<p>Rent of 2, I am SO feeling your pain: son's flight out of Syracuse yesterday a.m. was sent with 16 fewer seats than passengers--son was booted, and told he could get here (Portland) Tuesday at best. Fortunately, he has a great friend who was driving to Columbus, OH, and we got him a flight to Portland from Columbus via Las Vegas. He just landed in LV, but his flight to Portland is suspect. Delayed at least 4 hours; they'll make a decision at 2. He stayed up all night, because he needed to be at the airport at 5 am Columbus time (had been up at 5 am Syracuse time the morning before) We probably have a better chance of getting him home from Las Vegas than anywhere, if Portland lets flights in. Sigh, he just called from the ground in LV and he is TIRED and very, very cranky.....and I hope he can stay civil to the poor airline agent.....</p>
<p>I agree--everyone should be aware of weather conditions when thinking about those east coast schools with weird connections. If this had been his freshman year (without good friends) it would have been really ugly....</p>
<p>How frustrating. My DD went to school in WA and we live in VA. She had a 3 hour shuttle ride to the airport, but luckily never had any issues. </p>
<p>This summer she was flying from Milwaukee to DC and had all kinds of delays and got in 6 hours late with a direct 3-hour flight. None related to weather. You just never know.</p>
<p>She is flying from VA to Milwaukee next week, then to GA from there. She said if she has delays, she will just email her professor. Luckily, it's one she had last semester.</p>
<p>cap, i am in georgia, I am not a new poster, just had problems with other screen name. I am GA2012MOM if your D needs anything in GA, I would be happy to help out.</p>
<p>DS is stuck at O'Hare since last night. Spent the night at the airport. Is joining the waiting list of every flight going to cities within a 70 mile radius of our home. He's got an actual reservation for a flight late this afternoon that will take him to Charlotte NC before flying back north. He's slowly losing his patience, loosing hope, losing his mind...</p>
<p>With a son who has been flying out of Syracuse for four years now, we've learned a couple of tricks. One that everyone should know is that the major airlines will post a bad weather policy just in advance of a major storm. Tickets to and from bad weather areas for certain days can be changed at no charge. When there are only a limited number of tickets available, it can be crucial to do the ticket change ASAP, before the fight is officially cancelled.</p>
<p>My son is a two or three flight student. He was cancelled 2 days in a row and I'm grateful that United didn't send him to O'Hare only to be cancelled, but he did arrive in the middle of a blizzard Friday on time for the rescheduled itenerary. What goes up, must come down I guess. Fortunately, they put him on the two flight route that didn't go through O'Hare. None of his pals made it through O'Hare yesterday, all were cancelled and spent the night. Two other of his friends dropped way south then north (avoiding O'Hare) and made it home late but on the same day they left. My words of advice...avoid O'Hare at Christmas if at all possible. When we arrived at the airport yesterday it was full of stranded college kids because of O'Hare. They seemed to be weathering it all, no pun intended, it does make for good "war" stories and it's a good learning experience for the novice but terribly stressful for "us parents."</p>
<p>My son got the 1am Greyhound from San Francisco to Sacramento, got there at 3 am and they decided they weren't going to take any passengers up to Oregon after all. It's still unclear; the difference between 'canceled' and 'delayed'. Problem is that while the highway pass over the mountains between CA and OR was open last night and all morning today, it will likely close late this afternoon due to another storm. SOOOO... while Greyhound had an opening to get a bus up to OR they didn't take it, and now the opening is closing. Very smart. Screw Greyhound.</p>
<p>So then my son connected with four other strand-ees at the bus station... 2 servicemen, a housewife, another young guy, and they hatched a plan to rent a car and get over the pass before the next storm. For reasons not completely clear to me that plan fell through. Now he's either taking the bus back to San Francisco or getting a ride back there with the aunt of a girl he met in the bus station. He's on his third day with no sleep.</p>
<p>At this point I just want him to get back to SF where our dear friends will once again retrieve him and he can eat real food, sleep in a warm bed, and then tomorrow he (and we) can start all over again trying to get a flight from SF to sourthern OR. Of course, trouble is that tonight and tomorrow another storm is expected... so who knows...........</p>
<p>This is all just beyond... well just b-e-y-o-n-d......................</p>
<p>I once got stuck in LA due to fog closing the airports and it became apparent that a couple of other guys were in the same position of trying to get from LAX to San Diego. We just rented a car and drove together and it worked out okay. Maybe he can still find someone to share a car with. If he's under 21 it'd be hard for him to rent a car himself.</p>
<p>Can he just get a flight from Sacramento to your city or somewhere close where you could retrieve him? It might cost but it might be worth it at this point. I heard about the storm coming into the NW though.</p>
<p>The problem is that he can't get a flight into Oregon at all. Once he missed the connection for the flight he was originally booked on he fell into the yawning abyss of "stand by"... and no hope of getting out of it due to over booking and an enormously long list of standers-by ahead of him.</p>
<p>Best they could do was book him on another two-leg flight that could get him here by Monday night... if <em>that</em> flight isn't canceled due to weather, which is looks like it will be.</p>
<p>Right now he's in a car with the aunt of a girl he met at the bus station and he's going back to SF with them. He'll stay with our family friends there tonight, and tomorrow we'll tackle it all anew. I just want him to be able to sleep now. I'm not sure what tomorrow will bring, but at least I know tonight he'll be in a warm bed in the home of some wonderful people who are happy to have him.</p>
<p>We can't really drive down to get him, as we don't have a car that has the wherewithal for a trip over the pass.</p>
<p>Was Midway as messed up at O'Hare? S flies in and out of Midway (thanks, Southwest!) and he got home before all the storms hit. Hever, would love to hear BTDT w/how Midway deals with the crummy weather. </p>
<p>'rentof2, Your son is going to be SO glad to see you...but boy, that is definitely the trip from he77!</p>
<p>If it's within reason to drive from where you are to SF to retrieve him, you could always rent a vehicle that you'd feel comfortable in. It's not that expensive to rent a 'local' car from Avis, Hertz, Enterprise, etc. and they have rental outlets in most cities. Sometimes I drive from San Diego to San Jose for some meetings for the fun of it and when I do I usually just rent a car for it. It can be kind of fun to get different types of vehicles. In your area you might be able to rent a 4WD or AWD.</p>
<p>Yeah, I'm trying to get a car for tomorrow. Thing is that if he can get the flight out tomorrow night that he is now booked on, that would be better. And if he can't it will be because of weather, in which case the pass will be shut down to all traffic anyway. Still... we are currently working on getting a car for tomorrow just in case it's somehow useful.</p>
<p>It is what it is, I suppose. I'm starting to get too exhausted to keep wrestling with it. He could just stay down in SF with our friends for the whole week, and then fly back to school next Monday, as scheduled. It means we won't get a chance to see him at all, but at least he'll be home for the holidays with another nice family. :-/</p>
<p>Someday this will be a story recounted many times over and it'll be just one of those adventures of life as a college student. It's kind of tough as you're in the midst of going through it though.</p>
<p>You're right, ucsd<em>ucla</em>dad. He has been wanting to get home SO badly for weeks now. He was just counting the days, the hours, the minutes to get home. Yesterday when he was bascially told by the airline that there was NO way he was getting home for 2 more days at best, I could hear on the phone how hard he was trying not to completely break down. It just made me feel so sad, and with nothing I could do about it.</p>
<p>He felt better once he got out of the airport and was with our friends, so I know he'll hold up fine once he's gotten some sleep and some food and had a chance to just catch up on basic survival needs. Things feel a lot more hopeless on your third day of no sleep and nothing but obstacles behind you and before you.</p>
<p>I just am SO thankful we have those good friends in SF. I can't even imagine how awful this experience would be if he was stuck in airports/bus stations/heaven-know-where-else without some friends there to rescue him. Even though SF can be a problematic place to fly in and out of, it does at least have that to recommend it in our particular case.</p>
<p>My son is a freshman. This is actually the first plane trip he's ever taken on his own. No seasoned traveler, he. Or at least until this point... I guess he's a lot more seasoned now. :(</p>
<p>notre dame AL, he is on a winter sport team at his college. The coach requires they be back for practice then. I did email the coach today to see if he would grant my son some dispensation to return a couple days later because of the amount of time it's taking for him to get home. If he says yes, then I have to see if the airline will let me make a change so that he could fly back around the New Year without charging us AGAIN. This ticket was already a very expensive one.</p>
<p>Just a nightmare. This is turning into the $1000. trip... and nothing as yet to show for it except a fiasco.</p>
<p>Thank you, CC parents, for your support. I am not going to grouse or whine anymore! Two old adages, both profoundly true:</p>
<p>1) This too shall pass.
2) It could be worse.</p>
<p>Our D made it home at 5AM yesterday - minus luggage...but her suitcase eventually found it's way here before beddtime last night, so she was much happier.
Her school had emailed all the students telling them that if flights were cancelled and students couldn't get out, they would keep the dorms open until flights resumed and everyone got out. That was reassuring. I did spend the whole day fretting and checking the flight status and traffic/weather-cam websites and wishing she had chosen a school that was closer.</p>
<p>Our Oregon-bound son is stuck in Las Vegas for at least two nights, maybe Tuesday night, maybe not. Worst case, we will get him a flight to Reno, where grandparents can pick him up and drive an hour south to their lovely home for Christmas. He is very, very, very cranky, and isn't really able to see any positives right now. We were able to get him a hotel room, where he can sleep for 24 hours (thank goodness for Vegas' billion hotel rooms) but he's been in Alaska air's line for 3 hours trying to get re-booked, so he's not able to either (a) think compassionately for those without a bed waiting for them or (b) see the gate agents as anything but the bad guys....I've texted him "patience, patience" and hope his temper doesn't undermine him.... I WAS feeling a little sorry for myself, but had a moment, and now am determined to be positive instead.....</p>