I’m writing this post from the airport in Panama, the entire place is in bedlam since a storm front came in and either cancelled or severely delayed dozens of flights. There is considerable stress in such situations, and this post is a way to help manage solving the problems that can arise.
I do not use Travel Insurance ever, in my opinion every trip that I take (and I think I am up to about 70 plus Countries at this point) that hasn’t needed Insurance is money in the bank. In addition to purchased travel insurance there are two other forms of insurance that can kick in when things go horribly wrong, one is from your side, which can appear with varying degrees of protection based upon the type of Credit Card you pay for the trip with, and another is on the Carriers side, in that they have things in place to resolve issues and compensate you for delays and the like. Credit card insurance is a tricky subject, that I plan to dig into soon, but let’s leave that for now, because if you are like me, then right now I need solutions, not remuneration.
Have Your Numbers Handy
Ideally you should have all flights and hotel reservations in two forms, on electronic, and a paper backup somewhere just in case you are out of power, these are the numbers you need:
High Priority
- Flight Locator Numbers – a 6 Letter Code from the Airline, be cautious if you are flying on Partner as your booking will often have two locator numbers; eg one for United and one for Copa Airlines. And due to the silly systems they use these pair cannot read one another’s number.
- Hotel Reservation Number and Email Confirmation of Payment
- Frequent Flyer Numbers/Hotel Loyalty Numbers and Passwords that you will be using on this trip. Additionally, contact information for Hotel and, especially if you have any Airline Status the direct lines to your Service Desk.
Medium Priority
Back up- My Insurance Policy is to have a balance of other points and miles – if something goes wrong with my booked hotel, or if I get stuck without options I can lock in a backup property that same night using points. Its highly unlikely that this would be needed as typically the airline would arrange your room if you need to overnight at the airport, or if a booked hotel won’t let you check in then they typically will send you to a sister property.
Though it is highly unlikely, I personally enjoy the ability to book a last minute room myself, and sometimes finding one for Cash can be prohibitively expensive.
Get Rerouted
It is a rare thing indeed to be totally stranded at an airport (though it did happen to us on our Honeymoon when we missed our flight and nothing else was going out that night)the chances are that you will be re-rerouted to your destination, though it may mean taking a different connecting flight to arrive. If you see an entire flight getting rerouted one at a time you will see it is a crazy thing, and often operates on a first come first serve basis. With that in mind this really is the time to lean on any Status you have, and whilst you wait in line for help be on the phone to get the desk to fix it.
Top Tier Elites like American Airlines Executive Platinum members will likely get an experienced and helpful rep on the phone and their flights re-booked before anyone else has had a chance to think of getting home. If you don’t have the status, you can still call in (to the general line), but your efficiency ratio will be much lower.
Remember, be nice. You are not ever going to find an Airline Representative that gives you preferential treatment for being a complete A-Hole, the situation is what is called in the military a SNAFU, and everybody wants you home as quickly as possible.
Essential Travel Apps that can help you
Either on your smartphone, tablet or laptop get the following apps:
Skype – Link a Credit Card to it so you have a cash balance available. This allows you to call from overseas airports without cellphone roaming fees. It does cost some money to dial from Skype when overseas, but we are talking about a fraction of the cost of a regular call, literally pennies. Additionally, most of the numbers you should have are free to call from Skype, but not from your Cell.
Skype does require Wifi to operate, but most airports do offer free Wifi, even if they do not paying for a short package is a good option if you have Skype since in doing so you don’t only get the internet, but a working telephone too.
AwardWallet – I love this app for tracking points and miles, there is a fee to keep the account open, but it is a nominal amount. The good thing here is that it stores your trip plans and more importantly your Frequent Flyer numbers and Phone Contact numbers.
Dropbox – Cloud Storage App, great for accessing data on the go, just make sure that you sync it up before you leave your home country, that way you can access information without needing wifi. This is handy for storing documents that you might wish to reference along the way, but don’t forget, keep a paper copy in your carry on luggage too.
Don’t Stress
There really isn’t a lot that you can do about the situation, and it will all work itself out, and worrying about it won’t help. Your priorities are ensuring you have a place to sleep if you are overnighting, a way to contact the hotel you were supposed to get to, or any work or family members, and getting re-booked.
From a compensation perspective, the only one you really need to worry about real-time is the food voucher, if your flight has a significant delay this is the first thing that will be offered to you, and it is annoying to have just spent your own money on food to learn that you get a credit (typically $10-$15 per person). So it is good to check in with the desk to see if they have issued this. Later on you can dig into other forms of compensation.
PS – my delay turned out OK, from expected boarding at 6pm to ‘come back at 8pm for an update on if we have a plane’ we departed at 9:30pm.
Matt, I just wrote a post about trip insurance, that I will publish on Thursday. I wasn’t sure what to name it. But now it will be “I am challenging Saverocity”. Thanks, man!
Oh no! What have I done… Please be gentle when you rip it apart!
I will keep the controversy to the minimum, I promise! Glad everything worked out with your flights in the end. BTW, I’m just here for the back link. 🙂 Two in this case.
Nice post although it did bring back some bad memories of our final hours in Istanbul, when Turkish Airlines was totally flummoxed by a mechanical delay and all the rebooking it necessitated.
One bit of advice I’d add: just as you make sure before you leave that a partner airline has a ticket number for an award flight – a bunch of folks have blogged about that – make sure that the airline rebooking you on another airline’s flight has actually paid for the ticket and not just made a reservation. Look over everything you are given when you get rebooked very carefully.
TK gave us paperwork for my husband’s final flight on United that had no seat assignment, telling us to just get it from United. Weary, frustrated and finally relieved to have been rebooked, we never asked about whether a ticket number had been issued. Unbeknowst to us, TK had booked two reservations for my husband in slightly different names. But they paid for and thus got a ticket number for only one. Unfortunately, they printed and gave us the paperwork for the other one! Luckily a savvy United agent managed to figure it out, but for a while it looked like we’d be sent back to TK, missing our flight in the process.
So as tempting as it is to grab the paperwork and run to the gate, make sure you really have a valid ticket in hand! And if at all possible, leave yourself a cushion. Much of our stress was because my husband had a commitment he “had” to be back for. In retrospect, we should have allowed ourselves an extra half day just in case, something we could have done on a month long trip. We will do that next time.