Quote Originally Posted by CHIP72 View Post
On a more serious note than my humorous comment on page 1, getting stuck in one of those tiny commercial airports with very limited on-site amenities IS a real problem if/when it happens. When my brother attended graduate school at Mississippi State, I had to fly into/out of Golden Triangle Regional Airport, which serves the Columbus/Starkville/West Point, MS area, if I wanted to avoid a 2+ hour car ride to/from a much larger commercial airport (Jackson, Birmingham, or Memphis). GTR was a fine little airport, but it only had vending machines for food and drink (and water fountains for water). If I had gotten stuck there, I would have been in big trouble; not only did the airport not have an on-site restaurant, but there was only one convenience store/gas station within a mile of the airport. One time when there was a flight delay when I was heading home from a visit, the small number of Delta Airlines employees there gave everyone some free snacks. Obviously that would be insufficient if you are stranded for 17 hours.

I wonder if Nicholls State gave thought to altering/tried to alter their plans once they were stranded for 3+ hours to charter a bus to take them to St. Louis International Airport, the closest large airport, so they could fly from there to get home.
Taking the bus to St. Louis would still require a charter flight. Finding 100 last minute seats on a commercial flight on Thanksgiving weekend would not be feasible..

It seems the real problem here is that the charter company didn’t have a spare plane to send in.

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Quote Originally Posted by CHIP72 View Post
On a more serious note than my humorous comment on page 1, getting stuck in one of those tiny commercial airports with very limited on-site amenities IS a real problem if/when it happens. When my brother attended graduate school at Mississippi State, I had to fly into/out of Golden Triangle Regional Airport, which serves the Columbus/Starkville/West Point, MS area, if I wanted to avoid a 2+ hour car ride to/from a much larger commercial airport (Jackson, Birmingham, or Memphis). GTR was a fine little airport, but it only had vending machines for food and drink (and water fountains for water). If I had gotten stuck there, I would have been in big trouble; not only did the airport not have an on-site restaurant, but there was only one convenience store/gas station within a mile of the airport. One time when there was a flight delay when I was heading home from a visit, the small number of Delta Airlines employees there gave everyone some free snacks. Obviously that would be insufficient if you are stranded for 17 hours.

I wonder if Nicholls State gave thought to altering/tried to alter their plans once they were stranded for 3+ hours to charter a bus to take them to St. Louis International Airport, the closest large airport, so they could fly from there to get home.
Taking the bus to St. Louis would still require a charter flight. Finding 100 last minute seats on a commercial flight on Thanksgiving weekend would not be feasible..

It seems the real problem here is that the charter company didn’t have a spare plane to send in.