The email was apologetic and panicky from a corporate client at 9 p.m. Monday night. United had canceled his flight from San Francisco to New York, and said there was nothing operating. It was a very important meeting, was there anything I could do?
As it turned out, our agency hadn’t gotten the message since in this case the person scheduling the meeting had booked through their corporate agency. But I looked at the flights Tuesday, and indeed, United had canceled every single flight between the West coast and JFK.
On the other hand, American had only canceled half of their flights, and the others appeared to be operating normally. The client was willing to chance it and I booked a 7 a.m. nonstop.
Not only did the American flight take off on time, it arrived early. Another American flight was delayed, but for mechanical reasons. Delta canceled three flights, but flew one on-time, and plans to fly their redeye tonight.
Now, this sort of result can change depending on the storm and the cities involved, but it illustrates how apparently random flight cancellation situations can be.
Sometimes airports are just flat out closed. Other times, airlines make decisions in advance to minimize delays and cancellations. Sometimes they guess. And yes, they can guess wrong.
Of course, a canceled flight cannot be delayed, and some say that the new tarmac rules encourage carriers to cancel a flight that might otherwise sit on the ground, resulting in frustrated passengers and hefty fines.
To be fair, while most of the carriers that flew into JFK today did so without problems, knowingly choosing to fly on a bad-weather day does means a chance of having some delay. (Though the good news is that canceled flights can reduce runway congestion.)
In addition sometimes, an airport really is closed — totally closed. Calling every airline and travel agent in the country won’t find an operating flight.
But for travelers who really have to get somewhere, it’s worth at least a little checking around when your airline tells you there’s nothing operating. It may just mean they aren’t operating anything.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
