weather Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

What Happens If a Plane Is Struck By Lightning While In Flight?

According to the National Weather Service, lightning strikes about 25 million times a year and kills an average of 49 people. But how often does it strike planes?

Believe it or not, it’s estimated that every plane in the U.S. commercial fleet is struck by lightning at least once every year. The event is described as a loud bang and a flash of light as the lightning goes through the plane. You can sometimes experience the smell of ozone, too. It’s got to be as scary as anything! In fact, I’m sure it might freak some people out, especially if they’re afraid of flying in the first place (if you are or know somebody who is, read this for some ideas to possibly help that).

But are you safe when all that happens?

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Orlando’s Hotel Hero During Hurricanes

As I write this post, Hurricane Dorian is decimating the Bahamas and may or may not cause some major damage to the eastern half of Florida.

Because it’s inland, Central Florida doesn’t get nearly the amount of damage that can be seen on the Atlantic or Gulf coasts of the state (hurricanes need to be over warm water to gain/keep their strength, so as they go over land, they lose some of their steam). Granted, we still get our share of major issues when big storms come through. Roofs blow off houses, trees come down, mobile homes are destroyed, we lose electricity for days or weeks, etc. We, thankfully, just don’t get the same level of devastation that the coasts get, is all.

ABOVE: Hurricane Charley, 2004. 110mph winds knocked down our neighbor’s tree, which landed on our tree and roof

Of course, Orlando International Airport also shuts down for big weather issues such as hurricanes, since it’s obviously not safe for planes to fly in that sort of weather (although this Allegiant plane full of passengers did during Hurricane Florence in 2018???)

So between people from the coast evacuating inland, others being stranded because their flights are canceled, and having over 120,000 hotels rooms in the area because we have a lot of theme parks, we tend to get an influx of visitors when a hurricane is aimed at Florida.

Some hoteliers would take advantage of this and raise prices, gouging people when they’re in the most need. But there’s one hotel owner in Central Florida who does the opposite…

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What Can You Do When You Might Miss Your Connecting Flight?

It’s everyone’s travel nightmare. After making sure you get to the airport extra early because of the delays at check-in and security, you finally get to your gate and find a seat, preferably near a power plug (and not one of these). You hope there are no yelling children around, or adults talking with their phone on speaker. You start reading your book on your Kindle or watch some cute video of cats on your phone to pass the time. When it’s almost boarding time for your flight, there’s one ~~small~~ HUGE problem – there’s no plane at the gate. You think, “There’s no way we’re leaving on time, but if we were delayed, wouldn’t the airline tell us?” Well, not necessarily.

The dread of knowing you only have 90 minutes to make your connecting flight and who knows how long you’re going to be delayed sets in. You’d stand at the counter to ask one of the employees, but you notice the line is already 15 people deep with fellow travelers who already had the same thoughts as you. If you’re waiting for the airline to let you know about a delay, you’re already WAY BEHIND THE CURVE. Continue reading “What Can You Do When You Might Miss Your Connecting Flight?”

I Wanted A Reliable Airline So I Booked With Frontier Instead Of American

This is a headline that I never thought I’d write but here we are. I needed to choose a flight to get from Orlando to Austin. There used to be several non-stop flights between the two cities but airline schedules change and I was left with a set of options that would not have been my first choices. When you need to get from point A to point B, it becomes necessary to choose from the options you have.

The two options I had were:

A non-stop flight on Frontier with excellent flight times
Flights on American connecting either in Charlotte or Dallas

Other airlines such as Spirit and JetBlue had non-stop flights but the times were terrible and Delta’s prices for connecting flights were way too high. So I had to decide between Frontier or American.

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What To Do When Your Flight Is Delayed By The Weather

It’s summertime and that means we’re entering prime leisure travel season in the U.S. Kids are out of school and families are going on trips they planned all year. Unfortunately, this is also the time of the year where the weather can wreak havoc on airline travel on an almost daily basis. Living in Orlando, we’re accustomed to severe weather blowing through all the time. Here’s a picture a friend of ours took looking from one side of the car and then the other.

With sudden changes to the weather being the norm for six months out of the year, we’re used to experiencing weather delays when flying. While we try to take these things in stride, we’ve watched people go through every level of grief over a 45-minute delay. Here are our tips on what you can and should do if your flight is delayed:

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