I was supposed to leave Wisconsin for home (Norway) on Friday evening, but had to rebook for tomorrow evening. Now I'm not sure if I'll get off the ground then, either. My dilemma is that first I fly to Detroit, and only then will I know if my plane to Amsterdam is taking off. So what do I do then, wait it out in the Detroit airport (costs too much to go back to Wisco and wait), or ask to be rebooked to somewhere farther south in Europe and spend 1-2 days on a train to get home to Norway? Rebooking for my original route is just going to get harder and harder, since every day that goes by = more passengers who need to rebook. I'm bummed.
From what I hear trains are booked too so maybe wait another day and see. Airlines are pushing for a relaxation of the ban. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8628323.stm I see that most of Norway's airports are open. Maybe you could get a flight direct?
Aarrgghh. If I could just get to Amsterdam, I have someone to stay with, and I could get back to Oslo as soon as things opened up. I wouldn't mind hanging out there for a few days, I've never seen the city. Hell, I could even just rent a car and get myself home from there. My worry is that if I have to rebook now, there won't be any available seats until days from now. Will just have to see what KLM says tomorrow morning. Or just go to Detroit prepared to live in the airport for a few days. Edit: Norway's airports are expected to start closing again on Tuesday due to more ash. But if I could get to Copenhagen or Stockholm, I'd practically be home.
I'm supposed to go to London on thursday. Some less optimistic reports make it seem like I won't be able to go. While it's not as big a deal as people trying to get home and such it still sucks because if I have to rebook it I just won't be able to go.
I'm stuck in Chicago working the transatlantic schedules for star alliance and can't go home until we can put everything back on the normal timetable. seems like that will be a while. So I'm stuck because of I can't get anywhere, rather I'm stuck because you can't get anywhere. At least they're paying me well.
This cloud certainly has a silver lining for me: my current Clients are stuck in Cyprus, so we have several more days to get their house finished.
Not stuck, but my flight to Barcelona was canceled this weekend so I stayed home. I actually had my stuff packed and woke up on friday to an email that flight was canceled because of a volcano. I was like wtf!
Well, I'm fairly close to Chicago, so I'd be happy to fill any empty seat heading toward Northern Europe. Just to help you out, of course.
Sadly, the term "empty seat" will probably be a rarity over the north atlantic for quite a while. We've been routing many people through the far east in instances where the airport at their final destination is open.
Honestly I haven't been following the movement of the ash very much, we're just executing the policy that gets forwarded to us from across the pond. I heard the possibility of later tonight (Monday 20:00 MESZ) as the time when some LH airports will allow commercial aircraft departures, but that has been a few hours ago.
Well that's good news, since rebooking to Germany (if there are any seats) in order to take a train the rest of the way (if there are any seats ) is one option I'm considering.
If The Star (etc) are to be believed then I'll be missing out on my summer holiday in 2 months time . My uncle was stuck in Poland but he's decided to get the coach back.
What should be the procedure when planes start flying? Will people get bumped for people people who have been waiting longer?
There's a whole group from the art department where I received my MFA that are stuck in Paris. There are worse places to be stranded. Still, the volcano went off right before their flight was to depart. So they'll be there an extra week or so.
That might not be so far from the truth. From what I'm reading in the Norwegian papers online, this problem might be an off-and-on business for quite a while to come. And if the main volcano blows (which they say there is a 75% chance of), we're screwed for quite a while. This trip was an extra trip, to give my mom a hand taking care of my chronically sick father. I was planning a real vacation here - with husband and son - at the end of June. But now, who knows... First Iceland wants us to bail them out in their financial crisis. Then they throw ashes at us.
No, if you're confirmed on a flight that is scheduled to depart, you won't be bumped off unless you fail to check-in on time. Everyone that wishes to travel on a flight which they did not include in their original reservation will be placed on standby.
if things arent cleared up by saturday my dad maybe stuck on the way back from a business trip in the Philippines not sure how his flight went if it went east to west or west to east since we live in Nashvile.
Well then I hope to God that KLM flight 6048 from Detroit to Amsterdam takes off tomorrow evening at 2150. I have a seat on that flight. *crosses fingers and everything else on anatomy that can be crossed*
Words for the wise, it may be worth it to get up early tomorrow and check the status of the four DTW-AMS flights. Try to standby for a flight to Detroit early in the day or even a same-day confirmed change ($75 on Delta, I believe). If any of those four transatlantic flights are canceled, yours almost certainly will be since it leaves so late.