A lot of folks who flew during the holidays have been spending the first part of the new year trading travel horror stories of delays and weather-related flight cancellations. But the bottom line is: It could have been worse. The big East Coast snowstorm managed to fall between the busiest travel days of Christmas, and was pretty much cleaned up by New Years Day, when most folks caught planes.
In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that airline accountants didn't mind that snowstorm at all. Flights were cancelled on Saturday and Sunday - New Year's Eve - when lots of planes fly almost empty.
Remember the holidays two years ago? That's when passengers were stranded for hours without food or water in planes on runways at Detroit and Minneapolis airports because snow prevented them from reaching their gates. Airline ads usually show well-dressed people settling dreamy-like into comfortable, first-class seats as the sun slips behind a cloud outside their window. But just like casino ads that show laughing folks throwing dice across craps table, real-life isn't like that. And weather reminds us that flying still depends on decent conditions. When the weather is bad, I consider any flight that delivers me to my destination safely a successful one. And, thankfully, not a single passenger this holiday season experienced an . . . unsuccessful flight.
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