Ground Transportation In Lieu Of Your Flight?

FlyASAGuy2005 · Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:48 pm

Have any of you had to get on a bus provided by the airline due to a flight cancellation/disruption to get to your final destination?

Only bring this up because I have a family member on US flight to CAE that just cancelled. She called and said they've arranged a bus/buses to the CAE airport for those that would like to take that option. They're heading out to the terminal now.

This happened to me about 2 years ago I was doing RDU-ATL-BHM. Weather in BHM last flight of the night cancelled. Delta arranged coach bus service for us.

What are your experiences?

BigOrange · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:00 pm

Never experienced it, but don't usually do flights with a short hop these days.

In the UK they use buses to get people to other airports when diversions cause a problem, but that may be going off the subject slighlty

rj777 · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:07 pm

My fiance had to do it when he was going from CLT-FAY. Mechanical issue.

ikramerica · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:09 pm

Sounds very Amtrak to me. They use Thruway coaches for various things. Connecting LA to the central valley, bridging damaged areas of track, or continuing late night runs on routes where sending the whole train wouldn't be cost effective because it's too empty.

azo · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:09 pm

While not to our destination, I had a flight from MDW-DTW cancelled years back and NW provided bus transportation to ORD for another flight.

sccutler · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:13 pm

I flew to Baton Rouge from DFW one fine Friday morning, along with three clients, for a two-hour meeting. When we got to the airport to fly back (Eagle), AA kept saying (first) that the flight was delayed (which it was), then when it arrived, that it would be going, just a little late (because of weather, a fast-moving line of summer storms near DFW).

After a couple of hours, the gate agent announced that the flight was canceled "for weather," and promptly closed up shop and left.

AA on the phone said they could get us back to DFW "Tuesday at the soonest." heir contention was that, because it was weather, they had no obligation to do anything, for anybody.

We drove a rental Hyundai home.

Not AA's most shining hour.

VS4ever · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:14 pm

Similar experience to azo, but this time at PBI, flight back home to BOS was very delayed, so B6, put me in a towncar (I was not the only one to do this) and shipped me over to FLL to hope an earlier flight home..

I was very happy with this

, albeit I had to go through security twice in about an hour...

Eljonno · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:17 pm

Back in 2008, I was heading home from uni for Christmas. NQY airport was closed as the aerodrome facilities were being converted to civilian use from RAF St Mawgan. This meant that Air Southwest, who operated a triangle routing PLH-LGW-NQY, had to bus passengers from NQY to PLH for the sector to LGW.

It's a shame PLH and Air Southwest are both gone now. It was a really good little airline and Plymouth really needs its own airport IMHO.

FDH · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:21 pm

I was supposed to fly STR-FRA-PRG when the Kosovo NATO strikes started. Because of that, many flights got cancelled in FRA, including my STR-FRA leg. So LH replaced the STR-FRA flight by a chartered bus.

FDH

ikramerica · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:23 pm

Quoting sccutler (Reply 5):

Yes, AA does this when it's "weather" related even if it's not. At least they used to. Airplane never arrives or arrives very late due to weather not at your airport and not at your destination and not en route either. But they claimed it was "weather related" so you were screwed. I think this practice was found to be a violation of contract of carriage, but can't be sure. I think the changes in rules recently put a stop to that kind of garbage.

nikeherc · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:23 pm

If it's US, the bus is from CLT to CAE. That's about 90 miles down I-77. Between taxiing, baggage claim and other issues, it's almost as quick to drive as it is to fly.

sw733 · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:29 pm

Never happened to me, but I remember being on a BA LHR-DFW flight a few years ago that had approximately 100 people going on to AUS (due to South by Southwest). We had a 4 hour delay and missed the last DFW-AUS flight, so they set up buses for those people. When they announced it on the plane, you could hear a loud "ugh" from over 25% of the people onboard

AVLAirlineFreq · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:51 pm

Several years ago I was flying ATL-ILM on Atlantic Southeast on the last flight of the day, and we were diverted due to weather in ILM to OAJ. Instead of taking a bus to ILM (about a 60 minute drive), the airline rounded up every taxi in Jacksonville, NC to transport us to Wilmington!

CalTex · Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:54 pm

A few years ago, I remember seeing scheduled CO "flights" from EWR to ABE which were actually ground transport.

sw733 · Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:04 pm

Quoting CalTex (Reply 13):
A few years ago, I remember seeing scheduled CO "flights" from EWR to ABE which were actually ground transport.

I believe MSP to Eau Claire was also like that until not too long ago.

blueflyer · Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:06 pm

Quoting sw733 (Reply 11):
We had a 4 hour delay and missed the last DFW-AUS flight, so they set up buses for those people.

If you're sitting in the back, riding the bus to Austin can actually be a lot more comfortable than taking American. I do suspect BA booked a slightly cheaper option though.
http://www.vonlane.com/

gabrielchew · Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:13 pm

A few years ago my NZ flight from Taupo (TUO) to AKL was cancelled. NZ decided to bus us to the nearest airport at Hamilton (HLZ), and fly us from there. I'm not sure why they couldn't get another plane to TUO?

TUO-AKL is 139 miles
HLZ-AKL is 66 miles

So they bused us over half way there!

And just last night, my LO KRK-WAW flight was cancelled. They were offered bus transport to pax with WAW as a final destination (not me).

aarbee · Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:19 pm

This was years back.

I was scheduled to fly STL-CLT-CAE , with final destination to GSP (friend pickup from CAE). The CLT-CAE got cancelled.

The were offering buses from CLT-CAE.

So I immediately requested them if I could have a seat on CLT-GSP (right around that time). They rebooked me. They also rebooked my return from GSP instead of CAE.

Worked out good for me.

R

max999 · Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:37 pm

This practice is called BUStitution.

fanofjets · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:00 pm

Quoting CalTex (Reply 13):
A few years ago, I remember seeing scheduled CO "flights" from EWR to ABE which were actually ground transport.

I was thinking of the same. It's still there, except that the "airline" is now United. ABE to EWR is at least 1 1/2 hours by road. I see this when I am looking for flights online and am considering alternatives to Newark Airport.

HPRamper · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:03 pm

Used to happen quite often for HP at PDX. PHX-MFR was a CR2 and I can remember several times MFR was fogged in and the flight diverted to PDX for pax to be bussed to MFR. That's a long, roughly 5 hours by bus.

737tanker · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:11 pm

I was on a flight from PHL to SDF that mechanicaled due to the tug driver driving the baggage cart he was pulling into the tail of the RJ we were on. USAir flew us to IND then bussed us ( there were 12 of us) to SDF. We got there but our bags didn't arrive at out final destination until after midnight.

FoxBravo · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:18 pm

I was once on a KEF-AMS flight on Icelandair (a 737-400) that diverted to CGN due to fog at AMS. They put us on buses to Schiphol--it was all handled very efficiently as I recall. I think the drive was about 3 hours, but after flying all night from JFK via KEF it felt longer.

Then there was the time my IST-JFK flight on Turkish diverted to BOS due to bad weather at JFK. I assumed they would put us on buses from there, but after a couple of hours on the tarmac, we took off again for JFK. After two missed approaches in wind shear, we ended up diverting to ORD(!) and spending the night in the airport hotel before continuing to JFK the next morning. I would have happily taken a 4-hour bus ride from BOS to avoid that ordeal!

aloges · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:22 pm

On the day I got to try one of NextJet's BAe ATPs, KRF was foggy and we diverted to SDL. The plane continued to GEV and there weren't too many of us going to KRF, so after a little while, two or three MPV taxis showed up and took us to Kramfors city centre. Beautiful landscape, which I was able to enjoy because my evening flight back to ARN (on an SK 736 from UME) was in no way jeopardised.

nomadd22 · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:27 pm

I had a ticket agent offer to drive me from Miami to Orlando in 86, when the Lorenzo/Borman machine was threatening to strike. The flight was cancelled for other reasons, but she still did.

[Edited 2015-06-22 12:27:40]

Eurohub · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:32 pm

Back in 2005 (iirc), I flew from Ryanair STN to NRN but the latter was fog-bound and so after 15 minutes holding we diverted to EIN for fuel. Good old FR laid on a bus for the pax (early days of that route so one bus was enough for all of us) and positioned the aircraft over to NRN as soon as the fog lifted.

The Dutch coach driver had no idea where NRN was so after some hasty directions from a pax who knew the route, we set off hairing along these narrow roads that were unsuited both to coaches in general and the speed this one was being driven at in particular.

By the time we finally arrived at NRN, our original aircraft had positioned in, loaded up for its return journey and departed back to STN!

Aesma · Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:37 pm

A few years ago I was trying out the CR2 on an ORY-BES flight, and during the landing in fog, the plane suddenly jumped back in the air and diverted to UIP. Britair set up a coach and we got to BES in about an hour, no big deal.

EA CO AS · Mon Jun 22, 2015 9:52 pm

Quoting FlyASAGuy2005 (Thread starter):
Have any of you had to get on a bus provided by the airline due to a flight cancellation/disruption to get to your final destination?

Yes. I was scheduled to fly POULGA on DD in the mid 80s and the flight was cancelled due to mechanical; we were all sent to LGA by motorcoach.

QX routinely advises customers service to/from SUN might be cancelled and served via bus if weather is inclement.

RyanairGuru · Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:20 pm

Once a flight I was on from GSO to DCA was cancelled so US put us on a bus to CLT from where we caught a later flight to DCA.

Another time I was flying CapeAir from BOS to LEB and the flight was cancelled. We were given the choice to take the public bus from Logan to Hanover, NH with a full refund, or wait for the next flight. I waited, as the entire purpose of taking the trip was to ride on a Cessna!

aloges · Mon Jun 22, 2015 11:50 pm

Quoting RyanairGuru (Reply 28):
Another time I was flying CapeAir from BOS to LEB and the flight was cancelled. We were given the choice to take the public bus from Logan to Hanover, NH with a full refund, or wait for the next flight. I waited, as the entire purpose of taking the trip was to ride on a Cessna!

Good choice. A while ago, I had to make the bus trip to LEB (customer didn't want me flying) and took the Cessna back to BOS. I need to add that it was still winter, but good grief that was one boring bus ride!

2175301 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:12 am

I have ridden busses provided by Airlines in lue of flights between ORD and Madison/Milwaukee several times in bad weather or if a plane went tech. This was in the 70's and 80's. I have not personally experienced it since; but am sure that it occurs.

Have a great day,

AMALH747430 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:35 am

A few weeks ago AA (operated by YV) cancelled my afternoon DFW-AMA flight. AA couldn't get me to Amarillo until 11:00 PM the next night. I called Enterprise and ended up making the 5 1/2 hour trek in a tiny Fiat 500. On a side note itS a good thing I called Enterprise's 800 number. Folks who walked up to the counter were told "we don't allow one way rentals" and turned away. The agent that assisted me said they don't allow them locally during the summer since they try to build their fleet during the summer months. However, she said they have to honour reservations made on their central reservation system.

jetblue1965 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:43 am

Quoting CalTex (Reply 13):

They still do today. You can buy XYZ-EWR-ABE and take the bus for 2 hours or so for the last leg. Why they think anyone but the most price sensitive travelers want that is beyond me.

beachbum1970 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:46 am

Back in the late 1990s when I worked for Air Wisconsin in Charlottesville (CHO), if we cancelled a flight we would arrange taxi service for our passengers to either IAD or RIC. If our inbound from IAD cancelled they would send us a coach bus from Dulles with the passengers on board. It's about a 2 hour drive CHO-IAD and a little over an hour drive to RIC.

XAM2175 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 3:46 am

Quoting CalTex (Reply 13):
A few years ago, I remember seeing scheduled CO "flights" from EWR to ABE which were actually ground transport.

Not sure if it still happens but AF's Paris-Brussels flights used to show as "Operated by SNCF" (translates loosely to French National Railways) because they were actually codeshares on the Thalys train service. As a result, Thalys have the IATA code 2H and Brussels Midi station is ZYR.

Also, QF's International fare rules show "Exception: Travel between Frankfurt and Cologne, Dusseldorf, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart is on a train service operated by Deutsche Bahn" but I cannot make their website actually give me a routing that uses the train service and Nuremberg doesn't even show as an available destination.

portcolumbus · Tue Jun 23, 2015 4:40 am

Had a UA/Air Wisconsin MKE-ORD flight cancelled on Christmas day in the early 2000s where they arranged a bus down to Chicago.

nyc2theworld · Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:24 am

Quoting XAM2175 (Reply 34):
Not sure if it still happens but AF's Paris-Brussels flights used to show as "Operated by SNCF" (translates loosely to French National Railways) because they were actually codeshares on the Thalys train service. As a result, Thalys have the IATA code 2H and Brussels Midi station is ZYR.

Also, QF's International fare rules show "Exception: Travel between Frankfurt and Cologne, Dusseldorf, Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart is on a train service operated by Deutsche Bahn" but I cannot make their website actually give me a routing that uses the train service and Nuremberg doesn't even show as an available destination.

I booked a UA award ticket on LH to Cologne Central station. I had to use the Cologne Central Stations' IATA Code QKL when looking up available "flights". They most definitely appeared on on ua.com FRA-QKL LH flight #s operated by DB.

As of today one could book FRA-QKL on ua.com on H class for economy or D class for business as a revenue ticket.

sccutler · Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:29 am

This reminds me of a true story.

Spring 1980, and I was taking a break from college and sponging off of my cousin and his wife in Oceanside, CA. She worked for Imperial Airlines at Carlsbad, and called me in a panic - a flight had been rescheduled, and apparently, one passenger who did not get the call had to get to SNA (Orange County) for a flight.

So I rousted out of bed and got to the airport, where I picked up this gent and drove him to Santa Ana. He tipped me twenty bucks or something like that, I was just glad to help. He thought he was going to take an Embraer, instead he got- a Chevy Vega!

VapourTrails · Tue Jun 23, 2015 5:59 am

Quoting FlyASAGuy2005 (Thread starter):
Have any of you had to get on a bus provided by the airline due to a flight cancellation/disruption to get to your final destination?

Quoting FlyASAGuy2005 (Thread starter):
What are your experiences?

Yes, had to do it twice, once back in the 80's and again, back in 2001. Bad weather, aircraft had to divert. First time, I was on the incoming flight, had to get a bus 100km away from airport original destination after landing at alternate.

Second time, incoming flight I was to catch couldn't land due to fog rolling in (in the middle of the day) so had to divert and catch a bus to alternate to catch flight there to depart.

That was a hell of a bus ride. That would be my only real comment of a negative, that the bus driver was under pressure to get us there and it was hairy.

And I have never transited through an airport that quickly before, talk about premium service LOL. I wouldn't want to do it again in a hurry (scuse pun). At least it all ended safely.

The airports were LST and DPO so were lucky they are fairly close geographically.

One those occasions, couldn't get timely 'ground transportation' from Tasmania to Melbourne, obviously, for the stretch of water in between.

Would have had to stay over and wait for later flight if not for bus and alternates.

[Edited 2015-06-22 23:08:08]

mfricke · Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:19 am

A few years ago, I was flying a SkyWest United Express Brasilia from LAX to Carlsbad. We even boarded the flight, when they discovered a crack in the propeller. We disembarked, and the gate agent promptly arranged a van for all 8 of us passengers. We wound up getting to Carlsbad at most two hours late, which wasn't that bad, considering we had to take the 405 and the 5.

hz747300 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 6:27 am

Yes, many years ago, around August 2000, US cancelled its evening shuttles to both Boston and Washington and chartered buses but we still had to pay $89 to ride them. I was going to DCA. At first, I was appalled and did not want to pay on top of my ticket the cost of a charter bus, but then when I went outside and thought about going back to the cab line, waiting, waiting in traffic to Penn Station, I changed my mind and paid it.

Somewhere around halfway, there was a horrific accident, where literally a car tore through a full camp trailer (like a 31'er or something) and we were delayed another hour-and-a-half in traffic.

What puzzled me too was that the weather at LGA was fine, but I know now that means nothing.

AWACSooner · Tue Jun 23, 2015 7:01 am

Had to bus from CTA to PMO just to fly KM to MLA back in January of 14...Mt Etna went boom.

trent1000 · Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:27 am

Yesterday, a Jetstar flight from Gold Coast to Sydney diverted to Newcastle (actually Williamtown military base) and landed safely after smoke was seen coming from a toilet.
Passengers were bused to Sydney from there, which would take a few more hours.

http://www.9news.com.au/national/201...y-forced-to-make-emergency-landing

CARST · Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:20 am

Due to extreme fog my incoming Dornier 328 from TXL to MHG could not land at MHG and diverted to SCN.

The airline put all 25 passengers in 6 or 7 taxis and transported us the one hour drive over to SCN from where we departed with just a 50 minute delay to TXL. Great customer service.

EIDL · Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:24 am

I've been bussed from BHX to LGW before (many many years ago) for a flight to DUB. Adding 50% to the flight distance in the process.

Its long enough ago that I can't remember the reason but I definitely spent longer on the M40 and M25 than I did in the air that day.

77west · Tue Jun 23, 2015 10:55 am

Look you just have to book on Jetstar NZ and there seems to be a 50-50 these days that you will end up on a RoadBus instead of an AirBus.

My parents have booked 3 JQ flight in the last year and been bussed from CHC to Queenstown each time. I told them to take NZ...

TruemanQLD · Tue Jun 23, 2015 11:25 am

Quoting 77west (Reply 45):

Look you just have to book on Jetstar NZ and there seems to be a 50-50 these days that you will end up on a RoadBus instead of an AirBus.

Which is so far from the truth based on actual figures, and you know that, its laughable. But hey, anything to bash JQ!

newbief1yer · Tue Jun 23, 2015 12:02 pm

Does this count?

11 Hours To Barra (by newbief1yer May 14 2013 in Trip Reports)

Ferroviarius · Tue Jun 23, 2015 1:31 pm

I recall that, when travelling by train from Stockholm to Oslo, the train had to wait some minutes in Karlstad for travellers from a flight ARN-OSL, which had been diverted from OSL to KSD. I also recall that there sometimes were flight passengers for short distance flights on trains in southern Germany (at which I do NOT mean the Lufthansa trains, which were operated for quite a number of years between DUS, FRA, and STR). There was, as far as I know, a rule in Germany that you were allowed to use your flight ticket on a train for a number of airlines (again, I mean regular trains, not the special Lufthansa trains, which "legally" were flights and for which you needed a flight ticket).

See
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Airport_Express

Best,

Ferroviarius

flyingalex · Tue Jun 23, 2015 2:44 pm

A few winters ago, I was booked to fly ZRH-STR on LX (I was connecting from somewhere, can't remember where).

Unfortunately a winter storm was working its way across Germany at the time, and severe icing was forecast for the low flight levels our little Avro would have been using on that short flight. Therefore LX chartered a bus to take us to Stuttgart. There were only about 30 of us on the flight anyway, so one bus was enough. As I understand it, a second bus went the other way to carry those booked on STR-ZRH.

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