A person uses a shovel to clear snow from around a parked vehicle in Vancouver, Canada this week, where 30cm of snow has fallen as a result of an Arctic blast affecting a large part of the US and Canada. Photo / Darryl Dyck / AP
A person uses a shovel to clear snow from around a parked vehicle in Vancouver, Canada this week, where 30cm of snow has fallen as a result of an Arctic blast affecting a large part of the US and Canada. Photo / Darryl Dyck / AP
The plan was to celebrate a Kiwi Christmas with loved ones and dip his baby son’s feet in the ocean for the first time.
Instead, a Toronto-based former Aucklander and his little family are likely to spend Christmas Day stuck in a chain hotel room in snow-bound Vancouver after their flights home were cancelled amid a massive Arctic storm cutting a swathe of travel disruption across the US and Canada.
“We’ve got the little fella now and my family was all very excited, but yeah, we’re gonna be spending our Christmas at the Holiday Inn. We’ll be hanging out in the hotel room.”
The man, his Canadian fiancee and their 9-month-old son were due to fly on Air New Zealand flight NZ23 from Vancouver to Auckland, and then on to Wellington - where the man’s family live - on December 21.
But the flight was cancelled after the storm - described by some as a “once-in-a-generation” weather event and that has dumped 30 centimetres of snow in Vancouver - caused chaos for travel across the US and Canada.
Vancouver International Airport limited international flights to Canadian and US-registered carriers for two days in a bid to clear the backlog of passengers and aircraft.
The tail of an Air Canada aircraft is seen behind a pile of snow at Vancouver International Airport on December 21. The airport limited international flights to carriers registered in Canada and the US for two days in an attempt to clear a snowstorm-sparked backlog. Photo / AP
The family were re-booked on the December 23 flight, but it suffered the same fate - cancellation - both times because the incoming flight from Auckland had also been cancelled due to the weather.
His frustration was not with the weather, but Air New Zealand’s customer service, the man said.
He asked not to be identified as he feared the family’s chance of being re-booked might be affected if their names were known.
Before leaving Vancouver International Airport to wait out the delays in a city hotel, something that’s cost the couple - who have travel insurance - more than $1000 so far, they asked Vancouver-based Air New Zealand staff to rebook them, but were told it must be done through customer service.
They were also told they could book flights to New Zealand with Air Canada, or through the US, at their own cost - which was about $10,000 and unaffordable, the 34-year-old insurance worker said.
Weather has caused massive disruption to international services in the US and Canada. Photo / Brett Phibbs
Instead, he’d waited up to five hours on hold to customer service before being cut off - among 18 hours he and his fiancee had spent on hold to Air New Zealand between them.
“I understand weather happens but it’s not that that’s the problem. It’s that the customer service just doesn’t exist and no one wants to help. We’ve had no communications with them since Tuesday night. No emails, nothing at all.”
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman didn’t have details of the couple’s specific situation, but staff were “working really hard” to contact affected passengers directly and rebook them, including sometimes through US airports.
“It’s such a terrible situation and horrific timing, but the customer service guys are doing absolutely everything they can to try and get passengers home because we know how important it is to … get people home for Christmas.
“But the weather is really throwing us a curveball at the moment.”
A Canada Post worker delivers mail in Burnaby, Vancouver after a snowstorm dumped more than 30cm of snow in the Canadian city. Photo / AP
Six flights out of Vancouver and Chicago had already been cancelled, but tonight’s Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Vancouver was still on schedule - which meant the return journey tomorrow could take place, weather dependent.
Thousands of flights in the US alone had been cancelled because of the storm “so it’s absolutely not a unique situation to Air New Zealand”, she said.
As of this morning (NZT) airlines have cancelled more than 4400 US flights as the massive winter storm snarled airport operations around the country.
The disruption followed nearly 2700 cancelled flights yesterday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Passenger railroad Amtrak has cancelled dozens of trains through Christmas, disrupting holiday travel for thousands.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) imposed ground stops or delays for de-icing at a number of US airports because of winter weather.
“Severe winter weather moving across the Great Lakes into the northeast will have a major impact” on flights, the FAA said, adding that “flight delays are likely from Boston to DC Metropolitan area airports, Seattle-Tacoma and Portland International Airports and Aspen” in Colorado.
In Chicago, wind gusts of up to 80km/h are expected today (NZT) and another 5500 US flights have been delayed.
The country’s aviation system was “operating under enormous strain”, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNN.
A US pedestrian braves the snow and chill in St Louis on December 22. Frigid air is moving through the central United States to the east, with wind chill advisories affecting about 135 million people over the coming days, weather service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said. Photo / AP
Two storms and high winds were affecting airports around the country. About 10 per cent of US flights were cancelled yesterday, Buttigieg said.
Meanwhile, the stranded Kiwi-Canadian couple were now reconsidering their planned three-week holiday to New Zealand, their first time here since the pandemic, the man said.
“I don’t think there’s going to be an international flight out of Vancouver until after Christmas. We’re thinking we should just go back to Toronto.
“We just wanted to get [our son] to the family for Christmas … and to get to the beach. I was finally looking forward to getting him into the ocean, but that’s not gonna happen.”
