It’s a privilege and a luxury to be able to escape Vermont in the winter. But flying in and out of the Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport in February has a Russian roulette quality to it. Because BTV offers so few nonstop flights to balmy destinations, there’s a decent chance of getting stuck in a connecting airport between here and there.
You can try to game it. For example, changing planes in Charlotte, N.C., where it seldom snows, might be a better bet than in Chicago, famous for winter storms. Washington, D.C., where I grew up, is less likely to freeze over than Newark, N.J. But the nation’s capital is terrified of the white stuff. Just the mention of snow precipitates a flurry of cancellations.
That’s why I overcame my fear of flying two weeks ago to hop a nonstop flight to Tampa on a new-to-me discount airline. Breeze flies four days a week to “Cigar City” — and back. It also offers nonstop service from Burlington to the Florida cities of Fort Myers and Orlando. The fares are dirt cheap, a little more than $100 one way, and include a checked bag.
Boarding what looked like a brand-new plane, I noticed there was no curtain or other barrier between the first-class and economy sections. Then: more comfortable seats and headrests, clean windows that I could actually see through, and … legroom! For the first time in recent memory, my back did not seize up from a combination of anxiety, discomfort and slouching to look out a too-low porthole.
Before we left, the pilot emerged from the cockpit to brief us in person on the weather conditions up and down the East Coast. Burlington was expecting a snow dump later that night, and we would cruise over another weather system on the way. As a nervous flier, I care deeply about that stuff.
The same pilot made another “appearance” about an hour into the flight, when he got on the PA to encourage those with a view to behold nighttime New York City. This erstwhile practice — of pointing out geographic landmarks — seems to have been abandoned by most other airlines.
My traveling companion, Lauren-Glenn Davitian, likened the smooth ride south to a “Lincoln Town Car in the sky.”
Breeze goes back and forth to Tampa on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, we needed to get home on a Tuesday, so Lauren-Glenn booked return flights on United through Washington Dulles International Airport. About halfway through the week, I checked the D.C. weather forecast and saw a winter storm warning for that very day — at 2 p.m. We’d arrive at Dulles at 11:17 a.m. and, God willing, be on a flight to Burlington a little after noon.
We boarded in Tampa as planned, and it looked like a win — until the pilot announced a brief delay so maintenance could check out a mysterious light in the cockpit. After almost an hour of sitting on the plane, we knew we would miss our connecting flight in Dulles and the next one, in the middle of Snowmageddon, would likely be canceled.
Chances are we’d be stuck in the airport overnight. Weather or not, this is one of the all-season travel risks of living where we do.
Given the opportunity to deplane, we took it, Ubered to old-town St. Petersburg, and spent another sunny day and starry night there. On Wednesday we caught the hassle-free nonstop flight back to Burlington. The return took even less time — two hours and 30 minutes — because of the tailwind. That’s some “breeze.”