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<p>Ditto!!!</p>
<p>I think my DD will go with the flow to a good degree, but if she misses Christmas at home, she will be pretty blue. So will we! But we’ll endure…the important thing is they are all safe and sound.</p>
<p>Just checked the updated status of my D’s flight. Though she’s booked on Tuesday I checked Monday’s flight. It’s delayed but NOT canceled, like today’s was (Sunday). This is a good sign…at least things might look ok at Heathrow for those trying to get out Monday…it’s 8 am there as I write this. Fingers crossed for rest of the day…for this whole week.</p>
<p>[BBC</a> News - Further snow travel chaos set to disrupt Christmas week](<a href=“http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12034317]BBC”>Snow travel chaos disrupts Christmas week - BBC News) It can be hard for us just a few miles from Heathrow to get updates on the situation so I can only empathize fervently with you trying to do it from the other side of the ocean. I’m assuming this BBC link works - they update more regularly than the BAA site. We were due to fly out of Terminal 4 Saturday - but obviously we are going nowhere this Christmas. We were however able to drive back to Terminal 1 and collect one of D’s friends who was stranded on her way back to the US. The Times editorial this morning (under the headline “Snow Happens”) asks “is Britain uniquely incompetent in dealing with snow?” The Transport Minister has said that if this ‘pattern’ of snowy winters looks set to continue (this is only our second in a row), airports will have to invest in proper equipment to deal with the snow. But BAA (which runs Heathrow but not Gatwick) is a private company. Current Met forecast (norotiously unreliable!) has a band of 2 to 5 cm of snow reaching the London airports this evening. Keeping fingers crossed that the hundreds of thousands of stranded travellers willl get home for Christmas.</p>
<p>I just got a tearful phonecall from D. She can’t even get to London to get her (doubtful) flight out of London. She is separated now from her friends who took an earlier plane to London. It seems pretty awful to us to fly into such a mess, but the airline attendant assures us that every other traveler trying to get to the states is also looking for better ways and all the flights are booked, so the only chance she has to get home in the next few days is hoping that her delayed flight flies AND that she doesn’t miss her London flight AND it isn’t canceled. I’m just keeping my fingers crossed.</p>
<p>doughmom,</p>
<p>Sorry about your D.</p>
<p>thumper1,</p>
<p>I heard a few minutes ago on Spanish news that 30% of flights from Paris were nixed today.</p>
<p>I am one of the fortunate ones here. S’s flight left about 40 minutes ago. Now we hope the snow holds off for landing this afternoon.</p>
<p>thinking of all of you; </p>
<p>there was a young american girl on the Today Show this morning who was trying to get home for her grandfather’s funeral…ugh…</p>
<p>My DD lucked out and her flight left Germany just a few minutes late. She said it was snowing as she went to the airport and she was expecting a delay or cancellation. We hadn’t seen her in 18 months and she’s never seen this house since we moved while she was gone. She doesn’t go back until Jan. 7, so the return might be a smoother trip.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone!</p>
<p>Well, it seems that Heathrow is only allowing 5 landings/takeoff/slots for D’s airline today. For today, her flight # was canceled.
Hoping that this flight will be chosen for the slots tomorrow when D is supposed to fly, if conditions are the same today. </p>
<p>This may apply to other airlines to US/Canada too…only allowing certain number of flights.</p>
<p>Got D out today! She’s suffering from "Survivors guilt, leaving hundreds back at the NYU dorms in London. She was scheduled to leave Saturday and I knew enough NOT to try for Tuesday but the Wed flight I wanted to book closed before I could enter my credit card info! VIRGIN ATLANTIC was no help, not even in the US…these kids were on their own save for any parent back home with a computer! Wasn’t feeling good about her getting out this afternoon and sure enough I checked the heathrow Departures at 6am…2/3 the flights were “CANCELLED” in red including the ONE I TRIED TO GET HER on!!! another 1/3 said “scheduled” without much info and ONLY ONE said "SCHEDULED ON TIME IN GREEN…hers!!! Soooooo happy. Now I gotta cancel the thursday flight that I booked her on to hedge my bets! Wishing you all good luck as well!</p>
<p>Hello! My daughter was scheduled to go from Scotland through Gatwick and Heathrow yesterday (Sunday), but her flights were cancelled. She managed to get a flight to Copenhagen (from Scotland) and took off on a Chicago-bound flight about an hour and a half ago. I have my fingers crossed that all your kids will be home soon, too.</p>
<p>I have what may be a dumb question for all of you…When you are rescheduling these flights, are paying for a new ticket? Do you get any $$credit for the cancelled flights? Is this costing all of you a fortune??</p>
<p>^ My daughter’s carrier wanted her to cancel her flights and then she could re-book with any carrier (as I understand it, that would have released them from having to accomodate her), but she refused and insisted THEY rebook her on other carriers at no additional charge. They (the carrier) also must pay for any additional expenses such as hotel and meals for extended stays - insist they accomodate you. Her three connecting flights home are not on her original carrier, but they are not charging her.</p>
<p>Daughter was stranded for a week in Paris in the first round of this weather mess, and the airline put her in a hotel where she could eat three meals a day at the hotel restaurant for no charge, and then finally re-booked her another flight back to Scotland.</p>
<p>Good news/not so good news: D is in the air! Made it to Heathrow and out to Dublin. Now flying to Boston. She will get surprise vacation night in Boston, as the last leg of her trip to West Coast has already been canceled due to our weather! So, she’s not home yet, but, making progress! </p>
<p>D said cab to Heathrow from Picadilly area took almost two hours at 4:30 a.m. At Heathrow, many counters unmanned. She said utter chaos, packed liked sardines… and smelled like vomit! Other students able to grab seats on her flight, because many no shows at airport…</p>
<p>Fingers crossed, salt over shoulder and letter to Santa revised—hoping the best for all kids still trying to make it home…</p>
<p>Yay for your D…moving in the right direction!</p>
<p>So glad for people who are travelling! I will never fly through London again. I normally go through Amsterdam and this year because of my schedule I had to go through Heathrow which I swore off of years ago. I was kind of excited about trying another airline and trying to get over my bad experiences in the past. Not now. Never again. And I am not a kid, but I am trying to get to my kids…:(</p>
<p>gosmom…great news!!</p>
<p>Thanks for info on taxi. Will advise D to leave her flat tomorrow MUCH earlier than she planned for.</p>
<p>I am FINALLY booked on another flight back to London leaving Wednesday morning. Fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Keeping my fingers crossed for all of you with children trying to make it home. We were fortunate my D came home from Brussels on Friday. I have a friend trying to get to London to see her family for Christmas.</p>
<p>This thread hits close to home, as our D was trying on Saturday to get to France to visit her boyfriend. Needless to say, we don’t have a very favorable impression of British Airways’ customer service right now. I know Mother Nature can be a formiddable foe, but when you can’t actually talk to a human being to deal with travel issues, it seems like you’re battling a “second front”.</p>
<p>D was supposed to leave Saturday p.m. from Dulles to Heathrow, then on to Lyon. She calls us in tears Saturday morning (on her 23rd birthday, of all things) because the flight has been cancelled. She left her hotel with her bag and took a 15-minute cab ride to the airport to reschedule in person. Meanwhile, we went online and rebooked her British Airways flights (same ones) for 24 hours later. But we worried about Heathrow reopening, so we hoped she could find an alternative.</p>
<p>British Airways was horrible. It was a 4 hour wait to talk to a human on the phone, the website was sluggish and really didn’t give you many flight alternatives. And, Dulles’ British Airways customer service counter was supposed to open at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Well, they never opened up AT ALL. </p>
<p>So we spent hours on the internet trying to find alternatives that would fly her to the Continent rather than to London. We tried British Airways flights, no real luck because the online system wouldn’t let you change your destination from Heathrow to Paris, or anything else. And you couldn’t talk to a human to revise anything. Finally, I found a flight on Lufthansa Airlines that flew Sunday night to Frankfort and then a second flight from there to Lyon. So D went to the Lufthansa counter and worked with a WONDERFUL ticket agent. He got her a reservation for the flight, at no cost, and she took a printed confirmation to the British Airways counter to get a travel voucher to get on the Lufthansa flight instead of the rescheduled British Airways flight the next day. They gave her the voucher and D got her Lufthansa ticket. </p>
<p>So on Sunday morning, D went back to Dulles and sat watching the screens, just in case something changed, so she could be first in line to talk to a human being and make new plans. And the decision to not fly into Heathrow turned out to be a good thing, as that rescheduled flight was also cancelled (good to go with the gut feeling). Thankfully her flight to Frankfort was never cancelled. But her second flight from Frankfort to Lyon got cancelled on Sunday, so D went back to the same wonderful Lufthansa ticket agent, who rebooked her on a later one to Lyon, even bumping her up to business class so she could get on the nearly packed flight.</p>
<p>D called us at 4:45 a.m. this morning, saying she was in Frankfort and getting ready to board her Lyon flight in about an hour. She called four hours later and said she was in Lyon with her boyfriend. A Happy Ending!!! Or, more appropriate, a happy beginning to her trip!! :)</p>
<p>Whew, I’m exhausted just writing this.</p>
<p>Anyone flying to the states from Scotland, in the future try Iceland Air from Glasgow. It is west or Edinburgh and when my DD flew earlier this month in that big storm, all her EDI flight friends were cancelled, whilst she had no issues. And it avoids the stop in London, but goes to mellow Iceland which told us they were holding all flights to allow every one to make their connections and had a little mellow airport. DD decided that if she missed her connection she would do some Iceland hot springs.</p>
<p>Two kids have flown this airline this year and both gave it great reviews. D1 says NEVER fly Air France.</p>