Okay, aside from the obvious of “bad” and “chaos” any ideas on how will things play out now that ALL air traffic in the US has stopped. (As an aside, has this occurred before?) This is essentially a simultaneous strike by all airlines.

When will flights resume? Once they do, who will get priority to get on those flights? Presumably those who’ve been stuck at airports trying to get home.

Will airlines be waiving fees?

What are possible strategies to deal with the travel mess?

Assuming flights resume in a day or two, how long will this affect travel?

Of course this is all speculative at this point, but FTers are among those best suited to comment.

[edited to clarify]

[This message has been edited by bokich (edited 09-11-2001).]

Answer is very simple ... given the horrible conditions under which everything is happening.

All airlines will accomodate passengers on the earliest departing flights in order of their frequent flyer status or paid flight class.

I'm 99.9% sure there will be no fees for anyone, since the airlines are looking for loyalty in these hard economic times.

In addition, I'm willing to bet that most if not all airlines will provide the option of 100% refunds if people choose to cancel their flights all together not to reschedule at later dates.

As for strategies, call your airline today and have them book you on a flight for tomorrow evening (insist they give you a seat even if they are not sure it will leave) ....if tomorrow you find out the airports are still closed, do it again for the next day and keep doing it everyday.

As for how long this will affect the nation wide system, there are several factors.
1. Everything happened early on a Tuesday morning and midweek flights are not typically full....thus less people affected.
2. If the nations airports open before the weekend, then loads will be lighter and airlines will be better able to accomodate passengers compared to re-opening on a Friday or Sunday.
3. Even then it still might take another day or two to get all the equipment back to full schedule.

I also believe they will reaccomadate everyone at no fee as soon as they decide to resume normal opperations. I hope they will also refund tickets for this weekend if travel is regular by then, as I have a mileage run scheduled and would prefer to move it back a couple of weeks.

Air fares will drop.

All ticketed passengers on grounded flights will be able to get a full refund, or change dates w/o any fee's.

It will take up to 48 hours for a full flight schedule to resume.

Priority goes to passengers allready booked on the departing flight. Any open seats will then be allocated by need and status.

great to see that things are quickly back to normal for some - let's see if we can get a fare refund or a drop in ticket price...

nice human beings all round...lovely feeling to be part of such a great community.. do you think that you'll get a few extra miles for the inconvenience?

(ps: irony, like humanity, always difficult to spot)

just a thought --

I know this has been a terrible tragedy and I, like a lot of people, am in more than a bit of shock. But it's also healthy for people not to lose touch with life and living. For many of us looking forward and doing the things that are important is a way of survival. These things may seem trivial (looking for fare cuts, getting extra miles) but so is going out for dinner or going out to see a movie. It's a way of coping, not a lack of humanity.

did you change your name and creat this name to post this stupid comment just to show us the idiot that you are

justathought,

Go easy...everybody is in shock over this catastrophe. Some haven't come to grips with the magnitude of such evil and want to stay detached. This is truly a painful experience and some may react in denial. With some time, this crisis may bring us all together and make us stronger.

I too agree with Trojanhorse! I believe that Justathought should change their name to just a stupid inconsiderate thought !!

Take a deep breath, folks, deep breaths.

To address just a thought – Yes, it is a very shocking event. And one of the ramifications is that it will cause all sorts of impacts to the flying public – i.e. all of us on this board.

It seems reasonable to ask and discuss how things might play out.

Aside from your “do you think that you'll get a few extra miles for the inconvenience?” comment, I don’t see any other comments in this thread that indicate any exploitation or making light of the situation. All of us will need to come to grips with it in our own way.

Going back on topic, I agree with Toxa.

Over lunch, just now, I was discussing future travel plans with my colleagues – because all of us work “out of town” and fly home on the weekends. Alternate plans are being made to drive home, etc. And more than one of them (all extremely frequent fliers) has stated they will avoid flying for the next couple weeks. A logic progression of that is that airlines will find their loads rather light for the next couple of weeks (months?).

TrojanHorse,

Equally as bad as just a thought's post was, don't make assumptions as to who actually made that post. I can assure you that I don't know the author.

Justathought-

Try this one one for size.

My brother's bar mitzvah is this weekend. He lives 1000 miles from any family members other than our sister and mother. He has trained for a year for this event, learning specific things for this weekend. It will take place this weekend.

I, and my family, are concerned that we might not be able to fly. If I have to drive, I need to leave Thursday, and cancel all meetings scheduled Thursday and Friday, so that he has more than 2 family members there.

Another friend of a friend has a wedding.

Life can and MUST go on. I weep and mourn for those whose lives were shattered or lost by these hideous events. But we cannot drop everything because of this- it only adds to the collaterral damage that these ****ers caused.

So I don't think it's wrong or callous for me or others to think about how thier lives might be affected by this massive tragedy.

---


My wife, knowing that I was to be attending a conference at a Manhattan hotel today (it was uptown on the east side and I did not go)got in, hugged me collapsing in tears and just after the I love you assurances, came the "no flying for a long time, PLEASE, no NYC this weekend, no more trips to DC anymore, no...and so on..."

"Can you imagine if we'd been in that other apartment condo we were buying (that was right down the street from WTC)?" she asked.

So, it would appear that there is real fear instilled as result of this.

Suffice it to say that I do not entirely agree with her, but...discretionary travel will have to be very carefully examined among many of us.

Yet, life absolutely MUST go on. There will, hopefully albeit sadly, heightened security but the GOOD guys/girls WILL win.

We just can not permit the perpetrators to rule our lives - or we will have already lost them!


[This message has been edited by doc (edited 09-11-2001).]