection at any time of the year. My experience with Chicago & other snow belt cities is that they cope with winter weather far better than fringe cities such as New York or Boston. Forget places like DC or Atlanta which shut down with a dusting. In the summer, thunderstorms can shut any airport down for a few hours creating havoc across the entire country. </p>
<p>If you live by a small airport, you often may think you have no options, but sometimes flying non-stop to a larger airport a few hours away and either taking a bus or train or renting a car will save time & headaches in the long-run. Also, the big airport can have cheaper fares, so you might find the all-in cost in dollars and time is a wash. Generally, these larger airports can absorb a few cancellations and redistribute passengers unlike a small airport that just turns around the small plane to return to the hub city.</p>
<p>Oh god, same thing happened to me, and on an international flight, ask the people in the counter, luckily they gave me another flight that departed an hour later!!</p>