Miles Ahead

ORD does ~2700 operations per day. Assuming 18 hours per day (because I can divide that in my head) and it's 2.5 per minute: every 24 seconds a plane goes up or comes down. That's a lot of traffic. Going from 7 runways to 6 is a 15% reduction in capacity.

S.R

StuckinITH

In a situation like that, I would just keep my trip. The best that can happen is that they cancel your flight IAH-ORD, then you get a full refund. If they only cancel your return that's more annoying if you are already in ORD. But I would still keep my trip.

threeoh

Thursday evening into Friday morning is all supposed to be above 0 F. It will be cold on the jet bridge but unlikely to have other significant delays unless there are crews or planes out of place. Single digits is pretty routine for ORD.

It's Tuesday night through Thursday morning where the high is supposed to be -13 F with lows around -18 F -- that's cold enough I could see it disrupting ORD ops, though of course they've dealt with cold like this before it is outside of the routine.

nigos

I had a similar experience where the return flight from Okinawa and then NRT was predicted to fall on the day of a hurricane. My original booking involved departing the east coast on a Tuesday and returning on a Saturday - the day of the predicted hurricane. Very early Tuesday morning I called UA to cancel my trip even before the waiver was announced, They included a note in the canceled PNR about the predicted hurricane and that I could rebook on a different trip without paying a penalty, ANA flies between NRT and OKA. Those flights because of the storm were canceled the Friday before my original Saturday return. In fact OKA was closed from Friday thru Saturday night. I called UA about the ANA cancellation and they fully refunded my original fare to the original credit card, The bottom line is if you cancel a reservation and hold the ticket for a future flight, it is worth waiting to see if anything happened to your original scheduled return, If any leg on that return is canceled I think you can receive a full refund,

msg75

Have a flight Tues 29th LGA-ORD & a separate ticketed flight Wed 30th ORD-LGA.

Trying to change the LGA-ORD first and any option via .bomb or the app shows either $0 fare difference + $200 change fee or $200 fare difference + $200 change fee. Tried changing it to Mon 28th, Thurs 31th, Mon 4th etc. same result. Is it mandatory to call to have the fees waived during a travel waiver (first for me)?

And since I booked these separate (silly), if I wanted to depart Mon Feb 4th, return Tues Feb 5th (past the allowed rebooking window) is the best shot to change them both to Mon 4th then SDC the return to Tues?

jsloan

Not unless your flight is actually disrupted.

CIT85

I always call even if online options are fee free. I was scheduled for RIC-ORD-IND Jan. 28. I received email from UA about ORD weather afternoon Jan. 25. Online options were mostly different RIC-ORD-IND flights. I called and got RIC-IAD-IND for Jan. 27, nice day to be flying.

LXFlyer

There's currently a travel waiver for Chicago (ORD) from Jan 27 - Feb 1... why only ORD? The weather isn't any better in MKE or MSN. Might this be expanded?

I know that there is a waiver for Jan 28 for a bigger area, but not the other dates.

ual744777sta

Because that's the only airport in the area that has an active ground stop due to weather.

WineCountryUA

There are travel waivers for MKE in Travel Waiver: Great Lakes and Ohio Valley Winter Weather (January 28, 2019)
and there are additional active area travel waivers Travel Waiver: Northeast US Winter Weather (January 29, 2019)

Chicago just has the widest time span

Travel waivers are when UA feels they may have operational issues, bad weather does not always mean operational issue but a highly congested airport hub like ORD is likely affected greater at the same level of weather than a regional airport. Note waiver includes traveling thru ORD, not just O/D.

threeoh

I think the short answer is "because no one is flying SFO-MSN-FRA-TXL".

They issue weather waivers earlier and more aggressively for hubs so that people can reroute around the problem.

Waiver for an outstation only gets you earlier/later options, doesn't route you around the weather.

rolltribe

Just posted:

"Due to extreme cold temperatures anticipated in Chicago, we have the following operational plans in place:

- We expect to run a reduced schedule at Chicago (ORD) and other Midwestern airports through the week
- Waivers are in place for Chicago and the Northeast region. http://uafly.co/Z04CmP
- Steps are in place to reduce employee exposure to the low temperatures, including additional temporary ramp employees from other airports and heated shelters
- We're working with local airport authorities to make sure snow is removed from runways, taxiways and ramp areas"

Interested to see what the "reduced schedule" entails. Guessing lots of UAX flights get axed.

nexusCFX

Just wanted to say kudos to United for doing their best with flying YYZ-ORD during this time. On the 27th and 28th UA1769 was not delayed any more than usual, and UA547, while delayed, did make it. AC cancelled most of their flights.

nyr2299

I have a 6am tomorrow morning ORD to LGA. I know that there is a travel waiver in effect for the whole week, but given no snow overnight, what are the odds that this flight goes off? I have told my own employees to stay home for safety reasons, but Im not sure if the ground crews will work.