Bowl flights from Eastern Iowa Airport expected to miss storm

CEDAR RAPIDS - Several hundred travelers booked on flights out of The Eastern Iowa Airport saw their plans derailed Monday - including many headed to California to watch the University of Iowa play in its first Rose Bowl in a quarter century.

To blame was a massive weather system impacting much of the country - from deadly tornadoes in Texas over the weekend, to heavy rain, wind, snow, and ice blanketing much of the Midwest on Monday. Fog, snow, and sleet reached Eastern Iowa before dawn, although Cedar Rapids airport officials on Monday said runways were open and canceled flights were tied to issues at other hubs.

Specifically, weather in Chicago and the Dallas-Fort Worth area prompted several cancellations - creating long lines of eager passengers looking to reschedule flights. Desperate passengers worked creatively with airline employees to find alternatives - agreeing to drive to different airports, jump to different airlines, and postpone their trips by two to three days.

Passengers headed to California seemed to have an especially challenging time finding open seats - with thousands already booked over the next few days into the Los Angeles area, where the Hawkeyes will take on Stanford University in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.

'My husband is especially disappointed,” said Linda Bubon, 58, of Solon, who has gone with Dan Bubon, 59, to every Hawkeye home game for a dozen years and always dreamed of making it to the Rose Bowl. 'This was on my husband's bucket list.”

The couple was booked on the 1:25 p.m. Monday flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, where they were scheduled to connect to Santa Ana. But a cancellation had them trying anything - finally agreeing to drive a rental car to Minneapolis on Wednesday, where they'll catch a flight to Phoenix and then to Santa Ana.

Once there, the couple is planning to meet up with other family and friends and stay in an RV near the Rose Bowl Stadium.

'But this cuts two days off our trip,” she said. 'We were going to relax.”

Another woman headed to the Rose Bowl on the Fort Worth flight called her son - with airline connections - and jumped planes, finding one leaving Monday night to Las Vegas, where she will rent a car to take the rest of the way.

Williams Gill, 66, of Coralville, was supposed to fly to California for the bowl game through Chicago at 11:30 a.m. Monday. But that flight was pushed to 1:30 p.m., leaving him without a connecting flight in Chicago. His attempt to rebook another flight out of Chicago - thanks to long lines in Cedar Rapids - thwarted his ability to make the 1:30 p.m. plane.

'I'm ready to go home,” he said about 1:30 p.m. 'I've been here since 9 a.m.”

Gill said he expects a several-day delay, but still plans to make the actual game.

'My son lives out there, so at least I have a place to stay,” he said.

The Eastern Iowa Airport is expecting more than 3,000 Hawkeye fans to take charter flights to the Rose Bowl, the majority of whom plan to leave Tuesday. Pam Hinman, director of airport marketing and communications, said she doesn't anticipate any snags for those charter planes tomorrow - calling this storm a 'regular snow event.”

But, Hinman said, rebooking around snow storms is always tricky on commercial flights, with so many people trying to squeeze onto already-booked flights.

'We get complaints all the time,” she said. 'People are frustrated, and we understand that. We do our best to be patient and help them with information.”

Not everyone scrambling to fly out of Eastern Iowa on Monday was headed to the bowl game. Some people had the unfortunate timing of a trip to California at the same time of this week's snow event and as thousands of other Iowans are headed west.

'This is the third year in a row this happened to him,” Lee Vasquez, of Coralville, said of his 31-year-old son, Gabriel Vasquez, whose flight to San Diego through Dallas was canceled Monday.

Lee Vasquez was waiting in line to find an alternate route - hoping to get his son home before he has to work at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

'He moved out there three years ago because of this - he couldn't stand Iowa winters,” Vasquez said. 'But they still come back to haunt him.”

Katie Knox, 23, of Bettendorf, wanted to go visit her father in Sacramento two days ago - on Dec. 26. But that flight out of Moline was canceled and rebooked in Cedar Rapids for Monday - through Dallas. With her classes starting again on Jan. 5 and the challenge of getting to the West Coast in the next couple of days, Knox decided to simply cancel the trip.

'It's not worth it,” she said.