The East Coast blizzard that forced airlines to cancel thousands of flights — including 800 more on Tuesday — is far from being forgotten, and its effects are far from over.
"It was so frustrating, just sitting there for hours, waiting for more bad news," said 24-year-old Gigi Godfrey of Belize City, Belize, who was on a Cathay Pacific flight that originated in Hong Kong and was diverted to Toronto before landing in New York's Kennedy Airport — where it sat on the tarmac for more than 10 hours before passengers were allowed to walk off Tuesday morning.
The weary travelers said they were given meager snacks like juice, water, cookies or instant soups, and got conflicting reports about why they could not leave. Explanations ranged from the airport not having enough staff to accommodate landings, Customs not being fully operational and a lack of gate space.
Godfrey was in transit through New York after spending Christmas in Thailand, and didn't know what day she had first boarded a plane. "I am so tired I don't even know what day yesterday is," she said.
Problems begin at landing
For some airline passengers who were finally able to make it into a New York City airport after a blizzard shut the region down, the travel nightmare started once they landed.
Another Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to New York, via Vancouver, British Columbia, sat for eight hours on the runway after landing at JFK on Tuesday.
And 300 passengers on a British Airways flight from London spent more than seven hours overnight at Kennedy.
Slideshow 27 photos
The East Coast digs out
A British Airways jet was left for nearly eight hours on the Kennedy's tarmac after landing on a flight from London Tuesday. The airline blamed gate congestion and a lack of immigration and customs personnel.
British Airways spokesman John Lampl said Flight 183 landed Monday night but waited until about 4:30 a.m. for an open gate. By that time, Lampl said, Customs officials had gone home for the night, and passengers had to remain on the plane until more Customs workers showed up at 6 a.m.
"After 2 hrs in security, only 4 staff with 500+ passengers, luggage is still on the plane! But its good to be back!" passenger Matthew Bishop, the New York bureau chief for The Economist, said on Twitter.
Nowhere to go
Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said airlines were dispatching planes to the airport without coordinating gate space first.
"They did not call or work with the terminal operator at terminal 7, which is where they typically dock," he said in reference to a second stranded Cathay flight. "So without gate space for them, they have nowhere to go."
Cathay Pacific spokesman Gus Whitcomb said the planes had taken off under the assumption that they would have somewhere to go upon landing.
Coleman said the Port Authority worked to find somewhere for the plane to go.
"Our staff out there have been working nonstop for the last several hours to try to find gate space for them even though it has nothing to do with our responsibility as the airport operator; it's the airline's responsibility."
For passenger Abi Subramanian, an investment banker returning home to New York City from a holiday trip in Vancouver, the wait was especially torturous because he was traveling with his 2 1/2-month-old daughter.
"She's been very patient but she's not feeling well," he told The Associated Press about eight hours into the delay and shortly before they were finally able to get off the plane.
"I've been through this before in New York City," he said, referring to big snowstorms. "There's never been anything like this."
'It's like living in the Stone Age again'
Kenneth Choi of Vancouver said he thought the ordeal would be over once they entered the airport. Instead, they faced huge lines in customs and crammed onto an overloaded shuttle buses to get to another terminal and fill out lost luggage forms.
"I don't understand why it takes 9 or 10 hours to figure things out," Choi said. "It's like living in the Stone Age again."
As travelers inside the airports saw more flights opening up, they still had long travel nightmares ahead.
Adriana Siqueira, 38, a housekeeper from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has been told she and her 10-year-old daughter cannot get home from New York's LaGuardia until New Year's Day. They have already spent one night in the terminal and can't afford a hotel.
"I have no idea what I'm going to do," Siqueira said. "I don't feel good."
More than 5,000 flights have been canceled since Sunday night at all three New York-area airports. LaGuardia and Kennedy began receiving inbound flights Tuesday morning.
Rebooked by New Year's
Passengers crammed into airports in other cities on Tuesday hoping for a chance to reach their destinations. More than 1,700 passengers were stranded in Chicago, where several international flights were diverted.
Slideshow 11 photos
Cold Winter
Michael Giesen and Merja Nevalainen-Giesen, a retired couple from Dusseldorf, Germany, were among the mostly European stranded passengers gathered in the lobby of the Hilton hotel at O'Hare International Airport.
"Europe is coming together," Michael Giesen, 67, joked as he looked at the crowd.
Officials warned it could take until New Year's to rebook all passengers and straighten out the transportation mess created by the storm, which shut down all three of New York's major airports for 24 hours and caused a ripple effect across the U.S.
"I don't know if I ever want to go on vacation again, honestly," said 28-year-old Tiffany Bunton, who was heading through security at LaGuardia with her 8-year-old daughter, Trystan, on their way back to Fort Worth, Texas.
NBC News, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.