kitkat77

Yeah, I thought of that - the smaller plane issue. DTW-RDU would be a larger CRJ and a slightly earlier departure/later arrival, but appears to have sold out.

BDL can certainly handle snow but not in the quantities that they are predicting for Thursday. 1-3 inches here seems to be biz as usual, but 8+ and things close for a while. Last Wed most of the flights out of here were cancelled, esp in the morning/afternoon, and it took them the better part of a day to dig out once the snow stopped in the late afternoon. Add in the chaos that is going to result from the ATL mess that is starting, and it may be a day or two before I could get re-accommodated out of here if the Thurs flights get cancelled. Not a lot of flights and they tend to run really full on Thurs/Fri.

It looks like RDU is going to miss the worst of it today, so getting in there tonight may be my best bet. Still checking with the PTB here to see if they'll let me leave!

AFAIK, they get a day of rest there and then work the flight back on the following day. I talked to some of the crew about that when I was flying that route fairly regularly.

MSPeconomist

Have you looked at connecting through MSP to RDU? We're expecting only an inch of snow late tonight and early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, which is trivial here. It might not be a legal routing, but I would expect DL to allow it in IROPs and with weather waivers left and right this winter. Last time I did this flight, some were mainline and some CRJ-900s with meals served IIRC. The frequency is pretty decent.

kitkat77

I got authorization from work and rebooked through CVG already via the website, for tonight, with no change fee. I may try to give a call or check at the airport to see if that's a possibility. I would bet the DM line has quite a wait today so the ticketing agent at BDL may be my best bet.

ETA: Checked and MSP has nothing that would work that I could still make the flight. There's a 2:30 MSP-BDL but it's too late for me to have a hope of getting to BDL in time. The later MSP-BDL makes it so I'd miss all possible connections to RDU. Boo.

Thanks for all the advice!

jfinsocal

I am at SAV, DL is apparently repositioning fifteen to twenty planes and crews here today.

MSPeconomist

As of about nine months ago, BDL-MSP was three or four daily non stops on either mainline (DC-9 to A319 or MD88?) or the CRJ-900, again with meals served in FC at mealtimes.

kitkat77

I just checked flightstats and all I saw for the afternoon/evening was a 2:30-4:30pm (sold out and no way I'd get there in time anyhow) and a 6:45-8:55pm. MSP-RDU has one flight, 7:18-10:50pm.

I may be able to do a 4:20-10:16pm BDL-DTW-RDU, but not sure if getting in later will make it less likely that it will land? The BDL-CVG-RDU is 5-9:21pm

MSPeconomist

What aircraft are used on the BDL-DTW-RDU route? The difference in arrival time is less than an hour.

suvayanr

Booked LGA-RDU tonight on the last flight in. Hopefully they don't cancel since the plane RON in RDU

mersk862

Still, in a storm an hour can make a difference. I'd stick with the earlier arrival time rather than trying to get a First Class seat on a pair of 75 minute flights (let alone going through MSP just to get a meal).

kitkat77

Looks like E175 and A320.

Based on the forecast right now, it looks as though the weather in RDU stops from 5PM tonight until sometime early tomorrow AM, so hopefully we're both okay.

No FC available on either, and I don't really care anyhow. It's getting there that matters today and I fully get MSPEconomist's point that the smaller aircraft may have less chance of getting in/out.

It's all a gamble!!

gb6

We've yet to see a snowflake or sprinkle in RDU yet today. I'm still hoping to escape RDU-DTW-SFO at 1225 tomorrow.

shelhed217

So the southern alert covers airports south of Richmond, VA, and the northern alert they just issued covers airports north of Richmond, but Richmond is not in either so Delta won't let me rebook without paying $600 fare change.
So much for the 6 to 8 inches they are supposed to get there, I guess i'll use my last remaining points on southwest to get home

MSPeconomist

Have you tried to check what DL flights are available, call and ask nicely, and either HUCA or escalate to a supervisor?

MichaelKade

DFW-ATL was canceled for tomorrow. Do you think a 6:00 AM Thursday flight will take off?

PRWeezer

There are already a good number of cancellations in/out of ATL Thursday morning. Looks like the ice may still be a factor through mid-day Thursday, if not longer, so my guess is that cancellations will increase. But it's just a guess.