I
have written repeatedly and at length about excessive delays and
cancellations, passenger strandings, and airport woes, and these can
happen anywhere. Although there are now federal regulations to prevent
delays in excess of three hours, we are essentially still at the mercy
of the airlines when snow and storms strike. Below are some tips to help
you avoid some of the worst weather-related air travel problems.
1.
I have found that the biggest, meanest problems for travelers
frequently occur at connecting airports. If your first outbound flight
is canceled and you end up returning to your own home from your local
airport, that's one thing; if you are stuck in your vacation hotel
hoping to get a flight home, that's a bit worse. But when you're stuck
in a connecting airport in Texas calling hotels and praying for a place
to stay, you're in what we call yer worst-case scenario, pardner.
For
this reason, you should fly nonstop whenever possible. To find nonstop
flights, do all your initial flight searches with the "Nonstop Flights
Only" button checked. If you also use search options like "Show Nearby
Airports" and "My Dates Are Flexible," you'll have a very good sense of
how best (and how much) to get from Point A to B without Point C for
Connection.
2.
If you absolutely must fly with a connection, watch your layover times
carefully. If a weather delay causes you to miss your connection, you
might be out of luck, as the airline is not necessarily obligated to
find you a seat on the next flight, and often cannot logistically do so
if flights are full or unavailable. If you have a really tight
connection time and your flight is running late, let your flight
attendant know, and he or she may be able to make arrangements to hold
your next flight, or at least get you off your first flight quickly.
3.
Again, if you must fly with a connection, check weather at your
connecting cities as well as at your departure and destination airports.
We all want to know what the weather is like for the departure and
arrival airports (particularly if we're traveling on vacation), but for
the same reasons stated above you'll want to know what is going on at
your connecting airport as well. If the weather looks threatening,
contact your airline to see if it can reroute you; it may be in its best
interest to do so.
Your
chances of getting on a different flight will be greatly enhanced if
you've already done the research yourself to determine which alternate
flights might work best. Don't count on a gate agent to know about or
search the schedules of other airlines.
4.
Try to book your connection through a southern city where weather
shouldn't be an issue. There are no guarantees here, as northern
airports tend to be better equipped to deal with winter conditions, and a
snowstorm can almost wholly shut down an airport that more often
suffers from too much sun. However, your odds are better in places that
rarely see ice or snow.
5.
Choose a morning flight, for two reasons: First, you are far less
likely to have your flight affected by problems at other airports.
Second, if your flight is canceled or badly delayed, your options for
alternate flights are greatly increased, improving your odds for getting
on a different flight by the end of the day.
6.
Consider alternate airports. Very often the problem is not solely
weather, but the overall volume at the airport, as many major airports
are simply not built to handle the amount of volume they are taking on
these days. This can be especially effective when flying out of the
biggest cities that offer multiple airport choices -- Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston -- where second-tier airports tend not to be too far out of town, and are tied into the transportation grid.
7.
Get ahead of the game at security. Before you even get in line, put all
your gear and pocket change in a sleeve of your carry-on bag. With so
much valuable stuff getting dumped into plastic bins all day, every day,
it's inevitable that some of that stuff gets left behind, dropped,
damaged, broken or even stolen. If you take 15 seconds to stow
everything, you'll make the time up twice over on either side of the
security gate, and won't risk losing cell phones, wallets, keys and the
like.
8.
The annual holiday gift wrapping rule: Don't wrap gifts -- security
will have to rip them open. With the TSA searching checked bags as well
as carry-ons, this applies to all of your luggage, not just what you
bring onto the plane with you. Consider shipping your gifts ahead of
time or wrapping them once you get to your destination.
9. Finally, avoid peak travel dates as best you can, particularly holiday weekends.