We are seeing more and more of this:

British Airways Cancels Another 10,000 Flights

URGENT- UNITED CANCELLED YOUR RETURN FLIGHT

United Airlines to cut 50 daily flights at Newark starting July 1

Nationwide, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines have the most cancellations so far, with their schedules reduced by 8% and 7%, respectively.

What can you as a traveler do about these changes, cancellations and more?

  1.  Register for the airlines website for text messages and emails.  You might get a flight schedule change even before your travel advisor is notified.
  2. Get to the airport at least 2 hours before your flight time for domestic flights and 3 hours for international flights.
  3. Apply for TSA Pre-Check, Global Entry or CLEAR to get through some of the security lines faster.  There are no guarantees but you can hope!
  4. Don’t check luggage- only take a carry on.
  5. Take the earliest flight of the day.  Weather delays tend to happen later in the day during summer months.
  6. Book nonstop flights if you possibly can.  Connecting flights mean more flights that can be canceled, missed or delayed, as well as lost luggage.
  7. IF you must take a connection, take a longer connection (2+ hours) so that you can make the connection.
  8. Don’t rely on just phone calls when dealing with the airline’s customer service departments.  Send a message to the airline via social media and find a customer service email or chat function. Sometimes Twitter is the fastest way to get to a customer service representative. Make sure to provide as much information as possible, including your confirmation number and the new flight you want, to eliminate back and forth.
  9. Expect long lines- everywhere, even at food courts and getting a ride share or cab on the way home.
  10. Check your flight status frequently.  Don’t wait for the airline to notify you of a change.  If you check daily, you might catch the change before notifications before they get sent out.

One of the biggest things to remember is to be kind.  Be kind to your Travel Advisors, the gate personnel, the flight attendants and even the customer service agents.  They are not the ones who caused the issue.

The team at My Vacation Lady has been working with our clients to solve their flight issues all year.  Realize that we are as frustrated as you are.  We will advise you of which flights to take but we can’t guarantee that the airlines won’t make changes.