As some of us from the Northeast learned last year, sometimes leaving a buffer is not enough. Last year, I was booked to come in on Thursday morning for the Half. When the storm was approaching and our flights were getting canceled, it became impossible to find another flight as the flights on Wednesday night sold out quickly and the next available flight I could get post storm was on Sunday. Luckily for me, I thought fast, left work early on Wednesday, rented a one way car from CT and started driving as far as we could before the storm hit. We made it to DC, stayed over night and we were lucky to get a flight from Reagan Thursday afternoon. When we got up, if flights from DC were getting canceled, we would have gotten in the car and drove the rest of the way. I know others, like
@JClimacus, who was coming down for just the Full, and gave himself plenty of buffer time, didn't make it all because he could not get a flight after his was canceled.
So my tip would be to leave a buffer AND if possible, to book multiple flights on multiple days. Assuming you are flying on Southwest, you can cancel the flights you do not use and get a credit back for another flight.
