Cancelled Flights

[sbwmail]

With all the flights cancelled this past weekend across the US, is anyone else concerned about missing their cruise, even though they are flying in a day early in the coming weeks?

[Woodfaerie]

 

6 minutes ago, sbwmail said:

With all the flights cancelled this past weekend across the US, is anyone else concerned about missing their cruise, even though they are flying in a day early in the coming weeks?

Absolutely concerned about that possible scenario.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Woodfaerie
repeated sentence

[BlerkOne]

AFAIK, those were All American.

[Colorado Beach Bum]

3 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

AFAIK, those were All American.

And SW did the same thing a few weeks back. With mask mandates kicking in I’m sure there will be more. 

[tw67]

I just got off Sunrise this morning.  There were people who were flying in the night before that never made it to the cruise.  Their flight was late,  missed connecting, then the morning flight was either cancelled or again delayed.  

 

I don't mind flying in a day before, but I can't usually manage to fly in 2 days ahead of time just to make sure my flights make it through!

[TomCruise48]

We usually fly in one day early.  We were delayed one day returning home from our most recent cruise with all of the SW cancellations.  DW thinks that we should fly out two days ahead of our next cruise, but the 48 hour before the cruise Covid testing makes that difficult.  We will probably use the Binax AG proctored home test early in the morning before the flight.  The about to kick in rule for private companies of 100 or more to test unvaccinated employees every week may make it difficult to procure home testing kits.

[tallnthensome]

31 minutes ago, Colorado Beach Bum said:

And SW did the same thing a few weeks back. With mask mandates kicking in I’m sure there will be more. 

The mask mandate has been in place. Are you referring to the vaccine requirements for the workers and pilots? 

[Colorado Beach Bum]

1 minute ago, tallnthensome said:

The mask mandate has been in place. Are you referring to the vaccine requirements for the workers and pilots? 

Oops. Vaccine mandate for employees. 

[Tippyton]

20 minutes ago, tallnthensome said:

The mask mandate has been in place. Are you referring to the vaccine requirements for the workers and pilots? 

[Source: know several pilots]  The airlines schedule legs at approximately 120% of their pilot capacity.  They rely on pilots picking up extra legs beyond their contract minimum.  With the Covid Vax mandates, the airlines [most carry mail and thus subject to said Federal Contractor mandates] have required vaccination of their employees, including flight crew.  As a result and as a matter of resistance, the flight crews (pilots and flight attendants) are no longer picking up those extra shifts and in no way are they obligated to do so.  Many senior crew are retiring.  Not anti-vaxxers as most are vaccinated, but that's not the point most people just don't get.  Just anti-mandates.  By the end of the month, there are no more pilots available to fly planes, so flights get cancelled.  The workers are revolting, essentially (verb, not adjective).

 

Life Pro Tip - don't schedule a flight towards the end of the month - this isnt going to get better any time soon until those in charge back off.  I got whacked twice last Thursday BTW.

[LatinaInTexas]

Debarked yesterday in Houston. I had a Southwest flight booked home to San Antonio. That morning I got a text saying there was a change, my flight was cancelled and rebooked for the following morning.

Me being me, plus all the issues with flying lately when I booked the flight I also booked a one way car rental as back up.

Good thing I planned ahead because while waiting to get our car other people were asking and were being told there were no one way rentals available at any of the rental companies.

I felt so bad seeing a family of 7 with luggage being stuck but they were on the way home, imagine if they were trying to get to their cruise and could not. 

I always have a back up plan when I travel but going forward it's looking like you need a plan b and c.

 

[pamesacruisin]

Definitely concerned even though we are flying in a day early.  Keep wondering if we should change that and fly in 2 days early, but it would be way more expensive, and already have appointments for covid tests. I think we need a back up plan though.

[AK2CA]

Yes!.  I used to be able to take a red eye and get into Miami the morning of a cruise.  I'm flying in the day before for my December cruise - morning flight out of CA nonstop to Miami.  Fingers crossed!

[dezertcruzer]

We are going to fly across country to visit family from November 19th to November 30th.  This has been planned for MONTHS, long before all of the cancellations became the norm.  Now I am worried about our return flight on the 30th.  We  have to leave the rented condo on the 30th, and I need to get home for my dialysis treatment the next day.  However, I've lived enough years to know that worrying isn't going to change anything, so I'll just go with the flow.

[tree.critter]

I was flying my granddaughter in the day before our cruise 11/14.  When SW had cancellations a couple weeks ago I got nervous and rescheduled her flight two days early. Had to pay a stiff higher price than I paid when booking many months ago. I’m praying two days is going to be enough.  

I’m using Nomi testing here in FL after arrival, it’s a great, reliable option for us.  

[BoozinCroozin]

7 hours ago, sbwmail said:

With all the flights cancelled this past weekend across the US, is anyone else concerned about missing their cruise, even though they are flying in a day early in the coming weeks?

I am. I just decided on Sunday to drive in for our cruise instead. We used vouchers from flights for a cruises March 2020 and July 2020 for our Nov 2021 cruise. In the end we are going to wind up losing about $2k in flights but we will be on our cruise. We will try one last time to extend our flight vouchers, but if not, we are taking the loss. It will stink if they don't, but at this point I haven't really seen them money in 2-years now. 

[BossyKat]

For our cruise 2 weeks ago, we were flying Southwest.  We decided not to chance it and purchased flights on another Airline.  Yes, we were flying out a day early.

 

I felt we had too much on the line and all the planning and excitement was not worth the worry of missing the ship.  It mostly ate up the onboard credit we had.

 

The cruise was WONDERFUL!!  

 

Do what lets you sleep at night.  🙂  Missing ours was not an option.  

[vacruisin]

Oh yeah, the cancelled flight issue is definitely making us nervous.  We are scheduled to fly into Orlando in early January for our B2B on the Magic.  Our flight is the day before we sail and it's a direct flight and early in the morning.  If for some reason that flight gets cancelled we are prepared to hop in our car and make the 10 hour drive to Orlando.  We are NOT going to miss our cruises over cancelled flights.

 

My recommendation is to try to book your flights two days in advance if you can but if not, at minimum see if you can book the earliest direct flight (if you can get a direct flight) the day before.  This will give you more time to try to see if you can get on a later direct flight, or if you live close enough you can plan to drive as a Plan B.

 

Traveling in January could be tricky because of the possibility of inclement weather but I told wifey even if it's snowing here in VA, unless it's a blizzard, we are going to make our January cruise if I have to drive us out of here to the warmer, clearer weather down south.  

[BoozinCroozin]

We already made that decision. It is a huge kick to lose the airline money, but I know for certain over Thanksgiving week there are going to massive issues. I am not letting an airline that has canceled probably 10,000 flights since the Summer ruin our trip.

[AK2CA]

One of the things that I'm doing to help gauge whether to adjust my current plan for December is to track the flight status.  I'm plugging in my flight number each day and so far it has not been cancelled over the last few days....but it is also two major hubs - Los Angeles > Miami.  

[BoozinCroozin]

21 minutes ago, AK2CA said:

One of the things that I'm doing to help gauge whether to adjust my current plan for December is to track the flight status.  I'm plugging in my flight number each day and so far it has not been cancelled over the last few days....but it is also two major hubs - Los Angeles > Miami.  

This is all well and good. I have been doing the same. But, the people on the over 2,000 canceled flights now were probably doing similar things. I don't want to be a statistic. I know I can drive down in 9-hours now and not have a concern at all. Even if there are accidents or traffic or anything else, we will make it down with more than enough time. I am only at the mercy of my vehicle and traffic. I will have 32-hours to make the 8-9 hour drive. 

[AK2CA]

44 minutes ago, BoozinCroozin said:

This is all well and good. I have been doing the same. But, the people on the over 2,000 canceled flights now were probably doing similar things. I don't want to be a statistic. I know I can drive down in 9-hours now and not have a concern at all. Even if there are accidents or traffic or anything else, we will make it down with more than enough time. I am only at the mercy of my vehicle and traffic. I will have 32-hours to make the 8-9 hour drive. 

Agree.  I don't want to be a statistic either.  I'd swim it if I could....that is how ready I am for this cruise. 🙂  I can't drive from CA to FL so I just have to watch and consider as it gets close whether to pivot to another flight option if needed.  

[satxdiver]

20 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

AFAIK, those were All American.

This time.  Last time it was Southwest.  Next it will be ....?

[K&RCurt]

We were planning to fly to Miami the day before our next cruise.  We just changed it to 2 days before. Oddly enough this saved us about $300, which more than pays for the extra hotel night.  If we get our flight home cancelled I will already have a rental car, since we are staying an extra day.  I guess I will either spend a night at our friend's house in Palm Beach (Went to college together, in each other's wedding and he owes me!) or find out what extra they charge me to return the car in Philly vs Miami Airport!

[mondello]

1 hour ago, satxdiver said:

This time.  Last time it was Southwest.  Next it will be ....?

Spirit had their summer meltdown and took a week to get straightened out. 

I'm rebooked on Spirit for 12/24 and 12/31, trying to use the credits from when they cancelled us the night before our Aug. Orlando vacation. The only reason I originally booked Spirit is because they were the only non-stop flight available.

I would have 2 days to drive before our 12/26 cruise but, must fly DW home for work. Pretty sure I'll be buying trip insurance from now on.

[mondello]

1 hour ago, K&RCurt said:

We were planning to fly to Miami the day before our next cruise.  We just changed it to 2 days before. Oddly enough this saved us about $300, which more than pays for the extra hotel night.  If we get our flight home cancelled I will already have a rental car, since we are staying an extra day.  I guess I will either spend a night at our friend's house in Palm Beach (Went to college together, in each other's wedding and he owes me!) or find out what extra they charge me to return the car in Philly vs Miami Airport!

See post #10. You can be denied a one way rental because there is already a rental car shortage.