As the air traffic system gets back to normal, there is a huge backlog of stranded passengers and people who have urgent personal and business travel.

Furthermore, many flights will cancel tomorrow because the schedules are only being ramped up gradually.

I have a non essential trip to FLL, SEA-PIT-FLL tomorrow night. I noticed that all connections SEA-PIT on all airlines were completely sold out on both Friday and Saturday.

When I cancelled my reservations to FLL, the SEA-PIT availability went from F 0 Y 0 to F 0 Y 1 on ITN. In less than one minute, it went back down to F 0 Y 0. Someone needed that seat (maybe from a waitlist), and my $197 "mileage run / weekend vacation" was not a good use of that seat.

I did not reschedule that trip, but just bought a ticket for another trip in October. I have no fear or apprehensions about my safety, but I really feel terrible for those people stuck.

If you have non essential travel and aren't stuck, you might want to check the loads and see if you could postpone your travel.

das, that is very good advice. I should have thought of it myself. As I will be driving home tomorrow, I am calling Northwest right now to cancel, so if they fly, someone else can get the seat and maybe not have to wait around, wondering.

I should have thought of that earlier, instead of going, "Well, when I get a chance, I'll cancel--or maybe not, since I don't even know if they will be flying tomorrow."

I'll release the seat right now. Thanks!

Yesterday,I called UA Prem Exec. desk & asked them if they needed my seat for this morning's flight LAX-PDX. I felt there were still stranded pax. They said the seat would be badly needed & greatly appreciated. Without hesitation, gave up trip. (not an essential trip). They refunded my ticket (paid by $150 voucher & $9.50 CC--asked if refunded same way as paid would be fair)in the same form of payments as it was paid for. Not interested in any vouchers at this time (I am eager for vouchers in normal oversold situations!) due to stranded pax & people needing to travel for funerals, etc. Glad I was able to help someone.

I just cancelled or I guess I should say rebooked two trips both were IAD-EWR-FLL for today and tomorrow, they were nothing but pure Mileage runs that I can do later on. CO was grateful when I asked if they needed the seats.

I too had a mileage run scheduled for this weekend, but have been trying to reschedule. However, I have been unable to get through to United two nights in a row. Any secrets how to get through??? I will be driving through Chicago this afternoon as well. Isn't their a customer service location other than the airport? If so, where is it?

Thanks everyone for all the support shown. God Bless America!

Go Ahead and fly. DL is publishing their stats for the day. They are saying 1000 flights and 96,000 passengers. That's 96 passengers per plane and I figure about 170 seats per plane on average (I know some of the big intl' birds aren't flying yet). That's a lot lighter than I expected with all of the folks trying to get back home.

I talked to one of my employees stranded in Atlanta this morning (Friday) -- UA could not get him back to OAK until Monday. I think we managed to stuff him into a nearly full DL flight, but I'm not sure.

I have another guy in India.

We have a bunch of people in Rochchester NY, NH and some other places.

All of them would like to get home & see their families.

Those of you who cancel unnecessary trips are doing a favor to at least one family each.

RE: Cancelling Res. When my outbound flight cancelled on Thursday, I at first thought I'd wait and deal with rescheduling the trip until things had calmed down, but it occurred to me that I needed to cancel the return seat to make it available. Please remember to do this as well, since your whole itinerary won't cancel just because your outbound flight gets cancelled.

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Someone posted in another thread that you can get through to United more easily by redialing the number until you get the automated attendant. At that point, don't hit anything as if you had a rotary phone.

Many are getting through to the auto-attendant and then getting a bust signal when they make a choice from the menu.

The problem with getting folks back home is not availability of seats on the planes but of the flights themselves. A very high portion of flights are still being cancelled due to security issues, crew availability and so on. My LAX-CVG flight (1st flight on Friday morning) was oversold by the max allowed 10%, I was waitlisted, then got a middle seat in coach, then got an aisle, and ended up with an upgrade. 14 people got an upgrade, over 20 waitlisted got on board in coach, and we left with empty seats. Same story on my CVG-ORF segment. System had it booked completely, about 6 Richmond passengers from a canceled flight still got on, and we left with less than a half load.

The systems are showing full loads since many folks got out by car, train, etc., and those reservations have not been updated yet. I think it will take another week for all the airlines to sort it all out. A high dosage of patience is required during this time. Please be mindful of what the reservation and ground staff has been going through in the last few days.

Good luck in getting home safely to all the FT's still stranded out there.

As someone who was stranded and made it back yesterday, I have to echo this plea to cancel any non-essential trips. Even if the flight cancels, having a reservation is necessary for people to get past security where they can then standby for flights that might get them home.

ATLJV: Your advice is very poor. People can't get to the gates if others don't cancel their flights and allow them to obtain reservations.

[This message has been edited by letiole (edited 09-15-2001).]

I want to second what several others have said...

PLEASE cancel your reservation if you do not plan to show up at the airport for your flight. You need to do this as soon as you decide not to fly.

I was going from SJC to DFW yesterday and the airline had to combine two flights to Dallas because so many passengers no showed both flights. I think they airlines may be a bit leary after Tuesday of sending out planes that have multiple no shows and end up relatively empty.

The airlines are only allowing stranded passengers to be rebooked on flights with open seats.

Even getting protected on a later flight almost takes an act of God right now (I had to talk to three different individuals yesterday to ensure that I had a second seat yesterday should the first flight cancel, and they deleted that from the record as soon as I got a boarding pass for the first flight - long before I know whether the flight would go off).

If you are are not going to use the seat, please allow a stranded passenger to get the seat confirmation... otherwise your empty seat could go to waste if there are no gate standbys.

Just tried to cancel a Continental flight for today that I booked just in case I couldn't get out yesterday ... the recording said hold time was 104 minutes. Makes it tough to do the right thing.

Also, don't forget to cancel hotel rooms!!!!

I'm having the same problem. I have several segments that I will not be taking this weekend. Cannot get through to SQ or TG.

I'll keep trying!