Volcano is acting up again

Brian,

The last time this happened the eruptions lasted for about 2 years. Figure it will be a fact of travel for nothern Europe until 2012 or so.

Edwin

Glad that you were able to make it to Milan. I had no idea that flights to Italy were being cancelled. Yesterday and today, I tracked the Continental flight (flightstats.com)that we'll be taking from Newark to Rome in June and so far both flights made it. I've read tho' that most transatlantic flights are now carrying extra fuel to allow for extra time (up to two hours) as the pilots maneuver around the volcanic ash cloud. Have a wonderful trip!

Yeah, my good friends connecting flight to DFW for Geneva never left yesterday. Geneva closed. :( They now have put them in a flight to DC for more options? hmm

My co-worker is supposed to return from Frankfurt this week, and I am her back-up while she is on vacation. Fingers crossed!!

I am hoping to go later this year, and this looks like it might still be an issue, then!

Well I made it to Italy but over 2 days late and without luggage. Spent two nights at JFK. Delta cancelled that flight after TWO mechanical problems. They put us on the Delta flight the next night. We were taking off and they aborted takeoff bevause of an engine problem. After delaying the flight until 3:00 am they offered to rebook us. So we took the Pisa flight the next night. Our bags had flown to Milan on American to precious night. On day 5 our bags finally arrived in Rome. The Milan part of our itinerary was cancelled and Florence reduced. Something like this happens every time I fly Delta. I'm never doing it again.

But I'm in Italy now (with bags)... so all is well that ends well!

Brian: Sorry to hear about the major disruption of your trip. I couldn't tell, from reading your most recent post, if all the delays and baggage problems were caused by the volcano, or did other problems contribute to the mess?

Only the first cancellation was due to the volcano. The other problems were all mechanical problems with Delta.

Brian: Where did you sleep the 2 nights at JFK?

And what did you do for the 5 days you didn't have your baggage?

....another reason to not check bags and go carry on only.

First night at the Doubletree by JFK. Second at the Fairfield by LaGuardia, but we didn't get there until after 2:00 because of Delta's incomptence.

And it's kinda hard to carry-on for two weeks and 3 people.

Brian,, no, its not( impossilbe to do carry on for three weeks) , we always do carry on,, trip before last was 26 days,, and only carry on. Read Ricks book,, it can and does work great, and what freedom one has with only one smaller bag.

Sorry about your delays though, thats not fun.

Brian, there are 3 of us, we go for 16 or 17 days and carry on. Totally doable.

Ash cloud possibly coming back to disrupt UK travel Sunday-Tuesday.

Why didn't I route through CDG instead of LHR? :( Wish us luck tomorrow

From what I've read so far today, it looks like the airspace over LHR will be open until early Sunday evening so let's hope your flight lands by then! Good luck!

Thanks Adrienne.

We leave SF0 at 10:00am and are scheduled to land in LHR Monday at 10am local and then we have a connecting at 1600 BST LHR to Bilbao

It's going to be close. The Northern airports are all shut down this morning. I'd rather we not get stuck in London so we will try to see if UA can try to get us into Madrid, Barcelona or CDG

Re-routing to Spain or Paris is a great idea. I hope I can be as level-headed about changing plans if we encounter volcano drama when we leave for Rome next month. Keep us posted on how it all works out. Have a great time at the Ghery in Bilbao! That's on our bucket list, too!

Well...As expected we are stuck in Washington DC. We tried to change the flight in San Francisco to Madrid but the staff there didn't seem to want to be proactive at all.

IAD is routing us through Madrid tomorrow, just missed today's flight out. We'll miss a day in Bilbao and I don't think we'll get a refund on our Vueling Airline ticket but at least we have a nice room at the Hilton tonight.

Wish us luck. We're going to either drive or take the bus from Madrid to Bilbao. If anyone has any suggestions on other routes or timetables for the buses let me know.

Well, it's good that the airspace above Spain is clear and tomorrow you'll be on your way. It's a bit frustrating to hear that the personnel at the United desk at the airport do not have the authorization to re-route a flight. The ash cloud maps that the official Met office in London clearly showed that there was a high probability that the air space over the London airports would be covered with volcanic ash by the time your flight was supposed to have landed. Instead of being proactive and averting the closure, they really should have listened to you and made the change. I certainly hope United covered the cost of your nice room!

Thanks for relaying your experience with volcano drama. It really helps us folks who will be heading out to Europe this summer. All the best for a wonderful trip.

Does anyone have the link to the map that shows the ash cloud and the updates from I think it was iceland about the volcano?

I think Steve posted it a few weeks ago after the initial disruption.

I am scheduled to leave on Sunday, as long as British airways gets me on a flight since they are striking. I think one problem to deal with is enough, the volcano better not throw another monkey wrench in my plans!

Chantielle: I don't have the link you mention, but here's the latest news as of early Monday morning, May 17th

click here

and unfortunately the news is not good. Heathrow and Gatwick closed, and "major air traffic disruptions expected throughout the day" on the 17th.

Google met office uk and the site will pop up. They show maps that they just made public on Tuesday that predict a five day forecast of the volcanic plume/ash. The maps are updated every 6 hours.

Thanks to Adrienne, here's the link Chantielle was looking for:

link for volcanic ash forecasts

For those of you who would like to see what the volcano looks like in a time lapse film, here ya go.

http://gizmodo.com/5538937/a-haunting-time+lapse-video-of-eyjafjallajokull