2TallSeaFlyer

Interestingly enough, last night my brother-in-law was willing to pay almost anything get back to NYC on December 28. The Dec 28 AA 268 had cancelled, and we were looking at all sorts of interesting permutations (including PHL and Islip) and up to $1400 for a one-way ticket.

Someone must have cancelled a seat on today's AS 14 (SEA-EWR) right when I pulled it up. It was $530 - and we bought it.

I felt sort of bad that he was on an award ticket and actually paid rather than getting the ticket transferred - but felt if I had waited more than a couple of minutes we would have lost the seat. This seat was not available when I talked with the EXP desk 30-minutes prior.

He's delayed 3 hours, but it appears he actually will be in NYC sometime laaate tonight.

turnleftbrighteyes

Did AA just add an ORD-LGA flight for Wednesday (Dec 30)? Expert Flyer shows AA 9256 at 7 am tomorrow, on a 763.

I'd love to get on this flight, but I'd only have 35 minutes to connect, and I'm afraid of getting stuck at ORD.... At least I've got free food, a bed, and company where I'm at now.

gates_2

was originally scheduled for AA32 LAX-JFK today, canceled...of course the 3PM flight takes off just fine

Ended up just routing back to RDU, as they can't get me to new york till the 31st...and thats on a red-eye from SFO...stuck near DFW now

demkr

Yes-I'm seeing it too. Good move on AA's part to get a bigger plane there to funnel more pax in.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

AA had added more flights to JFK. Last night at MIA, 1876 to LGA the gate was like a zoo. The standby list went to well over 100 (after 100 the lists stop using numbers) and people were screaming at the GAs. A supervisor came over and threatened to call the police. Then the GA announced a gate change at the last minute (the pilot later announced that a suspicious package had been found onboard the a/c, which had to be taken out of service.)

Then the computer system went down so they had to board manually. Finally, the pilot realized that not enough fuel had been put on the plane so the fuel truck was called back. We landed 90 minutes late and thank god for free flowing booze in F.

Got to LGA and nothing like I've ever seen (now about 11:30PM). Lines everywhere, including one that snaked around the terminal for a cab. So I got onto a very crowded Q33 where fights were breaking out over boarding. The bus took about an hour to the train station. Arrived home about 1:30AM.

troyb

Interesting, I was actually wondering about this. When I was in LHR earlier this week (due to the weather), they were passing out hotel/meal vouchers to stranded people. I figured it would be better to get back to the states and that they would do the same for me here - NOPE.

So was it just an EU obligation to give hotels/meal vouchers?

JDiver

Things are still a mess, apparently - lots of aircraft out of position, lots of backlogged passengers. At JFK, apparently AM and BA had aircraft spend the night on the tarmac, as U S Customs agents had gone home! (Joe Brancatelli put out an e-blast about that one.)

demkr

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.654 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/104)

Was reading the paper this morning. Officials from CX were complaining that the folks running the show at Kennedy sent planes in without having gates for them-some up to ten hours. Looks like a "teachable moment" for Heathrow and Kennedy-our nations busiest airports, to be better prepared for these kind of storms.
My gut tells me things will be better by the end of the week

pauleeepaul

As did CX, and the NY radio stations were harping about the poor pax enduring a 6 hour flight from YVR, and then an 11 hour wait on the ground at JFK...

How about most of the pax had already earlier traveled HKG-YVR?

bamboosensation

people with experience , can you help me make a tough call?

I'm flying to Montego Bay on friday, via MIA from LGA, my layover is 45 min in mia, tight but doable and legal. My biggest fear is that the snow /hectic travel nature of the past few days will still be lingering on friday, and my LGA flight will be delayed and I will miss that flight from MIA to montego bay (last of the day I believe)

Do you think I should bite the bullet and pay the hefty change fee and change of ticket price (250 a person!) to get the direct from JFK to Montego?

Or should I just hold my breath and hope for the best?
I really don't want to miss a night on Jamaica as the hotel is paid for and quite nice

thoughts?

blout1

I'd definitely pay the change fee.

A 45 min layover is way too tight/risky for a flight originating at LGA.

You could get stuck in MIA for more than a day.

Good luck!!

tfjim

I think you should recheck your flight schedules...

The last flight of the day is AA838 leaving MIA at 7:50pm.

The logical connecting flight from LGA is AA875 arriving into MIA at 6:25pm. So you have almost 90 minutes which is plenty. A look at Flight Aware shows that the flight arrives ontime or early most of the time. Yesterday, the 28th the flight arrived only 20 minutes late... Even more amazing is that that flight actually flew on the 26th, the afternoon the blizzard started!

I think paying $250 would be a waste. Since you are very worried about making your first night hotel I would certainly buy some travel insurance to cover that cost in case something does go awry...

Gamecock

LGA UPDATE

Just picked up my daughter's friend at LGA. There are a few people camped out on cots in the central terminal at the parking garage crosswalk. (Upstairs between Concourse C and D)

The other food court (between B and C?) has every table full with travellers just sitting there with a hopeless look in their eyes.

There are tons of suitcases piled up at the United Baggage Claim area.

My daughter and her friend are flying out on 2 Jan, there is a bit of a thaw coming, hopefully things will be back to normal by them.

The monitors show a lot of cx'd inbound AA flights.

Good luck everyone!

Pickles

Came in this Wednesday morning AM from CX into JFK T7, connecting out of T8. T8 was basically a refugee camp. People sleeping all over the place, people lined up for all kinds of activities: checking-in, rebooking, security. A complete and total mess. Priority line wasn't too bad, and my flight to BOS was delayed an hour, which is lucky given the ongoing CF.

Fly2Where

be honest, I still wondering what can't I use the "Guaranteed Economy Class Availability"
As we (me & my wife) already in Y fare class.....