rove312

All WN MDW flights for today are cancelled, and there's a news story that ATC employees were asked not to return to work until Monday. We're booked to MDW on Sunday, and wondering what will happen, what to do. Just staying one night with a Hotwire prepaid hotel.

Mrtrash757

My dad ais stranded in BOS tryuing to get back to Chicago. Its a mess.

Here is my post from the United thread, I live pretty close to the area:

expert7700

A friend is a top ranking atc employee in that facility. Word at the moment is that they will be relocating and flying all Chicago TRACON ATC workers to a help out at other facilities 'until further notice.'

Phanto

Was booked to fly from MKE to LGA this morning at 9. Got an alert from Southwest at around 7 saying the flight was delayed until about 12. About 9 got another alert saying that flight was cancelled. Rebooked for the 2:50, at about noon got an alert saying it was delayed until 3:30, then about 1 got another alert saying it was cancelled as well..

So, no New York trip for me this weekend!

One jerk can really screw up a lot of people's lives, obviously he knew that which is why he did it..

And it was SUCH a perfect day to travel too!

Have another trip planned for Monday, hopefully they'll be back on track by then!

*PLEASE* hahahah

bartok44

Thank you, didn't know this originally. It makes sense. Ended up canceling my flight. I was able to get through southwest (A-list line) twice w/o waiting too long.

steved5480

Technically it was/is the Chicago "Center" that was impacted (rather than the Chicago TRACON), although semantics at this point. The below update as of 6pm CDT Friday would seem to confirm that your friend is definitely in-the-know:

ATCSCC ADVZY 144 DCC 09/27/14 OPERATIONS PLAN
VALID 0000Z AND LATER

TERMINAL CONSTRAINTS:
FLA/LAS/PHX-VCTS
EWR-RWY 4L/22R CLSD-MAINT UNTIL 30/2359Z
ATL-RWY 8L/26R CLSD-MAINT UNTIL 10/15/14
NORTH TEXAS OAPM IMPLEMENTATION PROCEDURES-SOUTH FLOW

EN ROUTE CONSTRAINTS:
ZJX/ZMA/ZHU/ZAB/ZLC/ZLA-TSTMS
ZAU-ATC ZERO-EQ/FIRE
ZJX/ZMA-MILOPS AR6/AR15 CLSD DAILY 1400-0400 UNTIL 10/2

ZAU IS ATC ZERO FOR EQUIPMENT/FIRE. DAMAGE ASSESSMENT AND
RESTORATION OF SERVICE WILL COMMENCE ONCE THE INVESTIGATION IS
COMPLETE. TRANSCON ROUTES AROUND ZAU ARE IN PLACE. LOW LEVEL
ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE ROUTES THROUGH THE TRACONS ARE IN PLACE FOR
ORD/MDW/ZAU SATELLITES. AIRCRAFT OPERATORS SHOULD FUEL ACCORDINGLY.
AN EFFORT TO RE-ALLOCATE AIRSPACE TO ADJACENT CENTERS IS BEING
TESTED TO ADD MORE EFFICIENT CAPACITY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

ZAU STRUCTURED ROUTES ARE BEING DEVELOPED TO INCREMENTALLY ADD
CAPACITY TO ORD/MDW/ZAU SATELLITES AS CONFIDENCE IN THE TECHNOLOGY,
INTERFACES, AND PROCEDURES INCREASE.

THUNDERSTORMS IN S FL ARE DISSIPATING, BUT TACTICAL ROUTE
ADJUSTMENTS ARE STILL POSSIBLE. THUNDERSTORMS IMPACT ROUTES IN/OUT
PHX, AND THE ZOA/ZLA 2 PHX ROUTE IS IMPLEMENTED UNTIL 02Z. STORMS
SOUTH OF LAS REQUIRE TACTICAL ROUTE ADJUSTMENTS IN/OUT.

cyclogenesis

I hear you.. I think today is officially the best weather day in Chicago ever. And I notice the lack of noise like noise its self!

Took a day off work and drank beer and grilled outside.. I almost want to say to those stuck to get out and enjoy Chicago!

alggag

Glad that I ended up going to Chicago last weekend otherwise I'd be caught up in this mess also.

As an aside, going through MDW was fairly painless and our bags came out fairly quickly (maybe 15 minutes?) versus the reports of up to an hour that I had been hearing.

uthornsgo

I find it interesting that UA continued to try and operate a schedule yesterday while WN cancels the whole schedule. A look at LGA-ORD flights yesterday shows obvious delays and cancellations but lots of flights eventually made it at some point. I guess my point is that passengers on UA and other airlines at ORD had a chance and passengers on WN at MDW had no chance because WN cancelled everything.

toomanybooks

On the TV news just heard that MDW and MKE schedules are back up 100% today.

lougord99

This has become standard operating procedure for WN in any kind of irrops. Yet another reason to avoid them this winter.

rjque

This has been a major problem for me this weekend. We are having a party tonight with more than 30 people coming in from out of town. All of those - every single one - who booked on United, American or Delta - made it in, some with a delay and some on time. By contrast, all of those who booked on Southwest have been unable to get here. One of them managed to get rebooked onto a flight today, but it looks like Southwest is already canceling the morning flights into MDW (just saw that the early morning OAK-MDW was cancelled), so I'm still worried that this last person won't make it.

I certainly won't be selecting Southwest anytime soon, and I know that this weekend's mass cancellations will affect at least one company's choice of corporate carrier.

OzzyOzzie

I hope to be flying out today. At the airport and a flight delay as they a waiting for connectors but at least it is going out.

BTW, at gate A4A. First time I have been there. No WiFi networks found, had to walk back to the entranceway to connect. Yesterday I had to use BOINGO (pay service) to connect as the free WiFi was unavailable. Today I can connect to the free WiFi but not to BOINGO. Go figure.

steved5480

As of 830am this morning, the boards @ MCI indicate the first 3 departures of the day to MDW are CANCELLED. Those 3 are the only MDW departures shown on the boards, so who knows what the rest of the day will bring.

OzzyOzzie

On plane, waiting for a partial flight crew. Late connectors are boarding now. Rumor was all flights between 10:00 and 14:00 were to be cancelled out of MDW. So far so good, except for the plane already almost one hour getting out. Free drink I hope.