steveben53

You may find that some travel insurance policies will not cover you for a missed flight due to inclement weather. This happened to a friend of mine once

MSPeconomist

Look at DL's same day change policies in addition to the weather waiver. Go to the airport VERY VERY early (maybe aim for 4 am in order to try for the very first flight of the day) to try to get onto the earliest possible flight to DCA or IAD (or possibly BWI too) on either a confirmed or standby basis. Beg very politely but don't be an annoying pest.

Avoid checking a bag if at all possible. If the luggage is vaguely carryon size, get rid of any non-TSA-Compliant liquids (the 311 baggie rules) and at least take it airside with the passenger to the gate. If you must, DL will check it at the gate when the passenger actually gets onto the flight, although it could still be a problem if that flight cancels.

librarygal

This allowed the younger nephew, who has never traveled to Europe before, to take a non stop flight from MPLS and hook up with an the older nephew who is going to College in Virginia and is a world traveler. The plan was for them to hook up in DC and continue their flights together.

FYI: He never got out yesterday so if he can't get into DC today it will be a huge disaster. The older nephew already here in VA, would not want to go by himself and if his brother, who is attempting to make it to DC from Minnesota can't make it, his ticket will not allow him to leave Friday. The whole prepaid vacation to Europe for both of them will likely be in ruins.

They did not buy any travel insurance even though I begged them to.

will2288

I think most travel insurance policies wouldn't cover the situation the OP is in.

radnub

BA 216 is showing cancelled for March 5th but the 10:20pm flight (BA292) is still scheduled.

jrl767

DL 1464 still shows on time departing MSP 0730CST

Badenoch

That still doesn't explain why the passenger travelling from MSP booked two separate tickets. A single booking for the entire trip would have gone a long way to alleviating the anxiety.

Huge disaster? Not quite. But it is definitely a good life lesson about booking travel in cold weather climates.

9Benua

His boss is a jerk, tell him to start brushing off a new resume & look for other job.

MSPeconomist

The good news is that the MSP dude wasn't trying to fly into LGA this morning, with plans to take a connecting flight from JFK. [A DL MD-80 landing from ATL skidded off the runway this morning and LGA is closed for the remainder of the day.]

Often1

1. Travel insurance would not likely cover the larger issue, e.g. the cost of a new BA ticket because OP's nephew is not misconnecting, but simply starting a new ticket at IAD. Thus, while a generally good idea, not likely to have helped here. So don't beat yourself up.

2. OP is at BA's mercy in this situation. The lucky think is that many flights will operate with empty seats because feeder flights won't make it to BA gateways. But, it will take a kindly BA agent to help out. The key is not to let this go too far and simply skip the BA flight. Call BA instantly if the flight can't be made, explain the circumstances and see what can be done. This might either be a simple rebook or a smallish penalty. If so, count yourself lucky.

3. Consider other routings, e.g. MSP to other BA gateway cities such as ORD, BOS and JFK. You would be surprised at what happens when you make reasonable proposals, including flight #'s and ask politely.

4. Work on resume during flight. Nephew needs new job.

librarygal

Here is what happened.

The nephew from Minnesota could not get out of town when his flight was cancelled and the other flights that did get out were full with too many standbys (HE TRIED!!) or involved connections that would get him in too late. (MSP TO DCA)

When they booked the flight from MSP to Washington DC, they thought that 6 hours to spare in March would be fine to make the connection.

So the flight to London left without him and his brother. After the huge BA change fee, the value of this ticket on BA is almost nothing, so going on a later date is really out of the picture. They also lost over $1000 in prepaid land costs that are non refundable. Both of them are incredibly depressed. But a number of hard lessons were learned.

wharvey

Did BA actually refuse to make any accommodation due to the unique situation? If so, that is very unfortunate.

ShopAround

I had a misconnect situation with BA many years ago. I was scheduled to fly JFK-LHR on a DL award ticket and then purchased a separate ticket on BA to continue on to EDI. IIRC, DL did not have EDI service, so I didn't have much choice. It's the only time in my entire travel history that I bought separate tickets and allowed for plenty of time in between flights... or so I thought.

My JFK-LHR was cancelled and I was protected LGA-CVG-LHR, which was then delayed. That left me just barely missing the BA flight. They made me buy an entirely new ticket, albeit at a reduced fare.

My only consolation, other than it not being an expensive ticket, was that DL upgraded me from Y to J for the inconvenience, which made for a more comfortable trip.

I'm sorry to hear about your nephew's experience, but not surprised. Even when you pad your time by many hours, separate tickets are always risky.

travellight

The nephews should not feel bad beyond a few minutes. Perhaps they can have a last minute DC vacation? Monticello? Mount Vernon? Smithsonian museums? Go to the White House and stage a mock protest again snow canceling your flight....but don't try to climb the fence. Can they get to London and stay fewer days? If money is tight, Coventry or Manchester is cheaper than London. Maybe see Stonehenge?

You want to go where?

Too late to be of any value for the OP, but I would say snow is actually a pretty common occurrence in early March in Washington. While it doesn't happen every year, a sizeable snowstorm in March is something I would plan for. Late March, not so much.