oh no SNOW!!!

[MISSSNOOPYGIRL]

This is exactly what happened to me last winter (except it was still snowing when I left). By flying out the morning after the storm, you should be ok. Particularly since you are on the first flight of the day. You may have a bit of a delay for de-icing, but you will get out. The earlier in the day you are set to fly out, the better. Delays will stack up as the day goes on.

 

Accuweather is still only predicting a little over 4 inches for O'Hare, and as others have posted, the snow is supposed to stop by around 8 or 9pm.

 

Honestly, I would be more concerned if you were flying out Friday afternoon because your flight would probably be canceled and you would have to scramble to find available seats on Saturday.

 

cdamion I could hug you! I breathed a sigh of relief after reading your post. Yes I am on American. I just worry about the canceled flights taking precedence over ours. Wonder if cruise passengers get any kind of precedence.

[meekaG]

hey! i'm from chicago too. the snow is supposed to be really bad tomorrow. unless you can get out tonight, i'd say saturday is looking better than friday anyway. good luck! i'll be thinking of you!

[Chigirlcruzin]

Thank you, I always just assumed it was O' hare.. Gino's is that in the airport?? Sounds good!!

 

Lonnie

 

Gino's is downtown and in various suburban locations. Midway is further south, and because it is a smaller airport, there are usually fewer delays/issues. Also, because it is closer to the lake than ORD, snow sometimes isn't as bad at MDW.

[Chigirlcruzin]

hey! i'm from chicago too. the snow is supposed to be really bad tomorrow. unless you can get out tonight, i'd say saturday is looking better than friday anyway. good luck! i'll be thinking of you!

 

Oh joy...I just got back from Hong Kong today. I missed last week's snow...too bad I couldn't miss this snow fall.

[kirby123]

Once we had a flight from Dayton to Ft Lauderdale, layover in Atlanta. % girls on the trip, the flight from dayton to atlanta was cancelled the night before, so we rented a car and headed to Atlanta to catch that leg. We were almost to Tennesse when orbitz notified all of our cells that the Atlanta flight was cancelled. So we called the rental car company and drove all the way to Ft Lauderdale. We all work together, so we had worked all day Friday, left Dayton Ohio about 7:00pm and drove and made it to the ship at 3:15-45 minutes to spare. Drove thru Georgia ice storm, none of us slept. But, we made it and had a great cruise.

 

Like others, Saturday will probably be better. Hate that song, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!

[deborahjo]

We are flying into Chicago next friday night then on to Tampa. I to am frightened. Hope weather goes good for us and you also.

[SnowshoeCat]

cdamion I could hug you! I breathed a sigh of relief after reading your post. Yes I am on American. I just worry about the canceled flights taking precedence over ours. Wonder if cruise passengers get any kind of precedence.

 

 

The airlines will not bump someone on a flight for someone else whose flight was cancelled. They want to inconvenience as few people as possible. And they don't care what your reason for travel is. Given the forecast, you're probably better off with the Saturday flight than the Friday flight, as long as there's equipment available for the Saturday flight.

 

Sending you happy thoughts.

[b_bay_girl]

We live in NY. If it looks like snow will bury us just before our flight. I will start driving. I am not kidding. I will NOT miss my cruise.

 

We are just across the US/Canada border-- I have always said we watch the weather forecast and leave to drive if we have to. On our last cruise our flight got cancelled the day before we were scheduled to leave (two days before the cruise) due to storm in connecting airport. Thankfully we got another flight with another airline that flew over the snow storm so we didn't have to take off and drive. I am a bit worried we booked an evening flight to go down to Florida this year the night before the cruise. If anything goes wrong, we might have to fly the morning of cruise and that thought makes me ill. I will be following the weather like an hawk for sure. Two weeks to go! I would never fly out the morning of, that would give me too many sleepless nights leading up to it. Anything can go wrong.

[KruznKel]

The joys of winter travel :D Good Luck!!

[ibcnusoon]

This is exactly what happened to me last winter (except it was still snowing when I left). By flying out the morning after the storm, you should be ok. Particularly since you are on the first flight of the day. You may have a bit of a delay for de-icing, but you will get out. The earlier in the day you are set to fly out, the better. Delays will stack up as the day goes on.

 

Accuweather is still only predicting a little over 4 inches for O'Hare, and as others have posted, the snow is supposed to stop by around 8 or 9pm.

 

Honestly, I would be more concerned if you were flying out Friday afternoon because your flight would probably be canceled and you would have to scramble to find available seats on Saturday.

 

 

I agree with you, this happened to us last year. We drove to the airport at 4am and they just plowed and cleared ice from one lane on the Parkway. We got to the airport (flights were cancelled the night before) and we were able to get out at 6am, as scheduled.

[gtalum]

:(

 

I leave from Chicago this Saturday morning to fly to Miami for 8 days on Valor. (Valor sails Sat. at 4PM ) 6-8 inches of snow is forecast for Friday and Friday night. Yes I have insurance but that doesn't stop my increasing worry. I am SO worried and becoming a nervous wreck about plane delays. We are due to arrive in Miami at 9:15 AM so we have at most a maybe 6 hour delay window. Happy thoughts PLEASE???

 

If it snows Friday night, the airport will be clear Saturday. I wouldn't worry about it.

[miched]

.

 

If you are really worried you can pack your car and drive there. You will make it if you leave today.

 

If you booked thru the cruise line hopefully they will delay leaving. Flying from a hub like Chicago hopefully others passengers are also leaving from there and if there are enough they will also delay leaving.

 

 

 

.

[thechicagoans]

cdamion I could hug you! I breathed a sigh of relief after reading your post. Yes I am on American. I just worry about the canceled flights taking precedence over ours. Wonder if cruise passengers get any kind of precedence.

 

Please check your flight information. American Airlines (AA) does not fly out of Chicago Midway (MDW) at all. They ended all service from MDW and switched everything to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in September 2006.

 

If you are flying out of MDW, IMHO, it's the better airport to fly out of when it snows. MDW has fewer runways than ORD but when they go single runway in snow, it is a sight to see. They keep that baby clean. Chicago knows how to handle snow.

[bluemargaritaontherocks]

Good news!!

 

Local news stations here in Chicago are calling for the snow to start at 11am Friday and be done by 10pm the same evening.

 

The storm has been downgraded to 3-5 inches accumulation after all is said and done....they were talking about 8 inches earlier:eek:

[cdamion]

Please check your flight information. American Airlines (AA) does not fly out of Chicago Midway (MDW) at all. They ended all service from MDW and switched everything to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in September 2006.

 

If you are flying out of MDW, IMHO, it's the better airport to fly out of when it snows. MDW has fewer runways than ORD but when they go single runway in snow, it is a sight to see. They keep that baby clean. Chicago knows how to handle snow.

 

She never said MDW, she specifically answered OHare in one of the replies. Somebody else is flying through MDW in a few weeks.

[cdamion]

Please check your flight information. American Airlines (AA) does not fly out of Chicago Midway (MDW) at all. They ended all service from MDW and switched everything to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in September 2006.

 

If you are flying out of MDW, IMHO, it's the better airport to fly out of when it snows. MDW has fewer runways than ORD but when they go single runway in snow, it is a sight to see. They keep that baby clean. Chicago knows how to handle snow.

 

...and you are right, with two exceptions I can think of in the last few years, MDW's delays are usually half or more of the delays at ORD. Problem with MDW is Southwest flies out of there. I tend to avoid Southwest because I hate the cattle call.

[blondietink]

Please check your flight information. American Airlines (AA) does not fly out of Chicago Midway (MDW) at all. They ended all service from MDW and switched everything to Chicago O'Hare (ORD) in September 2006.

 

If you are flying out of MDW, IMHO, it's the better airport to fly out of when it snows. MDW has fewer runways than ORD but when they go single runway in snow, it is a sight to see. They keep that baby clean. Chicago knows how to handle snow.

 

Come to Buffalo ....... now we know how to handle real snow! ;)

[GinaRz]

We are flying out of Midway next Friday for our Saturday cruise. I am petrified of getting delayed by snow and have already thought about what I will do if it happens. Does anyone know, if we decide to hit the ground running because of bad weather forecast and they don't end up canceling our flight, will we get a credit for the flight we didn't board? We are flying southwest. We would have to leave about 10 hours before our scheduled flight to give me peace of mind to drive.. Ughhhh Chicago!

[cdamion]

We are flying out of Midway next Friday for our Saturday cruise. I am petrified of getting delayed by snow and have already thought about what I will do if it happens. Does anyone know, if we decide to hit the ground running because of bad weather forecast and they don't end up canceling our flight, will we get a credit for the flight we didn't board? We are flying southwest. We would have to leave about 10 hours before our scheduled flight to give me peace of mind to drive.. Ughhhh Chicago!

 

Southwest is the most flexible airline out there as far as changes. If you call them ahead of time they will just apply the cost of the flight to a future flight. You would have to call them in advance, or they will cancel the entire reservation both ways (if you need the flight back).

 

Southwest does not charge a fee to do this, they will just apply any unused portion of the ticket towards a future flight for a year. Just be sure to call them in advance.

[Simplertimes]

We live in NY. If it looks like snow will bury us just before our flight. I will start driving. I am not kidding. I will NOT miss my cruise.

 

I'm with you. I'm in Massachusetts and I told everyone (8 of us going) that if it looks like snow, we're renting a van and leaving Friday night and driving down to New Orleans!

 

We're booked on a flight next Saturday morning, for our cruise on Sunday. It's snowing now and it's supposed to snow again this weekend, but long-term forecast through the middle of next week has the temps going up over 40.

 

I hope everyone makes their flights!

[rickechambers1@aol.com]

I would think you will be ok. The snow is going to be over by 9:00 tomorrow night. That should be plenty of time to clear the runways and everything. I will think happy happy thoughts for you. Have a great cruise.

 

But the plane has to make it in on Friday night to be pre-positioned for an early Saturday AM departure...

 

(edit...didn't read far enough in the thread before writing info below; see that you're booked on AA...I think you'll be ok...that plane (757) is probably slated ORD-MIA and then to international to the caribbean. Being on the first departure in the AM is a good thing usually. Check-in on line tonight and check the flight status before going to bed. If there are any issues get booked on the 730 if you can. Again good luck!

 

Agree re: checking with your airline to see if a policy has been instituted allowing changes of tickets at no charge due snow storm for those impacted...phone lines will be busy so prepare to wait a bit, but I'd see if I could fly out late tonight and overnight it Miami.

Looks like UA's last flight (conx via EWR...which I wouldn't do) is 5PM

+

AA has a flight 720PM on a widebody non-stop...this I would do.

Americans (vague) policy: http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/travelAlerts.jsp

Uniteds policy: http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,52939,00.html

 

Good luck with whatever you decide to do! This happened several years ago to us flying from Baltimore to Miami...took us 5 hours to get fueled and deiced; 730AM flt to MIA arrived at 415PM...folks on the 430PM Carnival cruise missed...we were on a 730PM Celebrity cruise and barely made it. Now, unless I can drive, I fly in the day before.

[gelo7]

See if you can change your flight to Friday.

[erinmarie424]

If planes are delayed coming tonight there might be a delay in departure tomorrow morning for the crew rest time. It happened to me once in Dayton - plane was delayed an hour, causing me to miss my connection. Hopefully this doesn't happen at all, or if it does it is a short delay, and I'm guessing your flight is direct so you won't have the connection issue like I did.

 

Stay optimistic - just think - in 24 hours you will be on board with a cocktail in hand!

[sailaway4]

Snow has started here in the Chicago suburbs. Saw where over 400 flights have been canceled.

[cdamion]

See if you can change your flight to Friday.

 

Being a frequent O'Hare traveler, in this case it would be safer to keep the seats on the early am flights. The storm is hitting from now until around midnight. If she books a flight today, chances are it will be canceled and she will have lost her seat on the flight tomorrow morning.