In an airport, I tend to go directly to an airline club if available. I have found that generally airport agents, as opposed to telephone agents, have more latitude and authority in terms of reaccommodation than telephone agents...and are typically quicker and do not seem to have to check with their supervisor for clearance to do things out of the ordinary. I find that if I am protected on another airline, it is possible to get miles on both the original and new airline...always a bonus. If you really absolutely must be at some place on time, I recommend checking weather, and perhaps leaving in advance because delays, etc. are so commonplace. This, of course, is not always possible.

Though its not really a weather related story...I was once trying to go stand-by on the last NW flight of the night DCA-BOS. I had been booked on an earlier flight. The last flight of the night which I was trying to stand-by on was cancelled. NW put passengers up in the DCA Doubletree...even pax such as myself who were just on stand-by not even confirmed. They did it very quickly too...all but thirty seconds...they didn't pull an "oh I'll have to get my supervisor," or an "you weren't confirmed on the flight so there is nothing we can do," routine. I think this is one of the best positive customer service experiences I have had with any airline. Not only did they provide the hotel voucher, but they did it so quickly and without any questions.

I guess my best (or is it worse?) weather story would be a CO EWR-BOS flight. I think it was the 10PM flight. Anyway, it pushed back from the gate late...during a snow storm. Then, it sat out on the airport until literally about 4 to 530AM...when it finally took off. I had gotten a comp upgrade because I was a travel agent, so at least I was in first. Also the pilot said it would be ok for me to use my scanner (to monitor ATC/airport operations) while we were on the ground. It was interesting to listen mainly to the EWR CO operations frequencies, etc. At times, the whole operation seemed very dis-jointed and unorganized. E.g. the de-icing trucks, the operations people at the terminal, the ATC ground control frequency, the pilots of the aircraft, etc. At one point, a pax on the plane tried to break into the cockpit...though the door was locked. The crew just handled it quietly...so no "air rage" headlines in the paper or on CNN. "Just calm down...have a drink of water...you can stay up here...etc" was what they told the person. If I remember right, the pax had a child. We landed in BOS, and I think we were one of the only aircraft to land...then they closed the field. Another EWR-BOS aircraft was sent back to EWR...because they felt it was not safe to land in BOS. I think the aircraft was nearly completely full. As far as I know, no compensation was provided to any pax. Some of the CO agents were going over to the BOS Harbor Side Hyatt...to rest and then return to work in the evening. I went over to the hotel, had breakfast, and then went home to sleep.

Another time I flew NW ORD-DTW-BOS and then on a separate ticket was booked on CO BOS-SYR. In DTW, there were tornado warnings, and I told the agents I might miss my connection to SYR once in BOS. They offered to switch my ticket to go directly to SYR...but I had my college friends BOS-SYR ticket with me so I had to go to BOS. I had a few drinks throughout the day, and when we landed in BOS, I asked if they could provide a ramp escort from NW to CO (just like they do for the celebrities). It was kind of funny, they open the door and the FA says "he is looking for a ramp escort over to CO." "No," was obviously the answer...but stranger things have happened. So I took the bus over to CO, like anyone else. At CO, the BOS-SYR commuter flight was cancelled. BOS was having one of those low visibility days with fog and light rain. "Can you write a fim," I asked. They were amused that I knew what a fim was, saying "he knows all the secrets." They did write one fim for the two of us to take the US BOS-SYR flight which was still a go. We went over to US, and I had one of those upgrade booklets. In the past, I was Gold on US. The gate agent upgraded the two of us for two of those certificates off of the FIM. My roommate had never flew in 1st, and was quite amused at how one could get tickets switched to other airlines, get upgraded, etc. Also when I finally arrived in SYR...my bag was waiting...it made it all the way from the ORD curb to the SYR baggage claim. We had a good weekend in SYR, and flew back on our originally scheduled SYR-BOS CO commuter which ran on time.

[This message has been edited by jetsetter (edited 05-22-2000).]