Bengals hit with Thanksgiving traveling nightmare after flight to Baltimore gets delayed more than five hours

CINCINNATI -- Anyone who has ever headed to the airport around Thanksgiving knows just how frustrating it can be to fly during the busy holiday weekend, and the Cincinnati Bengals found that out the hard way on Wednesday night. The Bengals didn't get to their hotel in Baltimore until after midnight thanks to a flight delay that lasted more than five hours. 

The Bengals' flight was scheduled to take off from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, but the team didn't get in the air until 10:32 p.m. ET, according to Flight Aware. The flight only takes about 90 minutes, but due to the late exit from Cincinnati, the Bengals didn't arrive in Baltimore until after midnight. 

The team was originally supposed to land in Baltimore at 6:19 p.m. ET, but due to the delay, the flight didn't get to Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) until 12:03 a.m. ET on Thursday, which made for an unfortunate start to their Thanksgiving Day. According to Charlie Clifford of WLWT in Cincinnati, who first reported the delay, the Bengals were forced to switch planes, although it's not known what the exact issue was with the first plane. 

In the end, the Bengals didn't end up arriving to their team hotel until after 12:30 a.m. ET. 

It's an unfortunate situation for the Bengals, and that's because most players are locked into a specific routine on the night before a game, and those routines likely don't involve staying up way past midnight. 

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Garrett Podell

This is a huge game for the Bengals, who will be welcoming back Joe Burrow. The team's franchise quarterback is returning to the field after missing nine games due to a turf-toe injury he suffered in Week 2. Although the Bengals are 7-point underdogs, per FanDuel Sportsbook, the return of Burrow will certainly give them some hope in this game: Their star quarterback hasn't lost a regular season start in almost a year. Since Dec. 2, 2024, Burrow has made seven starts, and he's gone 7-0 in those games. 

The fact that Burrow is returning for this game is almost fitting, because he actually had a small complaint about the fact that Cincinnati was being forced to play a Thursday night game in Baltimore this year. The Bengals are one of only three teams in NFL history that have had to play a Thursday road game against a divisional opponent in three straight seasons. The Bengals also played a Sunday night game at Baltimore in 2021, so this will actually be Cincinnati's fourth straight road prime-time game against the Ravens. 

"Playing in Baltimore for the fourth straight year [in prime time] isn't ideal," Burrow said back in May. "Maybe we can get one of those in Cincinnati next year, please." 

One of the key NFL executives in charge of creating the league's schedule, Mike North, admitted in May that Burrow had a legitimate gripe. "It's fair," North said. "When trends like that emerge, we probably have to adjust at some point."

If the Bengals were playing in the early game on Thanksgiving, this would be a nightmare for the league, but they won't be kicking off until 8:20 p.m. ET on NBC, so there will be plenty of time for the team to get some rest before they kick off against the Ravens.