Air Travel Tips: How to Deal with Flight Delays
As a traveler, you make sure that you arrive at the airport well ahead of your flight schedule since this is considered to be standard procedure. But when a flight is delayed, travelers often feel frustrated and inconvenienced especially if they will miss connections, cruise or tours because of such delay. Reasons ranging from bad weather to mechanical failures are often cited and sad to say, airlines are not obligated to compensate their passengers when a flight delay occurs.
The only way to get around these flight delays is by knowing how you could avoid or minimize experiencing them. Here are some great air travel tips:
- Refer to the airline’s on-time rate: every airline is required to rate their records of on-time arrival. Based on the current rating system, being “on time” means that the flight arrives or leaves within a maximum of 14 minutes of its schedule. The range is usually between 0 and 9. If an airline shows an on time rating of 8, it means that 80 percent of their arrivals and takeoffs are on time. You can refer to this rating system when booking and buying your tickets. The rates usually appear beside the flight number and you can simply ask the airline representative or your travel agent.
- Confirm flight schedule: considering that many airlines have been canceling flights without prior notice, it will be smart if you check your flight a couple of days in advance. On the day of your scheduled flight, you should call the airline to check if your flight is still on schedule.
- Connections: if you have connecting flights, you should make sure that you allow at least an hour in order to accommodate possible delays.
In case that your flight is suddenly delayed or cancelled and you need to reach your destination due to an emergency or cruise departure, you should tell the airline representative immediately so they can provide you proper assistance. If there are no flights available, they could endorse you to another airline and allow you to enjoy some savings.
