Thunderroad

My wife and I are due to fly SFO-ORD tomorrow (Tuesday), departing about 5:30 am and arriving about 11: 30 am. Then we connect much later in the day on a separate ticket on Lufthansa at 10:30 pm to Frankfurt (and then on to Dublin a couple hours after arriving FRA). FWIW, both tix are awards (in J and then F), respectively via UA's and SQ's programs. We just received this email from UA:

United is offering complimentary options to change your flight because of possible thunderstorms in Chicago on Tuesday.

To rebook your flight, please use the United app, united.com or a self-service kiosk at the airport. If you need additional assistance, please contact United at 1-800-United1 (800-864-8331) within the U.S. and Canada. From elsewhere, please contact your local United Customer Contact Center. https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...s/default.aspx

If you still plan to travel, please be sure to check your flight status on the United app or at united.com/flightstatus before arriving at the airport. We also recommend downloading the United app and opting in to receive push notifications in the event of changes.

I know we have a tremendous amount of time to make the connection - thankfully, with the advice of folks in another thread, I moved us from an afternoon SFO-ORD flight to the much earlier one several days ago - and that thunderstorms this time of year at ORD are not unusual. But a few questions:

1. Do they ever shut down the airport, or does UA ever shut down its flights there, for an entire day due to thunderstorms?
2. In addition, any advice on alternative airports to try to get to if necessary, and then drive to ORD (though I realize that if they're close enough to drive they might suffer the same weather problems)?
3. Any other advice?

Thanks for any help.

mtftw

I don't know what else you could do, short of doing an SDC to a flight late this evening. You'll probably be fine on the first plane outta dodge tomorrow, typically WX delays get worse as the day progresses (due to the cascading effect through the system). Otherwise you'd want to look at MDW (tough to get a re-route on a partner airline for WX, though), MKE, or possibly even IND.

findark

Short of several runways literally being destroyed by a tornado, no. Severe thunderstorms can often result in a ground stop while a line of cells passes over the airport, as well as ramp staff getting called inside due to danger of lightning strikes. But it's rare for these conditions to last more than a few hours. Also, a morning flight looks like it should be OK:


Definitely not worth worrying about.

United has been pretty proactive about issuing weather waivers recently. With 11h00 in ORD, your FRA connection is the one in more jeopardy here.

milepig

mduell

Not for an entire day for thunderstorms. They'll shut down the airport while a squall line blows through, they'll shut down the ramp for 30 min when lightning strikes near by, but not the whole airport for an entire day like they do for winter or tropical storms.

There's unlikely to be any predictable options here.

garkster

If weather conditions are really bad, there's probably a better chance that the inbound LH432 would be delayed - the turnaround time appears to be about 3 hours based on recent history.

I wouldn't worry about your SFO/ORD flight - even if diverted, they'd still probably be able to get you to ORD well in advance of the LH433 departure - good move to give yourself 11 hours between flights.

pfpdx

Typically the ORD thunderstorms happen in the afternoon, typically. And you have 11 hours. I'd be more worried about your flight of ORD-FRA. But you'll have a fresh crew so you should be ok. Safe travels.

Thunderroad

Thanks very much for all of the helpful replies, folks. Good point about the possibility of the ORD-FRA being delayed, but we can easily roll with that even if it means we end up missing the timely DUB connection.

tryathlete

mduell

OP made it 4.5 hours late.

pushmyredbutton

I flew out of Chicago yesterday on UA222; what a mess. Almost hit the 3 hour tarmac rule, but ended up taking off and arriving 6(!) hours behind schedule. All departures were halted for what seemed for hours.

findark

But got a 77W swap which went out nearly empty. I'd take the trade.

pushmyredbutton

I was on the returning flight to SFO, which was also nearly empty. It puzzles me why they ran this 77W nearly empty in both directions with such a delay. Seems like a waste of a frame. Easy upgrade though

Thunderroad

Thanks again for all the help and advice from everyone. Just back from our vacation.

FWIW, our original 5:30 am flight was indeed delayed, though the vague reason given at SFO by the gate agent was that it was a "technical matter" rather than weather, with her speculating that it could have been because the crew timed out (but she wasn't sure). I don't recall all the subsequent details, but I believe we were told that it was delayed to 9 am but that a different flight was available. I switched us on to that different flight (at about 7 am?), including getting J seats (as per our original booking), perhaps due to it being a 77W. We then sat on the tarmac for about 90 minutes - according to the pilot, waiting out Chicago weather. Made it to ORD with (among other things) loads of time at the very nice Polaris Lounge before our flight on to FRA on LH that evening.