Stranded by snow

My sixteen year old was due to fly back to Europe late on Friday night, January 2nd. The whole family went to see him off at the airport. Check in went smoothly and everything seemed set to go, despite a light shower of snow. We said our goodbyes at security and off he went on an adventure of a lifetime.

We were back in Saitama Prefecture, which is about an hour an a half journey from the airport, almost three hours when I saw I had a text from my son. Thankfully I had stayed up late. It was about 1.30 am. He had been sitting on the plane for the last two and a half hours, but they had just announced that they would not be flying that night and they all had to get off the plane and collect their luggage. Essentially the snow had delayed the take off, but ultimately it was the flight curfew that grounded the flight. 

Long story short, he was in the airport almost three hours after getting off the plane, before we finally knew what the next steps were. Business class people were whisked off to an hotel on a free shuttle bus promptly, but economy class passengers were without information for hours. Finally, they were told that they would have to organize a hotel and transport to the hotel themselves and that the airline would reimburse them later. 

The roads were icy and both my husband and I were very sleepy so we had made a decision at 1.30 am that we wouldn't drive back to the airport. At that time, it also looked like the airline was going to organize accommodation and a shuttle bus for everyone, not just business class. If I'd known then the way it would work out I'd have gone to the airport straight away. Instead, it was an awful nightmare organizing accommodation and transport in the middle of the night from Saitama. 

In the end he got to an hotel at 5 am and had to check out at 11 am. My husband drove down that morning to pick him up at check out time and bring him back to the airport and wait with him for the next flight. It was all a huge mess and I wasn't very impressed by the airline. I know its not their fault the snow messed things up, but I think they could have handled the situation better. 

The photo in this post shows the snow on a staircase at the parking lot of the airport on the night, January 2nd 2026.