Jack Frost's Fury

For everyone else in the Northeast enjoying their Winter Wonderland and their dreams of a White (post)Christmas....airline crews and the flying public were experiencing Jack Frost's Fury on Air Travel.

My morning yesterday began in Burlington, Vermont at 8am. We arrived at the airport and saw every flight to/from NYC area and Philly after noontime- cancelled.  Hmm we wondered if our return flight from St. Louis later would be affected.  When we eventually arrived into St. Louis all was good. We boarded up quickly and all was well....there was a minor issue with the pilot's paperwork missing some of the weather in Philadelphia....then the Captain was on his phone with dispatch...then he tells us we get an update in 30 minutes to take off.  Apparently we were due to arrive into the midst of a blizzard and we'd be circling in the air & there wouldn't be enough fuel for us. Well then shortly after- our company cancelled the flight.


While all this is happening there's a woman who wanted to get to Philadelphia so badly that she was trying to barter with us.  If we got her to Philly, she said she'd let us use her car service if we got stuck there....the pilots asked if it was a Hummer because if we got stuck there- her car service would be useless with the weather. She assured us that if we want a Hummer thats what we'll get & if they run out of hotels, she'd just take us with her.  I inquired if she was going to take us to dinner too.  No- she said first stop would be the bar.  She was dead serious....I headed towards the back when I overheard our Captain on the phone with dispatch verifying our repositioning of the aircraft to Houston.

Houston....if you read my post yesterday I was supposed to be finished in Philadelphia and head home to Pittsburgh for my 2 weeks off. So since our plane was to go to Houston after we got to Philadelphia- didn't it make sense for us to take the plane to Houston? Actually......it did make more sense. Philly would've been a MESS if we got there.  We probably would've been stuck and it would've taken about 2+ hours for scheduling to get us a hotel & I know it wouldn't have been our regular hotel (which is one of my favorites since it's got the most comfy bed) and we'd be stuck in Motel 6 until Tuesday.

So my friends....we have learned a few lessons....when planning to skip your deadhead back to base (aka packing for a week on your 2-day trip and lugging it all around) check the weather for the likelihood of plans actually being realistic.

Also best lesson learned: While the objective of air travel is to have airplanes up in the air......remember that phrase is figurative too....things are ALWAYS subject to change.