There is currently F open on every UA flight on Weds 7/12 EWR-TPA except the first morning departure (0630). The others are all J1 or J2 with even a J3 on the late departure. I know this isn't helpful to get out today or tomorrow but those are the options at the moment.

For tomorrow there's J1 on EWR-MCO at 1713, 1830 and 1930. I agree with others suggesting an MCO flight and driving. Or you could also do SRQ although those are all zeroed out for Tuesday.

-RM

You�re conflating cause and effect.

The FAA is not slowing flights down before they enter ZJX, but keeping capacity the same � how would that help anything? Rather, the FAA is reducing the number of flights they�re allowing to operate through that sector, thus leading to the delays.

If the airlines are scheduling 30 flights per hour through that sector, and the FAA is only going to allow 20, that�s 10 flights per hour that need to be addressed. Sure, if there are no other flights scheduled for the following hour, they could just be delayed. But if the sector is scheduled to capacity for the next six hours, now you�ve got a net deficit of 60 flights.

Eventually, you�re going to have to cancel some.

I would do this in heartbeat but UA can't tell me how much we'll be refunded to make an informed decision.

Is this a partially-used ticket?

I've already been rebooked in F on Wednesday but I don't wanna spend an extra day in NYC

I also have trip delay/interruption that covers me for up to $2,500 with option for alternative transportation home in similar ir lower class than originally booked (F in this case.) Anyone have experience with this? If I buy my own flight on AA and file for reimbursement do I have to deal with UA at all? Can I just no show on Wednesday?

Yes, I'm trying to get home, return portion of ticket.

Yes, I'm trying to get home, return portion of ticket.

The FAA sets the volume that can operate over the affected routes. This is usually done by either closing routes or instituting miles-in-trail restrictions. They'll issue EDCTs (Expect Departure Clearance Times) to flights filed on the routes.

Every flight can operate. Eventually. But delaying many flights, many hours each, isn't a workable plan. What about the flights that the affected airplanes and crewmembers were supposed to operate after the delayed flight? You'll have all the south Florida flights sitting at EWR, LGA, JFK, IAD, DCA, CLT, ATL, etc. all day waiting for their slots, and all the people who were supposed to fly on those airplanes, and by those crews, for the rest of the day sitting looking at their empty departure gates.

Jacksonville Center is one of the ATC facilities that has been hit hard by staffing shortages. This reduces the amount of traffic they can handle on days like today. In the past, with more reasonable staffing levels, today's weather would not have resulted in such severe ATC restrictions as it does today. Delays were fewer, and shorter, and affected fewer flights.

Watched the NASS page for a few days and see what restrictions result from the weather-triggered ATC delays.

https://nasstatus.faa.gov/

At the moment Florida is metered at 100 arrivals per hour (it was at 50) and was up to a 3 hr delay. Under the Flow Constrained Area (FCA) it works like slots across a line. Arrivals to the line are timed to manage the flow based on the control rate.

https://nbaa.org/aircraft-operations...w-program-afp/

OK. If this was a fare to EWR � that is, EWR was your original destination, and now it�s the origin of your return flight and not a connecting point � you can approximate your refund easily. On your original receipt, find the estimated accruals. Whatever the ratio is there, apply that to the total fare and you�ll be close. If the accruals were 50 PQP for the outbound, 50 for the return, and a $120 ticket, you�d expect $60 back. If they were 50 PQP outbound, 100 for the return, and a $180 ticket, you�d expect about $120, as two-thirds of the accrual was on the return leg.

If it was a fare beyond EWR � example, you were flying TPA-EWR-MAD and are now returning along the same route � it gets considerably more complicated. You can estimate it using the same approach, but it�s a much, much rougher estimation.

It's just a roundtrip TPA-EWR thought the non-stop was our best bet.

That may cause you to lose any refund value from the UA segment.

Keep looking, I see room on the 1035 tomorrow plus coach seats on the late flight tonight, seats will keep opening up and then go very quickly

UA 1402 tonight have open space in Y, and its 3.5 hrs delayed to11 pm, its not F, its MCO, but its better than Wednesday!

Yup - seats will be very fluid as peoples' travel plans are disrupted. EWR-MCO isn't that long a long flight - grab seats that are available when you see them and worry about refunds later.

It's also a matter of if AA wants to accept the tickets. Most FIMs are reimbursed between carriers through a clearinghouse at a defined rate by route/class (last time I saw the list, it's more closely tied to distance than anything). AA may not even want the tickets because they wouldn't get full value, or not same as what they'd get just selling the seats themselves (which they likely can with ease it sounds like).

Managed to get 3 of our party on the 5:53pm flight tomorrow. I don't want to go home before they do because they are elderly and I would want to be here in case their flight gets canceled or anything. That being said I will keep looking for inventory on their same flight or the later flight tomorrow.

As an update, a supervisor at UA tried to get me on the AA flights but said AA wouldn't "accept" the booking. They must have tried something because I can now see an AA record locator for my flight on the UA app (shows as valid but cancelled on aa.com). The supervisor was able to force a seat for me on the same flight the rest of my party albeit in coach. Hoping an F seat open up and the flight actually operates. Not sure how this works on UA as most of my travel is on AA; does a person who paid for F but is traveling coach get added to the same upgrade list as everyone else? On AA there is a special code that must be added to show that you are an F passenger but traveling in economy because of the involuntary downgrade.