Often1

Those days are over. Carriers are not offering anything beyond truly token gestures. The response in this situation would have been a credit or a refund. It's going to be this way for a good long while. No pot of cash to work from.

Bcla

Thank you, that is very good advice. I will pass the info on to her.

MSPeconomist

BTW, I've stayed at a newish Hyatt House hotel on the outskirts of Minot which seems to generally be in the direction of the airport. It's fine but there aren't any places nearby to get food if the hotel isn't serving from their evening bar menu. I don't know whether there are airport hotels.

flyerCO

They should've been willing to book on UA or at least Amtrak to MSP. (Amtrak uses the same ticketing process as airlines, just transportation is on a train instead of plane)

Oakshadow

I know some have suggested the Empire Builder as an alternative from Williston to Minneapolis. While it's nice if you have at least a roomette - it's uncomfortable in coach overnight - it is commonly late. According to Amtrak the Empire Builder in 2018 was on time only 44% of the time. (See stats here.) If anyone thinks to take the train for the scheduled 7:43am arrival in Minneapolis Union Depot to catch a 9:40am flight out of MSP, that would be a bad idea.

There's probably less freight traffic on BNSF tracks (media indications are that freight operators have seen only a relatively mild downturn in business), but I still wouldn't chance it.

MSPeconomist

AFAIK all Amtrak trains stop at the terminal in St Paul. It wouldn't be fun to get from there to MSP if there's any rush hour traffic (unlikely to be bad in the COVID-19 era) or (more importantly) road construction delays or detours. Taking the light rail will require a change in Minneapolis, near downtown, and frequency has been reduced.

There's a recent thread in the DL forum focusing on recent experiences at MSP.

Maybe Amtrak service has improved, but they always were subject to notorious delays except along the northeast (and maybe west coast) corridor for the business oriented express trains.

flyerCO

I wasn't suggesting it was the best option. However it's an option when all else fails. Gets you to MSP where even an overnight is quicker than waiting for next flight days later from origin.

A lot of the delays of past years have decreased. I've used the train lots over the years and have seen it go through cycles regarding delays. (Midwest/west coast only, not East coast)

flyerCO

The seats on Amtrak are Sleeper seats and thus comfortable for overnight. (Midwest/westcoast anyway, east coast uses different stock) Roomette are nice if taking the train the whole length, but otherwise aren't needed. (Again I speak only of Midwest/ west coast)

nmpls

The Empire builder has been much much more reliable than it used to be. That said, Amtrak still measures delays in hours and .... happens. The last time I took a train to Minneapolis (and caught a plane), I booked a flight at ~6pm with the empire builder arriving around 8am. Train was on time, but I wouldn't do it any other way as it isn't always.
I went to MSP by uber, picked up a rental car (I have so many enterprise points I never use) and hung out with friends (used to live there) for the day. Traffic is perfectly reasonable, as it is an AM departure and MSP is really just a straight shot down West 7th (35E also generally isn't so bad SB in the AM). I'd be more worried about the the train than the last mile. The new station is far easier to get to the Airport from than the old one out by midway. If you did want to take public transit, I'd take the 54 rather than LR. Be much faster (~30min less) and is direct, though I'm lazy and take uber.
Going to Minot is the safer play, IMHO.

steveholt

There appear to be quite a few restaurants, fast food places, etc about two miles east of that Hyatt House.

stevep001

If you don't have a giant pile of luggage, the 54 bus is by far the best way to transfer from Union Depot to MSP. Door to door in 30 minutes on a limited stop route. Train is super slow for that move.

DrMaturin

Although I haven't done it specifically with Delta I have found text chatting a very viable alternative to calling when dealing with other companies such as banks and Apple. The wait time is usually minutes versus the hours long hold times I keep hearing about.

xliioper

I doubt DL would have put daughter on UA as the DL flight she was on was cancelled a month ago over the weekend of Apr 12th during May schedule pull-down and they wouldn't have considered it an IRROP situation. You can see the one remaining flight operated as scheduled -- https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...020Z/KXWA/KMSP

drvannostren

Not to make any assumptions or be flippant either, but the lesson also must be that travel right now should only be taking place for essential reasons. You never mentioned hers, I'll assume that it was. But these cancellations and such will continue until we're on the other side of this unfortunately.

mattp1987

Yes, you're correct that Minot was a SAC base. The host wing is Global Strike Command now, and it hosts both a Bomb Wing and a Missile Wing. This is all publicly available information pulled from the Minot AFB Wikipedia page if anyone wants to learn more. There are also fact sheets about the units, aircraft, and missiles that discuss their history.