I was stuck in Chicago's O'Hare airport for nearly 24 hours back in the late 80s.

I had taken a military 'hop' (At the time, military members could travel free on military planes on a space-available basis. I 'hopped' all over the world while I was in.) out to Illinois to spend a long birthday weekend with some friends there. I had flown back, as far as Chicago, on another hop, but had to switch to a commercial flight at O'Hare. I got there just before they closed down because of a bad snow storm.

There I sat, just me and my duffle bags. Thankfully I was comfortably dressed and had money for food. Also, I can sleep anywhere, under any circumstances.

Since it was just me and I was young, healthy, and comfortable enough, it was no bother. I do pity the folks traveling with young children.

Back in the 60's my sister lived in Philadelphia, and she would fly in for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We'd drive from my hometown, to pick her up, as she flew the cheaper late nite flights.

Almost always she'd get stuck, and we'd have to drive back home and my father would get up and drive back to the airport in the early am to pick her up.

I haven't been stranded for more than 4 or 5 hours. Hubs was one time. Few years ago, he had to get back east FAST... FIL was dying. Took him over 24 hours to fly from NV to GA. That was a long day.

Flights for cruising in Jan/Feb are NOT fun!

I was stuck in Houston for five hours because there was a blizzard in Minneapolis and the Northwest flights couldn't leave there. It was OK, but boring.

No, we have been fortunate in our flying...a few delays and missed connections,,, but the airlines put us up in a hotel and gave us free meals...so it worked out okay..

Carolyn

Friend always flies first class and gets hotel accomodations.

I WISH

It's a nightmare with small children. My flight was once cancelled at my layover because of a plane malfunction...that was caused by the weather. Acts of God are not refunded by the airline - and it was JUST as I approached the customer service desk that they decided that the plane was malfunctioning due to an act of God. So I used my credit card to take my three babies and myself to a hotel - I don't know how I would have survived without that credit card.

Dh was lucky today, flew into Chicago, no delays! Who would have thought Chicago would be fine this time of year. Have a friend stuck in NY.

Once when returing from a business meeting. I was stuck in the Pittsburg Airport for awhile due to snow storms. I was scheduled to board the plane at 4 pm and arrive 1.5 hr later in Milwaukee, WI. Our flight was first delayed because it was snowing too hard in Pittsburg, the snow reduced, and a second delay was called for weather in Milwuakee. I and two others in my group entered "Friday's", nibbled on a small order of food and nursed colas until the place closed. Went back out to the gate area to watch our plane. Finally the de-icing crew came out at Midnight and then stopped. The plane was de-iced again at 1am and we were allowed to board. Got to Milwaukee 1.5 hr later and then I had a 40 mile drive to my house on newly snow covered roads.

I can handle delays while I am on the ground; Its the delays for landing while I'm in the air that are unpredictable. Once, while trying to land at Atlanta, GA airport, we put into a stack of planes circling the airport. Each layer of planes were separated by 1000 ft altitude. Landings were delayed due to thunderheads (and rain storms) drifting over the airport. The only way we knew there was progress was when our plane would drop to the next level in hte cue. We circled the airport for 1.5 hours. That was no fun.

The other near miss was trying to land in Milwaukee in a Febraury snow storm. There had been no delays in my flights that day, but when we got to Milwuakee for a night landing, white-outs were occuring on the runway. The pilot aborted hte landing on our first pass, came around and tried again 15 min later, same deal. The pilot flew a larger circuit to delay 20 minutes and tried for the third time. If he did not make it on that pass, he was going on th Madison, WI. He said, the problem was he'd line the plane up on the glide path and was synchronized with the flasher guide lights as was coming in when a new white-out would occur and he'd loose sight of the runway surface. Wwll, he put the plane down on the third pass and its the only landing I recall hitting snow drifts big enough to bounce the plane.

One time, I left my house and drove to my home airport for a 6pm takeoff only to have the flight cancelled an hour later. I had a choice: go home and try again the next morning, or stay overnight at the airport motel at the expense of the airline. I took the motel romm.

One of the bad scenerios is for the airline go bankrupt while you are in the air at the start of a journey. Fortunately, my company got wind that a bankruptcy was impending for an airline they had been using and changed our tickets to other flights for the next business meeting. Others were not so lucky and were caught mid-flight. At that moment, paychecks stop for the crews. The pilot landed the plane at its destination and walked off the job. Passengers found the ticket counters unmanned or staffed with underlings who were untrained and know nothing. They were lucky if they got their bags off the plane. The remains of their tickets were no good. They were faced with buying new tickets. A few lucky ones were able to continue if a sister airline would honor their tickets.

detroit has been open but delayed from carriers in the east.. one man on tv drove hours to get here to be able to fly out...we actually saw the sun yesterday!!!

That's what's so tough about flying: Getting stuck.

I'm in my 50s now and sleeping at an airport is tougher than it used to be. Using my soft-sided suitcase as a pillow and laying down on the low-nap commercial carpet causes everything on my body to ache and get stiff. Yuck.

Worse experience I had was getting stuck ON the airplane in the middle of an ice storm in Boston. It was a nightmare. They'd de-ice the plane and we'd proceed to the tarmac to take off, but because of the congestion and traffic, it took more than 45 minutes to get to the tarmac and we'd have to turn around and go back to get de-iced. This went on for four hours.

Jem, I didn't know that about bankrupt airlines. That's really interesting (and terrifying). I flew USAir one time when they were in the middle of serious financial woes and the stewardess said, "There'll be no pretzels or soft drinks today. We're having some issues with our vendors and we have no supplies."

I wanted to ask, "Excuse me, but I'm a little more worried about things like hydraulic fluid and jet fuel..."

Rose

Not stranded just delayed 4 hours in Minneapolis once after I'd been up there for a week and was anxious to get home. Then it felt like 4 days. They de-iced the plane twice which is a little scary since we were all still sitting at the gate. Thought it would've been nice to board us and then de-ice. I didn't get back to Florida until early the next morning and had to drive an hour, drop off a co-worker and finally get home to bed!

O'Hare in Chicago, of course. Snowstorm was the problem, but I felt sorry for the people with small children, at least I had a book and just myself to worry about.
Kathy G in MI

A guy I work with was stranded in India because of the ash from the Volcano in Iceland a few months back. Cost him a fortune to get home because he was afraid of losing his job. He took a completely different route home to avoid the ash, but it took over a week to get on a flight.

We live 40 mins. from O'Hare (in reasonable weather). Two years ago we had an early morning flight out of O'Hare to Honolulu. Weather was bad enough that we booked a room at the hotel at O'Hare for the night before. Our airline called before we left for the hotel to say our flight was being cancelled due to weather. We cancelled the hotel reservation (no charge). We were able to get our first class seats back, but not until a flight two days later.

This year our flight doesn't leave until 11 a.m. -- but who knows about the weather! Good thing is that these planes go back and forth from Hawaii so we don't worry about our plane being grounded due to weather before it gets to O'Hare.

Once we were flying home from London when stormy weather forced a detour to Milwaukee. We couldn't deplane because there was no immigration service on duty in Milwaukee. We sat on the plane until the thunderstorms cleared O'Hare.

Younger son is at the airport now flying into JFK from southern California. Hope he makes it without those long delays. He had to check his luggage too, and I hope that won't cause another delay.

Last night I canceled my reservation to fly into NY LaGuardia today. I will probably reschedule in a couple of weeks.
Many years ago, I was coming home to CA from a Caribbean cruise and we changed planes in St. Louis and had several hours delay. There was a storm on the east coast and our plane was stuck there. We sat in the bar and watched the Super Bowl. The airline offered to put us up in a hotel but we declined because it was snowing in St Louis and all we had were summer clothes. After we finally boarded our flight, we sat on the plane for over an hour while they de-iced.

A few years ago we were returning to Miami from a Panama Canal cruise and my son emailed us and told us we had better try to get an earlier flight back to Oklahoma City because the weather was bad. We got to the airport, got an earlier flight and made it to Atlanta, without any bags. The next day we left Atlanta and made it to Dallas, where we rented a car and went straight to Target for a change of clothes and some necessities! We were in Dallas three nights and we were the only flight that left DFW on the fourth day. When we got to Oklahoma City the airport was closed and we could see our bags in Delta's holding room. We wouldn't have driven home that evening anyway! We live 3 1/2 hours from OKC.

The cruise was 11 days and it took us 6 days to get home.

The moral of the story, we could have stayed in Miami,
with our luggage, had everything we need, had fun and stayed warm.

But, we were safe and sound and it didn't bother us one bit. Being without luggage for a couple of days was the worse thing.

Last Feb after cruise, was told the flight from Miami to Charlotte was cancelled, due to snow. I could either stay in Miami, overnite, but they didn't offer a free stay OR could fly to Dallas and get in the same time the other flight was supposed to.

I chose DALLAS with an upgrade to business on a large plane, not a commuter plane. Happy happy!

A FUNNY STORY. A few years ago my friend and I went to Las Vegas. She had a brother from California who was going to meet her there and I had a friend there. We live 4 hours from Sioux Falls SD. We had to drive down there, get on the plane and go to St. Louis and then straight out to Vegas. Well we got there without any problems. It was time to comeback and we got to the airport early and my friend told me to wait for her while she went to a smokers hut for one last cigarette. She said I cant get on the plane without you I will leave my boarding pass with you. I went to play some machines in the lobby there and there is no clock so you dont know what time it is. She came back and didnt see me and thought that I had gotten on the plane without her. She told the stewardess this and they went on the plane and paged me. Well it was time for the plane to be leaving so someone else told her they would just make her a new boarding pass. SHe got on the plane and first thought that they had just given her a new seat. Well she got up and couldnt find me. So she sits down and tell the stewardess " I think I just left my friend in Vegas" she says no maybe not so she checks her seat chart and asks what my name was so she checks the whole plane and says looks like you did. So my friend goes on tho St. Louis. Meanwhile I am still waiting for her to come back. Then I notice that the place is empty. I go up to someone and ask them and they tell me I just missed my plane. This is the first time I have ever flown on a big airplane. I flew once beforeon a 4 passenger one on a 3 hour flight. So I asked him what I should do. He told me to go down stairs and see if I can get on the next flight. SO I sm running down there and I had to stop because I am having an anziety attack and couldnt breathe. I got a ticket for the next flight and had to wait another 2 1/2 hours. My friend found out that I was on the next flight. She got to St. Louis and went to the ticket counter and asked if she should just keep going to Sious Falls or wait for me there. The clerk said "Honey if your friend didnt knnow enough to get one in Vegas, she sure will be lost here I think you better wait. So she got to sit in the airport all day. Well I finally got there and I didnt know if she would be waiting for me. I saw her and I was so happy. We went into a smokers hut and we were laughing so hard we were crying. Im sure everyone was looking at us. The first plane we were supposed to be on had mechanical trouble so we had to change planes. But it was in a different tarmack quite a ways away. we didnt have much time to get there. She is a nurse and there was an elderly lady that was having trouble and she was trying to help her and I didnt think we would make it, but we did. I was supposed to be at work by 6:00 the next morning. She said she would drive home and I could sleep and we would still make it. I said OK. We got to Sioux Falls and he couldnt land the plane because of fog. He tried a couple of times and then they announce we are going back to St. Louis. Mt feind wasnt very happy because she had just spent all day there. This was in April I think. We got to St. Louis and they said the plane was leaving at 5 the next morning and they werent putting us up in a motel. Well some of the more experienced flyers grabbed pillows and blankets, but not me. I had on shorts and a short sleeved shirt. This is in April and it wasnt very warm but it was when I left Vegas. My luggage is in SF. I told my friend that a few weeks ago I had read in a Readers Digest that most big airports had a chapel and I asked her if she wanted to go there with me because I thought they would have pews that we could lay on. She told me "If you think Im going any place with you again you are crazy and if your not here in :the morning im leaving your butt here" I went to the chapel and everyone else must have read that same magazine. People were laying all over and covering up with anything they could find including the rugs. Well I was cold and the only thing left was the altar cloth. So I used it and I thought Godf wouldnt want me to be cold and he would forgive me. It took me a long time to finally tell my mother that. Ny oarents were very strong Catholics. Well the next morning we left at 5 and got to SF and it was still foggy he tried 3 times and finally found a hole to come down in. Now I blame my friend and she blames me but we are still friends and still joke about it a lot. I hope you all enjoy this story. My husband got stranded once on the Interstate in ND when he was hauling mail to Fargo from Bismarck. A blizzard came up and they were stranded in a rest area and we didnt know where he was for a while.

We were stranded in Europe last spring during the Icelandic volcano episode - our tour company took care of us until we could get flights out.

Not that I can recall ...

... but then ...

... I'm getting rather old - and you know about old people and their memories.

ole joyful

I was stranded at Houston once for 5 hours with 4 kids ranging in age from 7 to 16. We started collecting luggage carts and turning them in for a quarter. We made a game of it. Checking which gates had departing flights where we could pick some up. Offering to return them for little old ladies. One guy offered my son 50 cents for a cart. He said he'd let him have it for a buck. (It cost 2.00 from the machine) We made enough to get a little treat before we finally were able to board our flight.

Ron

I have been stranded quite a few times. Sometimes get to a hotel, sometimes not.
jemdandy - I am flying first week of Feb to San Fran through Milwaulkee....I will remember to take a small blanket...
bengardening - a chapel is a great idea! I will have to remember that.
one of my worst was when I had a connecting flight cancelled in Dallas.
We waited in line for new flight assignments. The ticket printer was not working, but the computers rescheduled us all for various flights the next morning and agents verbally told us what time.
It was after midnight when they put us all on a bus to the same hotel. So about 75 people had to wait in line for a room.
My flight was something like 6:00am so I had to get up at 3:00 to catch the hotel shuttle back in time to make my flight.
I got less than 3 hours sleep (and I'm not sure I slept at all) Well, when I go to the ticket counter, they told me my flight wasn't until 2:00pm!
Needless to say, I wasn't very happy. I really needed to get home (long story) The agent put me on standby for the 6:00am and I went to the gate on an ounce of hope. I was talking to a group of people and one guy offered me his sit - he would wait. I couldn't believe how nice he was!
When I really got mad was when he and I approached the agent together, the agent would not let me have his seat because there were other stand-by's ahead of me.
I am reasonable person and really do get the big picture in most cases. This one seemed to me that this particular agent was just in a bad mood. He wouldn't even look me in the eye.