That's not really out of the ordinary on a holiday. The stretch of I-81 between I-83 & I-78 often gets very congested for holiday travel.

I suppose this depends on which airports your talking about.

HP

the I90 east bound was also gridlocked for MILES this has never ever happened in the over 25 years I have lived in the area.

Same goes for west bound on the 90 as well. Friends have told me that traffic began to slow to a crawl just outside of Rochester, and never resumed til after the Williamsville tolls, thats like 40+ miles... for no accident?

traffic was EXCEPTIONALLY heavy

Edit: I geuss I should note that the Buffalo Airports short term parking ramp was empty, and none of the local news bothered to report the grid locking on the local thruways... (normally theyd be all over it)

Came back from PA on the Turnpike and on I70 headed back into Maryland. Breezewood was busy and I left early in the day, hitting Breezewood shortly after noon. Usually, there are at least 2 EZPass lanes open, especially for a holiday. This year, the 2 dedicated EZPass lanes were cash or EZPass ... pretty much unheard of. Guess they were expecting a lot more cash cars (was annoying considering I had an EZPass and still got bogged down).

A coworker went to his GF's family's outside of Cleveland for the weekend and came back Sunday evening. He said a normally 5.5 hour drive (about right when I've done it) took close to 9. He told me Breezewood was an absolute CF and they ended up stopping to eat there to hope congestion would ease (which it didn't).

Holidays can suck, but it seems like this year was unusually heavy.

Today, Monday, BNA-LAX on WN Full flight. LAX-SJC 20 empty seats. SJC-PDX 20+ empty seats. Lots of families but the CA flights were no where near sold out. The BNA-LAX is often full on a normal day.

FWIW our system load factor Mo. was no more or less than any other Mo.

Flew BOS-JFK-ORD Monday morning (DL).

6 stand-bys cleared for BOS-JFK (this is usually a full flight)

4 empty seats (out of 12) in first class and I don't know how many in coach for JFK-ORD - NEVER seen that many open first class on a 'business' route.

Both BOS and JFK seemed lighter than normal for a Monday - let alone Monday after Thanksgiving.

NoS operational on 1 of 2 CP at BOS - FF line was roped off. Kettles surrendering their 4th amendment at the other.

Would economic conditions have an effect on holiday travel?

Two friends I chatted with today said they were pretty amazed at how serene the airports were today (one doing an HOU to PHX flight and the other doing an ORD to LAX flight). Both said it was completely different than last year and they both had worried it would be a repeat today.

But, it never materialized and both said there were seats open on both flights.

The Friday after Thanksgiving is not a busy travel day. I traveled on Thanksgiving (95 percent full) and on Sunday (100%). This is a big increase from last year on my routes when it was much less crowded. In any case, I managed an upgrade both ways.

I don't think the average traveler cares about the NoS. I brought it up during Thanksgiving with family and some of their friends that I was meeting for the first time. What I got was that only a few people think that it is wrong, and none of them were willing to opt out. One is actually former LEO/doghandler/soldier and now in the medical field, and he said he'd do it for convenience but had a very low opinion of TSA.

I brought up all the TSA employees suing in 15 years as well as the revolving door/Chertoff payout and this changed most minds (doctors, lawyers, and one guy from financial services industry). People will accept privacy violations in the name of security in a confined tube but if you tell them that there's essentially corruption in the process (chertoff), that it is not more effective or cost effective than the alternative (dogs/puffer), and that TSA will get a major payout for increased cancer risk within 15 years, then their opinion changes. I think that's where the real potential for derailing this lies.

:)Good to hear it's down and hope it goes more down as people get more educated. There's a lot of resistance w/ people who only want to be in denial, but they will have to open their eyes and face it when they hit the checkpoint.

Well the oil companies must be HAPPY. Empty planes that R still in the sky and everybody buying lots of gas to get there by car. Of course the elected officials aim to please the oil co's, much more than the American citizens.

It is probably a big factor.

Black Friday sales were up only .3%, less than inflation.

I hadn't noticed any differences regarding load but have heard a lot of talk from passengers about the NOS and the groping.

My outbound (IAH on 11/23) and my return (HPN on 11/29) were both very simple at security. I discussed IAH already in a thread started on that day. This evening, HPN was a breeze. Of course, there is no NOS at HPN but the clerks were going OUT of their way to be as friendly as possible. Bunch of hippocrit sheep. Sorry - had to get that out!

Q:Anyone else notice empty planes?

A: At least from the UA side of things, it definitley WAS NOT "The most busiest day of the year for airtravel" Loads were surprisingly very low- I am almost afraid for the airline!

My Nonrev friends agree, it was a breeze to get on any flight the day before, the day of, and the weekend after Thanksgiving. Ive seen low season days busier than this week! Tho, I think part of it was airline's pricing their way out of the market...

I'll fear for airlines the minute they show some spine against TSA. As long as they look the other way while their customers are molested, then I say to hell with them and the horse they rode in on.