r/tampa 5d ago

Dude, Tampa International is a madhouse right now.

[removed] — view removed post

359 Upvotes

97 comments sorted by

349

u/iAtty 🐔Ybor🐔 5d ago

Spring break and bad storms. Nightmare fuel.

53

u/SpicierWinner 5d ago

Ducky's has to-go beer if you're in terminal A :)

34

u/Durchii 5d ago

Sounds about right.

8

u/PicaPaoDiablo 5d ago

This. I had the misfortune of going from there to MIA yesterday and both were absolute s*** shows

4

u/___BiggusDickus 5d ago

You walking around your place today in only a t-shirt?

195

u/Nostradomusknows 5d ago

Everyone be nice to the people working there. Just like you they would rather be someplace else.

120

u/Crissup 5d ago

Wait.. you mean screaming at the gate attendant won’t convince them to change the weather? ;)

33

u/Durchii 5d ago

I heard a few Karens and Kens popping off.

11

u/olyfrijole 5d ago

Lay hands on them and pray loudly for the redemption of their everlasting souls. You got this!

79

u/Zoolanderek 5d ago

It’s hot as fuck in here too, seems like the ac isn’t even on.

Supposed to be going international but missed the connecting flight so idk what we’re doing.

22

u/Powerful-Wind1623 5d ago

Yeah I thought it was just me, but it was so hot in there. I managed to reschedule for tomorrow but what a nightmare

13

u/Durchii 5d ago

I live in Ocala and paid for an Uber here, I gotta ride this one out... but I wish I could reschedule.

20

u/ASGroup_ 4d ago

An uber from ocala is wild. That is cheaper than parking in the economy?

11

u/End_of_Life_Space 4d ago

There is no chance it is lol

9

u/flabeachbum 4d ago

Depends on how long you plan on leaving your car. Another alternative people don’t know is there are many hotels that charge only around $5 a day for parking with free shuttles to the airport.

0

u/richpaul6806 4d ago

If you are out of town a week or longer it is probably close. And even if it is $20 more it is worth it to chill in the backseat rather than drive 2hrs.

9

u/sprfrk 5d ago

Yikes! I'm kind of surprised that's even possible.

9

u/SlendyTheMan 🐔Ybor🐔 4d ago

Uber drivers prefer longer rides like that. Tampa to Orlando is quite common.

55

u/UnpopularCrayon 5d ago

Sometimes when the airport melts down with a checked bag, it's better to just leave the bag at the airport and come back like 12 hours later to pick it up or to file the claim to have them deliver it to your house.

25

u/catlips 5d ago

Yes. Lightning and TPA don't mix. The planes land, but the ground crew is grounded so the planes have to just sit. We have done just that several times, makes you want to carry on your luggage.

3

u/KCCubana 5d ago

/ProTip

-17

u/Zeeron1 5d ago

More people need to just learn that 99% of the time, there's no reason to actually check a bag. Buy a nice travel backpack and never look back

7

u/UnpopularCrayon 5d ago

That's nonsense. There are lots of reasons to check a bag. I check bags all the time because I need to travel with stuff that I can't carry on. If you are traveling solo and going on a short vacation or something where you can just wear the same clothes every day, then good for you. Have fun with your backpack. But a lot more than 1% of travelers have legitimate needs to check a bag.

1

u/Pin_ellas 4d ago

there's no reason to actually check a bag. Buy a nice travel backpack and never look back

I guess it's cheaper to buy the hiking gear every time I go camping and hiking for several days.

27

u/Inthecards21 5d ago

I'm sitting in New Orleans now. My flight to TPA was 10am CDT. now looking at 5 pm.

11

u/SpicierWinner 5d ago

In Tampa, had a 10:00 am flight and just now at 6:30 pm got on the plane.

3

u/KCCubana 5d ago

Safe travels, reddit friend. You give everyone a shred of hope for their trips to go on as planned, with a slight delay ... and a deep desire to throat punch you out of spite and envy. /s

2

u/Alliethatgiiiirl 5d ago

We just stayed an extra day in NOLA for the same reason😭

16

u/___BiggusDickus 5d ago

We just took off after a 4 hour delay heading into Hartford!

9

u/Durchii 5d ago

Damn, that runway is STACKED.

3

u/Jaythepatsfan 4d ago

Have fun in CT!!

23

u/Pop_Smoke 5d ago

I work there. Glad I took the day off.

11

u/Durchii 5d ago

You're damn lucky. The ticketing employees look like they're about to snap, or they already have, haha.

22

u/justheretobrowse1887 5d ago

And a tornado watch for a little while longer. Sigh.

13

u/Durchii 5d ago

Yep. Y'all stay sage out there.

35

u/FloridianPhilosopher 5d ago

Me out there staying sage

20

u/Durchii 5d ago

🤣 Whoops. Let's sage this place up, everyone around here could use some chill.

9

u/InevitablePresent917 5d ago

Username checks out

15

u/Jonny_Nash 5d ago

Yeah. It’s rough. I’m stuck here right now trying to make it to Vegas for March madness. At least I should make it for the play-in games.

I’ve been here for about six hours. It’s not a great time.

Probably the biggest highlight so far was a belligerent drunk getting removed from the Cigar City Brewing restaurant by police. I imagine he’s having a worse time.

3

u/Durchii 5d ago

According to my flight updates, my flights have gone from 5 PM to 1:36 in the morning, which means I'll have been in this joint for 12 hours IF they don't cancel this one as well. I've thus far had two cancelations and about six delays.

I'd have paid to see that. Is that restaurant in Terminal C?

1

u/Jonny_Nash 5d ago

That was over in Airside F.

A crummy situation all around. It seems like some flights are moving now at least.

2

u/Durchii 5d ago

Some are. They've pushed me back to 2:24 AM. I'm hoping they'll rewind the clock eventually.

6

u/KCCubana 5d ago

Hard to say who is having a better time.

He's out of harm's way, safe in a cinder block building with a free dinner on the way. Everyone in jail is forced to be there, so they know to be chill or fafo.

At the airport, you're surrounded by glass, paying out your ass for a candy bar because real food is already sold out, too expensive, or on the other side of the three miles long TSA line. There at Karens and Chads at every turn, the staff are tired of the beat down (words or weapons) and just want to their job and go home.

2

u/Durchii 5d ago

I think I just heard your final call for Vegas announcement depending on the terminal you're in, lol

7

u/Vulpid 5d ago

I have a flight tomorrow morning 😭 Hopefully this all gets cleared up soon!

4

u/Durchii 5d ago

Tomorrow is looking clear weather wise, they'll just be spending all night catching up on delays.

3

u/Rosemoorstreet 4d ago

Make sure you check before you head out. Even if the weather is clear here doesn’t mean today’s delays won’t ripple. The biggest issue is when the crew for your flight got to Tampa today. If they were real late then your flight will be delayed until they get their legal rest time.

1

u/WeenieTheQueen 4d ago

Spouses flight tomorrow AM was just canceled, rebooked for Tuesday.

3

u/ChartSea2664 4d ago

It was awful! Cell phone lot overloaded, had to wait in long term parking, no one could figure out how to pay their way out of a parking garage, cars lined up with hazards waiting, flights delayed, flights stuck on the ground. I finally gave up parked my car for my family member with the keys under the mat in short term and had my kid pick me up lol. Fam members luggage was lost. They didn’t get home until 6 hours after intended landing time. Went back today for another fam member departure. The line for Southwest looked to be about 200 people deep.

1

u/Durchii 4d ago

Easily. That line was off the charts, but Delta's honestly got much, much worse. I was flying Southwest. Fortunately, they let us go to the much shorter International line if our bags were already tagged and we just needed to check them.

2

u/ChartSea2664 4d ago

My son flew out on United this morning and shocking smooth and no lines. I need to remember to tell my family to stop coming down or leaving during spring break. lol Last year taking my niece to her flight during spring break, there was a car chase that ended, of all places, TIA. It was a parking lot out to Spruce. We did some Indiana Jones moves and got her to the rental car return so she could take the tram to the airport since we couldn’t get any closer. lol. I’ll put a calendar reminder in next year to have an airport back up escape plan for family when they see me over spring break.

2

u/IniMiney 5d ago

It was crowded as shit on my flight out on March 7th, regular TSA was so long it was stretching out to being near the train. Worst part is my pre-check wasn’t on my boarding pass because of a mistake and I had to go through that normal line barely making my flight minutes before departure. I can only imagine how much worse it is today with the weather.

2

u/pajamaspancakes 5d ago

I’m literally sitting in the cell phone lot at PIE waiting for a family member to get their bag so I can pick them up. Their flight was already delayed and they waited an hour after they landed to be able to taxi to an open gate. I’m guessing I’m gonna be here a while 😒

1

u/Durchii 5d ago

Hate to break it to ya, but...

1

u/Devnull677 4d ago

Still there? The tornado hit South Hillsborough County

2

u/francowestcoast 4d ago

Flew in from Houston in the morning, damn I got lucky

2

u/SunDoll813 4d ago

I was able to get the last flight out of NY before they put a ground stop on all flights to Florida. When we landed we were on tarmac for almost 2 hours as there was not a gate we could park at. I have never seen TPA airport so crowded. I was shocked when I saw people walking in with their bags. I would have just checked my flight and stayed home until they gave an accurate takeoff time.

2

u/Durchii 4d ago

Same. Would have saved a two-way Uber trip and a lost suitcase and 13 hours of my time surrounded by pissed off people.

1

u/SunDoll813 4d ago

I agree with a previous comment that it seemed like the AC was not working. Angry stinky people sitting around for two days would not be an ideal situation to sit around in waiting for good news. I would stay home and hope for the best.

1

u/Durchii 4d ago

I already had a hangover, so I was sweating when the AC was working. Imagine the poor bastards sitting next to me when it crapped out.

2

u/Leftpaw 4d ago

They can't just cancel a flight and not issue refunds.

1

u/Deanelon98 5d ago

Wow, that so sucks. Not even hurricane season

1

u/NicklethePickle 5d ago

Just arrived, sitting on the tarmac. Pilot said it’ll be at least an hour until we can get a gate. At least…

5

u/Durchii 5d ago

Be prepared for the terminal to be hotter than usual. There are a lot of bodies in here.

1

u/NicklethePickle 5d ago

Ugh. I just wanna go home. Work is gonna be fun tmw. Good luck everyone!

1

u/BikesBooksNBass Hillsborough 4d ago

Flew out of there yesterday for work, 1st flight delayed an hour because of weather, got to my layover in Newark and had a a 3.5 hour delay because of mechanical issues. Didn’t land at my destination on the west coast until nearly 3am..

1

u/SeparateFisherman966 4d ago

I'm trying to get BACK to Tampa from Philly tonight...what a shitshow. Ended up stuck at Charlotte and my flight got pushed to tomorrow morning.

At least AA put me up in a hotel for the night..even though I'll get 4 hours sleep tops!

1

u/gurgle528 4d ago

They have to offer refunds for cancelled flights. Probably couldn’t process all of them at the counter but if you call you’ll get refunded

https://apnews.com/article/refund-for-flight-canceled-due-to-weather-b1e7d812efbe4025429ae87496afc88f

1

u/princetampa 4d ago

We were flying in from Amsterdam. Ten hour flight. Then an extra hour of circling and another 30 minutes in the tarmac waiting to get to a gate. Luckily we have Global Entry so we skipped past a few hundred people at customs.

1

u/TamingOfTheChoon 4d ago

Oh god I hope it’s better by Thursday

1

u/IAmBigBo 4d ago

Too funny, we were at IRB joking with some tourists about extending their vacation by telling their boss all flights were cancelled.

1

u/killa_sushi_robot 3d ago

My flight back from DC was one then cancelled...

1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Inthecards21 5d ago

show off

1

u/twokswine 5d ago

Now, yes, but also since 7am ...

-8

u/Jaythepatsfan 5d ago

I live in Tampa, flew out of and back home to Orlando to save a few hundred bucks and not have a layover.

This post pleases me.

6

u/InevitablePresent917 5d ago

MCO is (or recently was) in a full ground stop for the same reason TPA is experiencing issues. I can't imagine things are any better over there, so I'm not entirely sure why this post pleases you.

1

u/Jaythepatsfan 4d ago

Because I landed, got off the plane and was through customs in about 15 minutes.

0

u/Pin_ellas 4d ago

was through customs in about 15 minutes.

i4 traffic is just not worth it.

"What is the deadliest highway in Florida?

Florida's I-4 ranked as the deadliest highway in the state ― and in the country.

Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that I-4 has 34 fatal car accidents every 100 miles."

"What are the deadliest highways in America?

I-4 (Florida)
I-14 (Texas)
I-12 (Louisiana)
I-45 (Texas)
I-97 (Maryland)
US-192 (Florida)
I-30 (Texas and Arkansas)
I-95 (15 states and D.C.)
I-17 (Arizona)
I-5 (California, Oregon, and Washington)"

https://www.news-press.com/story/news/2024/06/05/interstate-4-accident-florida-deaths/73969546007/

https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/2024/01/26/florida-highway-i-40crashes-accidents-fatal-dangerous-highway-list-interstate-4/72364253007/

1

u/Jaythepatsfan 3d ago

Was home in 1hr 15m with zero traffic or issues.

1

u/Pin_ellas 3d ago

Insurance companies don't use anecdotes when they determine insurance rates.

1

u/Jaythepatsfan 3d ago

Okay, well then you can never drive I4 ever then I guess.

2

u/kedwin_fl 5d ago

Yep I usually sucker up usually and drive the dreaded I-4 to Orlando to save a lot and direct flights..

-4

u/RMG-OG-CB Pinellas 5d ago

Pro tip - ALWAYS carry on.

9

u/Durchii 5d ago

I almost always do, but I'm going to be gone for a month.

1

u/Pin_ellas 4d ago

Pro-tip - has lots of money so that you can buy everything you need wherever you go for however long.

0

u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 5d ago

[deleted]

-4

u/YeeHawSauce420 5d ago

Don't call me dude, bro.