The television weather forecasts were showing swirls of white across the northeastern US. It may have been spring, but snow was on its way.
电视天气预报显示一团团的白色漩涡笼罩着美国东北部上空。现在可能已经是春天了，但雪花正在到来的路上。
At John F Kennedy airport, British Airways was warning that our flight to London was delayed because of the high winds.
在纽约肯尼迪国际机场(John F Kennedy airport)，英国航空(British Airways)警告我们，我们去往伦敦的航班因为大风晚点了。
Almost three-and-a-half hours after our scheduled departure, BA announced we were leaving — but the winds had prevented ground staff from opening the hold doors. As a result, our luggage had not been loaded. There was also no food or drink on board.
在原本预定起飞时间近3个半小时后，英国航空宣布我们终于可以启程了——但大风导致地勤人员无法打开飞机货舱门。因此我们的行李没有送上飞机。飞机上也没有任何食品或者饮料。
Everyone was pretty good natured, given that most had had no more sustenance than a hastily grabbed snack and many of those with connecting flights would miss them.
考虑到大多数人只是匆匆拿了一点零食，很多还需要转机的人们将错过航班，大家都相当好脾气。
The winds meant that we landed at Heathrow just short of three hours late — which I thought at the time was clever of BA because three hours is when compensation claims kick in.
因为大风，我们在伦敦希思罗机场(Heathrow Airport)降落时，飞机晚点刚好不到3小时——当时我觉得英国航空很聪明，因为3小时是提出索赔要求的门槛。
Whether you can get compensation for flight delays depends on what side of the Atlantic you are. The US transportation department says airlines are not required to compensate passengers for delayed domestic flights and you may not have much luck claiming on international flights.
你能否因为航班延误获得赔偿，取决于你在大西洋的哪一边。美国交通运输部(US Department of Transportation)表示，航空公司不需要为国内航班延误赔偿乘客，而你可能没有那么好的运气拿到国际航班的索赔。
Bad weather and technical issues can delay flights and there is often not much carriers can do. “Airlines don’t guarantee their schedules, and you should realise this when planning your trip,” the department says. In other words: stuff happens. Get over it.
恶劣天气和技术问题可能会延误航班，航空公司对此往往无能为力。“航空公司不保证它们的时间表，你在计划自己的旅行时应该认识到这一点，”美国交通运输部表示。换句话说：事情总有意外。你得想开点。