I'm supposed to fly home from Switzerland tomorrow (ZRH to JFK to BWI). The airline (Delta) emailed me earlier today to tell me that weather conditions may disrupt my travel. I've looked at the weather forecasts for the times I'm traveling and they look fine.
How worried should I be? Is this just one of those stupid games airlines play? Any suggestions for what I should do?
It may be due to potential thunderstorms. I wouldn't be worried, there's nothing you can do except be put on the next available flight if there's a real cancellation. I've stopped taking weather forecasts as a given since they change so often.
I don't understand Delta's blanket statement for the entire northeast tomorrow as I read it yesterday. The weather for tomorrow in NYC according to accuweather, weather.com, and local news websites will be cloudy with temps in the low 70s. That's it. It will be gorgeously comfortable! Thursday will be TERRIBLE with thunderstorms but not tomorrow.
Worse comes to the worst, if weather is crappy in Bmore, you could take Amtrak to Baltimore or BWI (to pick up your car). You won't be reimbursed, however. :-(
Delta needs your aircraft at JFK for its return trip back to Europe so the weather at either ZRH or JFK will have to be hellish for your flight to be cancelled. If anything, it would be delayed if, out of the blue, the weather worsens.
One thought I had was that they're trying to get people to voluntarily reschedule or cancel to free up space for bumped passengers in case some flights do get cancelled. But why it would help to do that before the storms, rather than after, I do not know.
I went into panic mode for a bit because I'm needed at work on Thursday. But it's not like lives hang in the balance, so I just need to keep telling myself that I'll get there when I get there.
But why it would help to do that before the storms, rather than
after, I do not know.
It always helps them if they can figure out which passengers have more leeway than others ahead of time because they can tailor rebookings with that insight. For example, they may tempt some people to voluntarily reschedule to another day with an incentive(s), or at least they could see who would be most open to getting one if they have to bump them to a much later flight (the plane may be overbooked for all we know and they need to know where the slack exists). More info about peoples' preferences is always better when crafting a solution. From my observations, airlines are really trying to get ahead of cancelled flights instead of simply responding after the fact...it saves them time and lots of anger/frustration at the end if they're proactive. They are always hedging their bets with the weather, and it pays if they can smooth things out sooner rather than later.
I went into panic mode for a bit because I'm needed at work on
Thursday. But it's not like lives hang in the balance, so I just need
to keep telling myself that I'll get there when I get there.
You will be fine. You will have no issue at JFK weather-wise. Baltimore might have some isolated thunderstorms but not NYC. At least you'll arrive in New York and can take the train south if need be.
Could be an issue with the weather at wherever it is that the plane that will be your JFK-BWI flight is coming from.
I just checked the flight status for the OP's arrival into JFK. The flight is scheduled to arrive 1 minute early! :-)
The weather here in NYC is COOL and delightful. The flight to BWI so far is scheduled to depart on time although the weather down there has scattered thunderstorms all evening and into the night.
khbuzzard, please let us know how it all went. You're probably flying over Maine now! :-)
Several years ago I got a similar warning from then Continental airlines for a flight out of Amsterdam due to expected thunderstorms over the NY area. The thunderstorms did happen, my flight was delayed six hours. But the silver lining (pardon the pun) was that Continental shifted all of the connecting passengers to flights to other hubs, and partner airlines. The end result was that there were only a grand-total ten people in the economy cabin for a giant 767 wide-body! It was one of the best flights I have ever taken!
Indeed, the flight into JFK went about as smoothly as could be expected. We were delayed a bit in taking off due to air traffic congestion in Zurich, but thanks to Delta's schedule padding, we still arrived on time. Passport control was a breeze, and it looks like they're planning for an on-time departure for the flight to BWI. Boarding starts within 20 minutes.
Looking at the departure boards across the terminal, it looks like almost everything is running on time at the moment. Weather disruption, my posterior. (Tomorrow, of course, may be another story.)
I just knew (a gut feeling) that it would work out especially given how refreshingly cool it was for a late June day with no bad weather until overnight. Today is a different story so I'm glad you weren't flying home today. Welcome home!
