awval999

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?

As you may all know there is an approaching front into the Midwest by Thursday that can possibly cause delays due to rain, wind, sleet, etc.

Current forecast is just that, a forecast, and I refuse to worry, but I want to be prepared with a Plan B.

We have an all-inclusive booked in Cancun from Friday-Wednesday, over Christmas, 5 nights. Non-refundable. And of course I didn't book that pesky insurance.

The original flight is on AirTran airlines out of Akron-Canton at 9AM on Friday and into ATL for a connection to Cancun at 1PM. So there is only about a 90-120 minute leeway for the international connection. Weather in Atlanta is course pretty decent for Friday.

Atlanta is an 11 hour drive from Cleveland. If it's Thursday, and the storm is bad, do I call the airline and ask if I can just drive to ATL in the middle of the night? Will they let me? Do I have pay extra?

I know from searching I can't just drive to ATL, I have to call the airlines and request a change. Something about hidden ticket flying and whatnot.

It seems that if a leg is cancelled due to weather delays they won't charge for this change, right? Is there a chance I could get a refund/credit for return leg from ATL-CAK?

I guess that's about it in a nutshell. If I have to drive to Atlanta I will, as long as the airline lets me.

Is it worth risking a cancelled flight and loss of one-two days in Cancun (of only a 5 day drip) to try to fly out of CAK? Just suck it up and drive to ATL? Currently I just plan on seeing what is happening around 5PM on Thursday and I'm looking at delays just call up AirTran and ask if I can drive to ATL? Any risk they say "no"? It seems that I am already confirmed on that ATL-CUN leg so I just hope they don't make me pay extra or what not.

Thoughts?

Thanks again so much!

emrdoc

What exactly is your question?

awval999

Sorry for being long-winded.

1. Will the airline let me drive to ATL and get on the connecting flight without paying extra if the first leg CAK-ATL is delayed/cancelled?
2. Would anyone else make the drive to the connecting flight if it looked likely your 1st leg would be delayed and you would miss Days 1-2 of your vacation?

It's hard to imagine that I'm the first person to ever think of driving to the connecting flight due to a snow storm/hurricane?

cbn42

Normally, if there is a storm, they let you change your ticket without penalty or cancel it. Assuming that the storm actually hits and they waive change fees, you should have no problem driving to Atlanta and catching your flight.

But you won't know until Friday whether or not they are canceling/delaying flights. If they don't, then you will run the risk of having your entire ticket canceled for being a no-show. If you call in advance to avoid this, and your flight doesn't get canceled, you will have to pay the applicable change fees, which is $75 plus the difference in fare (which should be zero considering that your new itinerary is shorter).

RRDD

I've no experience with Akron, but weather issues tend to affect the smaller airports first. I would seriously consider asking Airtran to change your originating airport to Cleveland or Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh has a large Southwest presence, thus you may have extra flexibility there.

You might even consider booking a hotel near CLE or PIT and taking the earliest possible flight to ATL. The Hyatt at the PIT airport is nice.

clacko

if you drive, then your trip becomes atl-x-atl...

you need to talk to the issuing carrier....

often, when storms are forecast, the carriers will post their policies for changes a few days in advance....

Bagette

This was years ago (pre 9/11) and the connecting airport was much closer to the departing airport than in your scenario (90 min drive), but I have done this very thing with the airline's blessing and at their suggestion. My return trip took me back to my originating airport without problem. I don't think it would hurt to call the airline and ask! But certainly don't do it without talking to them first!

milepig

AirTran has already posted waiver information for MDW, MKE and DEN, but not for CAK, but the weather forecast for Friday doesn't look good (snow and wind with an 80% chance of snow).

You might try to change your departure to PIT (which is certainly a much shorter drive than ATL) where they're only expecting snow showers at this point.

awval999

Thanks for the responses.

There is a 0630 from CAK to ATL. There are still seats on the plane so I'm thinking that may be be the best bet, because even if it's delayed I would have much more time to make the connection.

I looked at how bad the delays were today at DEN, and there were a lot of delays, but very few cancellations. There is also an AirTran flight at DAY airport.

I will wait until tomorrow (Thursday) to see how bad the storm is, and go from there, so I'll be back in this thread then.

Thanks again!

pinniped

I'd try to get on that 630AM flight. If the aircraft makes it to CAK on Thursday night and the weather isn't brutal Friday morning, your odds of getting to ATL would be pretty good. Better than the odds of the later flight operating right ontime.

awval999

CAK is still not on AirTran's list of weather affected airports.
I called AirTran and they did confirm that there are >10 seats remaining on the 0630 flight to ATL.

I plan on getting to CAK by 0430 to confirm/standby for the 0630 flight.
**Crosses fingers**

Thanks again.

jimcfsus

I am at my mom's house which is 10 minutes from CAK. I don't think the OP had any problems getting out of CAK this morning. Airport has been open and the weather effects so far have been minimal.

pinniped

^ According to Flightaware, both of the Airtan CAK-ATL flights in question operated normally and the ATL-CUN is taxiing for takeoff as I write this.

OP should have a boat drink in hand by happy hour.