Remember, the holidays have this nasty habit of scheduling themselvs at a time of year when weather is a major factor in air travel.  Now, if you’re flying from the northeast to the northern midwest, you don’t have many options.  But many of us do.

If you are traveling transcontinental or ir you are traveling in a way that requires transiting through a hub, consider very carefully your choice in hubs.  I have written about this before but its worth covering again. 

Let’s say you’re traveling from Albuquerque to Richmond Virginia.  You know you’ll have to transit at least one hub but which is the better choice?  Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Atlanta, DFW, Houston, Charlotte, Cleveland and Cincinatti are all choices.   Now, many people choose the cheapest and fastest routing for such a trip but the real question during the holidays is this:  do you want cheap and fast or reasonable and certain?

You could safely eliminate Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinatti and Chicago from the list of good choices.  All are subject to severe weather and most have a bad reputation for operating in severe weather (the exception really being Denver.)   Now, routing through one of those cities might be cheaper, but, is it really?  If you were stuck in Chicago with a flight cancellation, how much would you have paid to avoid that problem?  $50?  $100? 

And is time really of the essence or is getting to your destination with as little potential for trouble more important.  In most cases, I’m sure most of us would accept a slightly longer travel time in exchange for being much more certain of our arrivals.

Better hubs to search would be DFW (very rarely affected by weather), Houston (same as DFW) and to a lesser degree Atlanta and Charlotte.  Atlanta is always congested and while not subject to a lot of weather problems, it is a hub heavily impacted by operations at other Atlantic seaboard airports.  Charlotte is a minor hub but one that can be impacted by winter weather although not often.

Most likely, you could book through DFW or Houston for the same price (possibly less) and have a very high degree of likelihood in getting where you are going on time or reliably at the least.  No airport is totally safe and no airline is completely certain.  No connection is free of weather related problems either. 

Even if you were flying from Portland, Oregon to Virginia, your best bet is still via those southern hubs.   Yes, the flight may well take 1 to 2 hours longer but how does that stack up against the potential of being stranded for 5 to 8 hours or even days because you went through Detroit?  In most cases, that flight path would take no more than the same time to transit and sometimes less than it would routing through a northern hub.   The listed times might be shorter but the *real* times are often the same or better. 

Furthermore, it is far better transit a warm hub feeling secure about your flight and in no hurry to catch your next flight than it is to bet that Minneapolis will be snow free and you’ll save 1 to 2 hours on your travel.  It’s just not worth the hassle to you or the people you are visiting.

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