Yes. I got up at 3AM. to catch my 5am flight last week. I could have used another half hour too.
In June, when our flight plans fell apart at the airport , we replaced them with a flight from another airline that got us within 2 1/2 hours of our destination. Got a one way rental and drove it to get to our destination— didn’t get there till 3 am and had an 8 am commitment the next morning which had we missed, could have caused us a lot of expense and trouble. The cancelled flight was American and they did get us on another airlines to achieve all of this. I have to give them kudos that they did this but we had to come up with the ideas. They had no solutions for us other than waiting till the next day and get booked on the first flight with available seats—so basically wait around stand by . We wouldn’t have made it to our commitment in time—no way
I got up at 3:15 am to make my 5:20 am flight this morning. I’m paying for it now, but glad I was on that early flight. American didn’t offer me the option of flying another airline and DH saw the only other option I had last night was to fly SW into BWI, if that flight was even a go. I was driving at the time I was talking to the AA rep, so I could only really trust what she was telling me. Compared to the experiences of some others here, I guess I had it easier than most.
Driving from NOVA to central CT would take 7 hours at a minimum. I’d still rather fly & spend the time with my mother, not on the road, but I do agree that sometimes driving is better.
Glad you found a ride home, @Iglooo .
I live in Texas in a city that is big, but does not have a big airport. There have been times when if I can get to Texas, I then choose to drive on home if that last connection goes haywire. I remember back when I was in my twenties, I group of us got stuck and banded together to rent a car and drive on home.
Ugh! I must admit that I feel better about our American/EasyJet European fiasco. They cancelled our flight (i.e. mechanical issues) and booked us on the one 24 hours later. But, they paid for the hotel rooms. However, they sent our luggage to Madrid instead of Barcelona and it was 4 days before they got them to us. My mom said they are sending her a check for the clothes and stuff we had to buy. (And we didn’t buy much and not until the 3rd day.) She is also waiting for reimbursement for other lost items (tour fees, etc.). She did have trip insurance, so she will go there next if American refuses.
Our EasyJet flight from Nice/Rome was also cancelled due to “mechanical issues!” They also put us up in 5 hotel rooms (for 10 people). However, since they couldn’t guarantee us a flight < 36 hours, we booked train tickets from Nice/Rome from the hotel along with a dozen other people. (We made a lot of friends that trip.) But, there is a EU law that says if your flight is delayed/cancelled due to non-weather issues, the airline must pay you a good chunk of $$$. My older S happened to read about it while bored during a flight when he was studying broad. He helped my mom get to the right people and she’s getting $2500 Euros back - well more than the cost of the train tickets - plus the cost of the 10 plane fares. I read online something like 98% of travellers don’t claim their $$$.
It does help to be retired and be persistent. And, the delays can’t be weather related.
You are making me nervous! Our daughter is supposed to fly to Maine tomorrow evening for the weekend. If she gets cancelled we risk not being able to see her before we head back to Asia next week. Weather forecast looks okay but until I have my arms wrapped around her…Airline gods please be good to us.
I was at the Denver airport at midnight last night to pick up some people coming from Hartford. They were on time but no gate available so sat on the tarmac for about an hour, then had to get luggage. The airport was very backed up with a big traffic jam at pick up (we never go to pick up, we go to departures and at 1 am, WIDE open).
Anyway, Denver was backed up and it wasn’t our fault. It was all delays from the east coast.
You are not talking about two nights ago, on 8/7, the lightening storm in NYC area are you? I lucked out on American in the morning of 8/7, flew out of PHX to arrive EWR at 6:20AM, it actually only dlayed for about 1 hour. We have to switch gates at PHX the night before.
Well the 8/7 storm was horrible, I drove almot 4 hours from Suffolk county to Brooklyn in pouring rain, with flood and traffic.
Flying was bad on 8/7 but so was driving. we live 2 hours and 20 minutes from Boston where DH was for the day. It took him almost 6 hours to get home. He was between exits…and a tractor trailer jackknifed. That…and the torrential rain slowed his drive home…a lot.
Yesterday, my aunt and uncle had a flight from Hawaii canceled for 24+ hours, also American. I’ve had unfavorable experiences with American, including an awful Hawaii experience. Not looking forward to the upcoming long trip to Seattle…
My daughter’s flight arrived without problems, even 10 minutes early tonight. Wonderful to hug her and hear all about her graduate school experience so far. While we were waiting for her we chatted with a security guard who said several flights to other airports had to be diverted to the airport (Portland, Maine) the other night because of weather bringing over 1200 extra people to the little airport all at once. He said it was chaos.
Once, I had S on one airline, D on another and H&I on a third. S was on United—arrived as scheduled. D was on Hawaiian. Arrived as scheduled. We were on American—flight was cancelled. They wanted to rebook us for many days later and I said no, the whole point of the trip is to help D settle in at her new U and take her to MD appts. They were reluctantly able to “find” us a pair of seats for the next day.
Fortunately S and D were able to get to my best friend’s house in LA, who fed them dinner and then took them to S’s apartment. S made sure to get D to orientation the next day and we arrived very late, a night after scheduled.