That is, if my area is snowed in and the predictions are flights will be at best delayed, at worst canceled, and I decided to stay snug at home and miss my check-in time — am I left high and dry when I *do* want to fly? Will a phone call to the airline keep me covered? Or can the airline beg off, even if I have the details of my call(s), such as the time, with whom I spoke, his/her station and rank, the number I called, and so on?

I realize that blizzards (and other weather) isn’t an airline’s fault, but am just trying to learn what, if any, rights I have. I suppose the airlines have some rights, too, in such situations, which I feel is only fair. But who is entitled to what, and under what circumstances/requirements?

Something else to consider, as described by Patrick Smith at his great “Ask the Pilot” blog: weather and routing availability to planned alternate airports. As he explains, things are more complicated than just looking out the window.

http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2007/11/16/askthepilot254/

The math works out this way – lets say Delta has 20 departures a day out of a town like Hartford. Those 20 departures have an average of 110 seats and operate 90% full during the run up to Christmas. Effectively there are 2200 seats a day in that market and no more than 220 go wanting for a passenger. Delta cancelled 1.5 days of flying at a minimum with this storm, probably 2, but lets be reasonable – there were 3000 passengers who missed flights due to weather cancellations. At a clearance rate of 220 passengers a day it takes 13 days to everyone back on track. Assuming half those passengers rebook on their own, it takes a little over 7 days to clear the backlog, which is what you see the airlines telling every one – that the last passenger will be serviced on Saturday.

So – what is a weather stranded passenger to do?

Step 1 – get a confirmed seat from the airline for whenever. Ask, beg, plead to be put on another carrier.

Step 2 – can you buy a fully refundable seat in coach, business or F class for when you want to travel? If so – do it. The airline will then be forced to book you in that seat when you present your old ticket and you get a refund.

Step 3 – another city? Remember, this storm hammered the east coast. But the cut off was really sharp – Bradley in Harford got 6″, Albany, NY got no snow. Can you rent a car one way to Albany, and be reaccomodated there? They still likely have extra seats and stand by there would be fruitful. You can do this to Stewart in NY, Allentown, Scranton, perhaps Manchester NH, certainly Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Stracuse – and the list goes on and on and on – just pick a connection city like Chicago, Cincy, STL, etc that never had the bad weather.

Step 4 – divert to drive – rent a car for a week if you do not own one and drive. May not be the first choice – but you get there. Just be sure that when the airline cancels your flight on Dec 19, and tells you there are no confirmed seats until Dec 25, that you reserve that car immediately since others will have the same idea.

And as for the forecasts being excellent? I want what this guy is smoking. The Thursday morning forecast for Dec 17 for Hartford CT was for PARTLY CLOUDY skies on Sat night with a chance of flurries in the southeastern sections if the storm came close enough. 24 hours later they STILL were only calling for scattered snow showers. Finally- by 2pm on FRIDAY the local weather forecasters, er, model huggers,. had cottoned to the fact this was coming – so – the forecast sucked more than 24 hours out.

The FINAL choice is to leave early. Get to the airport and stand by for an earlier flight that gets you out of dodge before the bad weather hits – by fri am the airlines had posted storm warnings and were allowing people to rebook free – this privilege also includes the ‘hdden’ ability to leave early.