makin'miles

United's strength is very much in its people: an CS agent in DEN noticed that it was my sister's birthday and, a little while after taking care of the rebooking, paged her back to the gate where a few agents were waiting with a muffin and a candle, singing 'Happy Birthday'.

Whoever that agent was, thanks so much - gestures like this really mean a lot!

DenverBrian

9 News now reporting that DIA will re-open at approximately 7 PM tomorrow, based on information provided by airport management.

In my own quite humble opinion, I'm guessing they might start shoving planes down the runway around 5 PM. Just based on all the context I'm hearing.

My distant relative and her BF were able to snag a hotel at $85 and the city provided buses for those with hotel reservations to get them there tonight, so at least they'll be able to sleep in a bed tonight. Up to 4,700 people at DIA will be sleeping on the floor tonight - if they're lucky, they'll have a DIA-issued blanket, and if they're extremely lucky, they'll have snagged some of the limited "no armrest" seating scattered in the terminal and concourses.

dcsnowwake

only one flight departing IAD tomorrow and thats at 9pm....its going to be a mess for at least a week, I have a feeling people will be screwed until the 26th atleast now..........UA needs to find 777 and 747 and get them to DEN asap, or its going to be a painful xmas for some.


yes it is weather related, but UA has the resources to try to fix this!
like i said earlier good luck to everyone, and hope u dont get stuck too long, at least i ddint start my trip, but im stuck in dc and not in breckenridge where im suppose to b.

LessO2

I don't know....it's going to take several days to get planes back where they should be.

CApreppie

What an unfortunate travel day(s) for those stuck at DEN.

RobotDoctor

You all should see my car. There is about 1 foot of snow on top of my car and that level is even through the front of my car. There is a 3 foot snow drift on the hood of my stinkin car. Good grief, where is the snow going to go?

I have at least 25 inches of snow in my yard with drifts approaching 4 to 5 feet. My poor dog, where is she going to do her business. I guess I will have to shovel an area for her as well as dig out.

sbaflyer

Made the mistake of using a DBC voucher (the kind you get if you get bumped, and unfortunately can't be booked online) for holiday travel. My SBA-DEN-MSP flights for 12/21 were canceled, and after an hour on hold on the phone, I went to the airport (it's pretty much next door) and spent another hour there with an agent, but couldn't get anything out of SBA or LAX until Christmas Day. I ended up using miles on to book a ticket for 12/22 on nwa.com instead, assuming that refunds were guaranteed for DEN travelers with canceled flights, but according to the agent at SBA, because I used a voucher on the flight, I can only use it to rebook on the same itinerary.

I'd rather get the equivalent of a refund and use the voucher to fly elsewhere, anyone know whether that will be possible? Obviously calling United reservations isn't working at this point, though I tried an email. Has anyone ever managed to get a question answered this way? I do have 1P status, if it matters... thanks!

Karo

I just got back from BUR. I got sick and tired of getting a busy line when I would call United or getting hung up on. Spent about 2 hours at BUR getting things done. Very VERY VERY nice lady at the counter was helping me. I was very pleased with the service that I got from them. With the amount of people they were dealing with and how rude people were I am surprised I got a nice person to help me out.

They changed my flight because they said in the computer system it showed my flight was also cancelled... (go figure).... so after about 25 min of looking around I was booked through Alaska Airlines (via AA) on Dec 22nd non stop flights from LAX to IAD.... I called Alaska and got seat 9F on a 767. Overall, very pleased and very happy.

Anyone know if I can use my United status with the AA flight to maybe get a first class seat?

Thanks

erdehoff

My little sister is here in SFO visiting from DEN -- she flew out Tuesday, thankfully! So far her flight home on Friday evening (SFO-DEN) isn't canceled, but we're keeping an eye on it. (I have no objection to keeping her here an extra day or two!)

A friend was flying SFO-DEN-BOS tomorrow on UA. She's been rebooked for Saturday. She doesn't have status of any kind, so I'm guessing there's no chance she can get there sooner -- though from the stories I'm reading, your rebooking luck seems to depend at least partly on whom you get on the phone/at the desk. I told her to keep calling.

If my sister gets on a VDB list Friday afternoon (her flight is at 5), do you guys think she'll have to stay here another night?

carl92103

Yes very unfortunate. My two nieces were crying on the phone because I was not coming in. My three year old niece wanted to know why Santa could not come and pick me up. Reservations tried everything to reaccommodate me but it was impossible to get flights into PIT this week. The 1P desk was very helpful.

ursiform

United has a ticket waiver policy posted for travelers affected by the storm, so it seems as though they will accomodate you. I'd wait until tomorrow and try the 1p line, you are more likely to get someone helpful.

Keith009

I was indirectly hit by the DEN fiasco today.

Walked up to the UA area at BOS to find lots of dazed people walking around and stressed out UA agents yelling at DEN pax to go home. I was traveling to IAD, all good - or so I thought. I happened to be on UA989 (estd 1345), which was operated by a 733 that was stuck in DEN!

The first sign of trouble came when I noticed that the easy web check in counter is showing me as being dramatically rebooked onto a flight that leaves 7 hours later. Check in agent insisted that the best he could do was put me on standby on the 1438 departure. 'nothing, nothing at all - the computer shows that you're on the 8pm flight so it means there's nothing before that', 'well did you check for availability?' 'Do I need to repeat myself?' Was so pissed off at the overflow of attitude that I didn't think to ask for availability on US Airways codeshares until I got airside. Thankfully a (comparatively) nicer UA agent managed to rustle up the 'last' seat for me on the 1345 US departure for DCA and turned quite a few tearful people away - despite many empty seats on the US flight.

But since I had no time to fish my suitcase out of the hold... I had to let my bag remain with the 8pm flight. US Air filed delayed baggage report for me and assured me that they'd do 'everything', and thus began an eternal wait for aforementioned suitcase...

Best wishes to folks going to or attempting to fly out of DEN.

markoh

DIA (DEN) officials now saying that the airport will not re-open until Friday morning

milepig

So, how does LH recover from something like this.

They have a bunch of pax stranded at ORD who won't be getting to DEN anytime soon (most likely).

They have a plane where it doesn't need to be.

Do they let the plane sit at ORD until they can reload the pax and take them on to DEN? Do they send the plane back to the homeland - empty? Do they offer to take anyone with them who no longer wants to go to DEN?

Or, do they cancel a FRA/ORD or MUC/ORD and use the stranded plane for the ORD-FRA/MUC portion?

LessO2

DEN is still closed. A couple of radio reports saying they hope to have the first departure wheels-up at 7:00 tonight. But they say that is an optimistic projection.

They're probably working on the runways in earnest now. The snow is still falling, but the big difference is how it's falling at a 180-degree angle, and not the 90-degree angle it was all day and all night yesterday. Where I live, it's still falling at just under an inch per-hour clip.

For what it's worth, even if you or loved ones got here today, getting around is, and will be for the next several days, nearly impossible. Unlike other Denver snowstorms, there is no warm-up in store for us. Normally, 24 to 36 hours after a storm, it will warm up enough for the snow to at least to start to melt, but they're calling for mid-30s as a high through Christmas, with MAYBE lower 40s on Tuesday.

Plows aren't even thinking about off-freeway stuff until tomorrow. Everything, and I mean everything, is shut down. No mail yesterday or today. Buses packed it in at 7:00 last night, and are not running at all today.

If you're planning on coming into or leaving DEN, it really would behoove you to consider canceling your trip. They were saying that the re-bookings from early yesterday aren't going out until Saturday at the earliest. And I would imagine that everything is entirely booked up through, and including Christmas. Forget driving to or from COS, as I-25 is closed down there.