Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Bummer: 'Year Without Summer?'

Now that's a bummer of a concept, "a year without a summer," and it comes from an expert at AccuWeather. I am, luckily, ensconced in southern Arizona, where the temperatures first nudged over 100 degrees two weeks ago, though it has since moderated down into the low 90s. Being a hot weather nut, I have no complaints.

Meanwhile, given miserable weather continuing throughout the Northeast, airport delays are piling up today. Newark was reporting on-time arrival and departure rates in the low 20 percent ranges all morning today, and La Guardia was worse, with 4 percent of flights arriving on time between 9 a.m. and noon.

A reminder, as these delays ripple through the system. Check your flight schedule before leaving for the airport, and especially watch any connection time. As they cut capacity, airlines have been shortening connection times in many cases, and it is sometimes dicey even to make the scheduled connection at some badly planned airports like Houston. With delays, you can end up breathless at an empty departure gate.

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1 comment:

ChefNick said...

Ah, capacity! The bane of travellers' existence! I used to work for Air Canada and have relied on them for my air miles, but recently they cut YUL - SFO direct and now NO ONE flies to Osaka (where my son is)from North America except via vile Tokyo/Chicago blah blah blah which makes for a hell of a trip when you're in a sardine can for 36 hours at 37,000 feet with no complimentary pillow and are paying $5800 for the privilege of buying a Subway sandwich.

I just get drunk. It's the only way to survive these things any more. Hey, maybe it's an unconscious urge to get kicked off the flight and not have to deal with it.