Stranded travelers wait for flights to resume

NEW YORK�? Many travelers heading to and from the East Coast still face days of delays even as airlines start flying again Monday at major airports that closed for Tropical Storm Irene.

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All three major New York-area airports were expected to reopen early Monday. Flights once again will begin arriving at 6 a.m. Monday at John F. Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International airports, and departures were set to resume at noon, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. LaGuardia Airport will reopen Monday to both arrivals and departures at 7 a.m.

Airlines resumed flights Sunday at airports around Washington, Philadelphia and Richmond, Va. But the longer closure of the New York area's Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark, N.J., airports means travel delays will continue rippling across the country.

Ground transportation ? including New York City's subways ? also started easing back into service Sunday evening, though disruptions remained widespread.

More than 11,000 flights were canceled nationwide over the weekend, and hundreds more will be scrubbed Monday morning, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking service.

There's no easy way to squeeze all those displaced passengers onto scheduled flights, especially if airports around New York ? the nation's busiest airspace ? encounter delays reopening Monday. And ground transport alternatives remain limited, with bus and train service disrupted into Monday as well along the East Coast.

Airlines won't say how many passengers have been grounded since Irene came ashore in North Carolina on Saturday.

FlightAware, which tracks cancelations, put the total around 650,000, noting that many of the flights canceled so far were on regional airlines that use small planes.

Some travel experts suggested much larger numbers ? 1 million or more.

Stranded outside the U.S.
The storm also was creating problems for Americans traveling outside the U.S. who now find themselves unable to get home.

Raymond Cielo flew to the Dominican Republic with his wife and two daughters on Aug. 19 ? only to have his vacation plans washed away by Hurricane Irene. "It rained for four days straight," Cielo told msnbc.com.

Cielo, of Woodland Park, N.J., had planned to fly home Aug. 27, but learned late Friday that their Saturday flight had been canceled.

Desite his status as a Platinum Elite member with Continental, Cielo spent hours on the phone ? at $2 a minute ? trying to reach the airline, only to learn that the first available flight back to Newark Liberty International Airport is Sept. 4.

He said his extended hotel stay in Punta Cana will cost an additional $3,000, not to mention unexpected extra time off work. "We are frustrated and just want to get home even though it is beautiful here now," said Cielo.

Nicole Whitney Sobel was supposed to fly home to Boston from Cancun, Mexico, on Sunday. However, she found herself stranded in Mexico for a few more days after learning that her connecting flight in Charlotte, N.C., was canceled.

"I was disappointed when I found out I wouldn't be home in time because I have appointments and meetings that I need to get back home for, which I now had to cancel and re-schedule from Mexico with limited phone access," she told msnbc.com.

However, the 25-year-old freelance writer, who is in Mexico on a work-related trip, says things could be worse. She could have been stuck at the Charlotte airport trying to arrange accommodations and transportation. Instead, she's at a luxury resort in Riviera Maya. "The sun is out today, and guests are laying out by the pool and on the beach," she said.

She hopes to get rebooked on a new flight home as early as Tuesday.

Airlines said passengers should call ahead and make sure they have a confirmed seat before going to the airport. (Click here for rebooking tips as well as a list of airline Twitter feeds and websites.)

Crowded flights
Finding open seats will be especially difficult this week because it's the last gasp of the summer vacation season.

"We're coming into the Labor Day holiday weekend, so a lot of those flights are already full," said Todd Lehmacher, a spokesman for US Airways.

Long-distance bus and train companies also saw lingering effects from Irene, which was downgraded early Sunday from a hurricane to a tropical storm as high winds ebbed.
Greyhound scrubbed bus travel between Richmond, Va., and Boston all weekend. A spokeswoman said buses would begin to roll north out of Richmond Monday morning and the company hoped to be running in New York by midday.

Amtrak said trains from New York to Florida will be canceled Monday, as will the car train between Lorton, Va., and Sanford, Fla. Some lines in North Carolina and Florida will be open.

Amtrak said in a statement Sunday evening that many routes south of Philadelphia will resume operation, while it canceled many trains between New York and points north. The railroad said separately that its inspections are revealing problems with wiring and signals, as well as trees blocking the tracks. Passengers with paid tickets on canceled trains can rebook or receive refunds by calling 800-872-7245 or visiting Amtrak.com.

Airlines said passengers should call ahead and make sure they have a confirmed seat before going to the airport, but the 670 flights that FlightAware said airlines had canceled for Monday is a small share of the nation's daily flights.

Airlines also moved several hundred planes out of the storm's path to avoid damage, which will further slow the return to normal service.

When blizzards hit the East Coast in December and February, it took some passengers days to get home. That could happen again.

Sara Hesselsweet of Norwalk, Conn., and her family were to fly home Sunday from vacation at Lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border. After their flight was canceled, American Airlines told her it couldn't find seats for her, her husband and 2-year-old son until next Saturday.

So the family decided to fly from Reno, Nev., to Dallas and on to Chicago, where they would rent a car to drive back to Connecticut.

"We checked Philadelphia, D.C., Boston, the Carolinas ? we couldn't get a flight anywhere," said Hesselsweet, sitting amid a pile of carry-on bags in the Reno airport.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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