AccuWeather's Flight Planning Tools

By -
If you have never been to AccuWeather's Flight Delay Tool, you are missing a great resource for being proactive when dealing with the airlines.

I just did a screen capture of the indexes for O'Hare and Orlando.  As you can see, Orlando is no problem.  O'Hare on the other hand, has a high chance of delays redeveloping today.  At right are links to additional information.  You can get information here that will usually give you a better idea of what will happen than the information from the airlines.  For example, the airlines will list a flight six hours from now as "on time" even when serious delays are likely.

If you have read my airline travel strategies repeated here with additional advice about waivers here.  Waivers are already in effect for this storm, even in regions where snow or ice haven't begun falling.  


Lets say you have ticket on Delta/Northwest from St. Louis to Washington, D.C. via Minneapolis on Saturday.  With waivers, you can call Delta and say, "reroute me through your Memphis or Atlanta hubs" and you won't have to deal with a potential mess due to the heavy snow in Minneapolis.

Or, lets say you were going from Wichita to Washington via Chicago on United Saturday. I will go out to the airport armed with this information and say, "please send me through Denver (even though it is out of the way) rather than through the snow in Chicago" and they will usually do so.

I'd rather fly two extra hours changing planes in a hub without weather problems than risking huge delays and hassles by flying into a major storm.  And, when waivers are in effect, the airlines will usually go along because they don't want to have to deal with any more upset passengers than necessary.

When it comes to winter storms and airlines, proactive is better.  Arm yourself with information then ask them to go along with your request.  It usually works.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hilary's Forecast Path Shifts West; Updated 9:20am PDT

By -
Image
The forecast path of the center of Hilary has shifted a bit to the west. This increases the threat to the Southland, especially in terms of flooding.  Rainfall Note the heavy rains are forecast for Los Angeles County. Serious flash flooding may result. Because the forecast path has shifted to the west, that increases the threat of serious flooding in Los Angeles County north into Yosemite and the southern Sierra. It lessens the threat in Utah and western Arizona. While the threat of widespread flooding in Utah and Arizona lessens, note that some thunderstorms with localized heavy rain show up on the map.  In Nevada, the more western path increases the risk of serious flooding around Mt Charleston and into the central part of the state.  Here is the updated  (9am PDT) flash flood risk map. Wind There are already about 40,000 people without power in California, mostly in the center of the state.  The maps above are the peak gusts forecasted with the storm. The highest winds, in general,
Read more

Dangerous Travel Conditions - People Reportedly Stranded

By -
Image
-- Note, more current info available. Scroll up. --- Updated Information as of 8am PDT You are risking your life if you attempt to travel through the purple area.  While the rain has not begun in coastal California, I would urge you to use this time to make any preparations. Power outages have occurred already in southeast California. Here is the latest radar as of 7:55am PDT. As of 6:40am PDT , the radar indicates moderate to heavy rain falling over desert areas of Southern California and far western Arizona (click to enlarge).  Rainfall amounts for the 24 hours ending at 7am PDT show more than two inches have already fallen. There are reports from reliable sources that roads are already washed out and that people are stranded in isolated parts of the desert.  Below is a high-resolution computer model's rainfall forecast from 5am PDT to 11pm PDT Sunday. More than a foot of additional rain is forecast to fall. This will lead to catastrophic flooding.  Here is a map of current watc
Read more

Update on Tornado and Wind Potential; 12 Noon PDT

By -
Image
There was at least one tornado and at least one funnel cloud yesterday.  --- original forecast --- Hilary (the swirly symbol) continues to move NNW paralleling the coast of Baja California, Mexico. The area outlined in red has a significant risk of tornadoe s the rest of the afternoon.  Below is a list of peak wind gusts so far.  Peak winds may increase farther north as the afternoon progresses.  Addition at 12 noon PDT: Sure enough, winds have increased.  Note: If you are in the San Diego area, I recommend not  traveling east on I-8. Heavy rains may cause flash flooding that will involve the highway. 
Read more