You wake up and Mother Nature has wrecked havoc on your travel plans.
WHATS HAPPENING?
Understanding the "rules" are paramount in setting your expectations and success. Weather related cancellations for US domestic flights do not qualify for any compensation such as hotel accommodations and often fare rules restrict travel to the carrier on which you are ticketed. So, if you have a United ticket, expect to only have options available to you on board United or United Express operated flights.
The event may also be hard to understand when you are in sunny San Juan and your flight was cancelled the day before due to a storm in Kansas City. Keep in mind, calm and courtesy prevail. Your air carrier does not want to cancel a flight. In addition to safety and regulations, they have fixed expenses such as aircraft, facility and equipment expenses and labor which are offset only when aircraft are filled and flying. At each carrier, a Network Operations Center, which includes representatives of several departments take on and develop a strategy to account for and recover from such events.
A heads up for challenges. If you bought a ticket through Orbitz, Expedia, Travelocity, Priceline, Cheap Tickets, etc. You may be required to contact their customer service for assistance, so please have a copy of your itinerary, ticket number and flight information handy. Store their contact information or print it. Often, wait times can be substantial.
Another challenge is when your ticket, regardless of who it is purchased through, involves multiple air carriers. Such as departing on Air Canada and returning on Delta. It will be an Air Canada "ticket number" and reduces the likelihood that you will be able to access Delta service such as online check-in, online itinerary changes, etc. Be prepared with reservations phone numbers for the all the carriers on your itinerary. Depending on the fare you purchased you may be required, in this example, to contact Air Canada for changes even though Delta cancelled the flight. Often, not much makes sense; but, knowing this will lead to success.
WHAT DO I DO?
1. Unless your cancellation is an isolated event, expect long wait times on the phone and longer lines at the airport. People often say, I will just get to the airport where they can fix this . . . bad idea as the other 50, 80, 170 people on the flight have now jumped ahead of you for slim pickings of available alternatives.
2. Go to your respective air carrier website, open your reservation information and select "change itinerary" or whatever lingo they use to begin making a change. Automation for the large majority of carriers and itineraries solves the issue immediately. Just because you don't like the itinerary options does not mean you should ignore them. Again, bad idea as the other 50, 80, 170 people on the flight will exhaust all options rapidly. Choose something.
3. Make a game plan, look at alternatives such as Baltimore if you are in Washington D.C. or if you are flying to Madison, look at landing in Milwaukee or Wausau. If your airline has issued a weather waiver, go to their respective website and look at the terms of the waiver. If it permits a full refund or full use toward a future itinerary, consider banking this for the future and go on Kayak to find alternatives regardless of carrier to get you on your way.
4. If you are not able to utilize your carriers or travel service website for changes, grab a pay phone, hotel phone or other landline, have your options written down along with your confirmation along with a beverage and be patient. It will all get fixed.
You may not like the result; but, another key factor during a weather event is that available flights, itineraries and plans are very fluid and can change in seconds. I cannot begin to share how many times I see full flights and with frequent checking, I often find that a seat opens up.
1. People will rebook to the 11AM flight via Chicago only to later change their minds and decide to go the next day.
2. A storm impacting Kansas City today will impact St. Louis later, then Louisville, Cincinnati and the East Coast tomorrow meaning that several other flights may cancel or be delayed and additional connection opportunities may become available.
3. To recover from large weather events, air carriers will often position aircraft or create "extra sections" (new flights), especially in hubs to reduce the number of impacted passengers quickly. You looked an hour ago and did not see flight 9989 . . . that is American, US Airways, etc creating a flight. Often carriers will also "up guage" a flight. Reschedule a 757 to a 767 to provide additional seats.
BE INFORMED (Have confirmation #, phone # handy and alternatives planned)
BE PATIENT (wait times can be long, tempers can flare)
BE FLEXIBLE (those who are most flexible have the greatest success in result and peace of mind)
BE READY (keep your bag packed, phone charged)
HOW CAN I PREPARE FOR NEXT TIME?
1. Be sure that your air carrier has your accurate phone contact information, email address and that you have registered your account and/or itinerary for flight alerts. I cannot emphasize this enough or share the thousands of people I have encountered who showed up for a flight that was cancelled 12, 24, 48 hours ago.
2. Print your confirmation / itinerary numbers and all contact phone information. Follow carriers such as Delta on twitter that offer twitter customer service options for their passengers.
3. Check-in online 24 hours prior to departure; and, check flight status the night before, morning of departure and before heaving to the airport; and/or, see #1.
4. Allow a cushion. If you are flying to a wedding on Sunday, leave Friday. Have a business meeting Wednesday at 1pm, arrive Tuesday night.
5. Leave early! Whenever possible, reserve the first flights of the day. It may be inconvenient having to wake up early, or take an extra day off. When you fly early, there are plenty of options should your flight be impacted including different routing, connections, etc. When you fly early, your flight arrived the night before and any events impacting your schedule should be well known prior to departure.
6. Arrive early! Getting to the airport two hours prior to departure may seem like an inconvenience; but, what is more important, hitting snooze one more time or getting to your meeting, reunion, dinner, wedding, etc. It simply provides you with more options should your flight be impacted. When my 1:30 pm Chicago flight is delayed, the passengers who arrived early enough were accommodated on the 12:20 pm flight through Denver.
6. If you are a frequent traveler, explore benefit options such as elite status which will provide expedited call handling; club membership which will thin the crowds when requiring agent assistance and a less congested location to relax during a delay; credit card programs such as United Club Card that offer club membership a as a benefit.
7. Have your chargers handy for all your gadgets.
8. Plan for alternatives. "Honey, can you pick me up in Burbank instead of LAX?"
In 30+ years I have likely assisted with over a million delayed and cancelled passenger itineraries. Success is taking ownership of the results - be informed, patient, flexible and ready.
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