Your Questions on Flight Cancellations, Answered

The Money Minute is your one-stop-shop for financial advice. Subscribe to get three articles/week on the best money tips, delivered straight to your inbox. 💸💸💸

Are you planning a trip in the near future? If so— my condolences. I am sure your heart rate is up-up-and-away with all of the recent flight cancellations. You’re probably wondering...

Over the holidays over 4,000 flights were cancelled and even now, some airlines are slashing their typical flight schedules. The primary reason for all of these cancellations is staffing. Airlines are having a difficult time getting flight attendants and pilots and all of the airplane MVPs to cover the typical flight schedule.

If you have a trip coming up, here are the five things you should do to prepare for some flight uncertainty:

1. Ask if you can be on standby for the airline’s next flight out. If your flight gets cancelled, the airline does need to rebook you on another flight. But picture this: one full flight gets cancelled and 50 passengers need to be rebooked. The airline is going to need to scramble to place all passengers on flights. They sure as hell won’t be able to squeeze all 50 passengers on the next flight out. Some folks are going to be bumped to flights leaving the next day— or even two, three days later. Even if there is no sign that your flight will be cancelled, call the airline (or use one of those online chat features) and ask if you can be added to the standby list for the following flight. Not all airlines will allow you to be on standby for one flight while you have a ticket on another flight, but it is worth a shot so that you can increase the likelihood that you’ll be one of the lucky few people that get rebooked on a flight for the same day.

2. Do your research. Not every airline has been affected by the staffing shortage equally. On one day where 1,082 flights were cancelled, United canceled 180 flights, Delta canceled 137 flights, and JetBlue and Spirit canceled 106 and 76 flights respectively. American Airlines has been a pretty safe bet compared to other airlines, but they haven’t been completely immune. Keep an eye out for which airlines cancel-heavy, and try to avoid booking with them.

3. Opt into those text updates. You know when you book a flight and you get that pop-up window asking you if you want text notifications related to your flight? And you might say no because who wants more spam texts from companies? Well— as it turns out, you want more spam texts from companies. Remember: if your flight is cancelled, even though the airline will rebook you automatically on another flight, your fellow passengers are going to make a mad-dash to call the airline and ask to get on the next flight that’s available. So if you can be one of the first people to find out about a cancellation because of a text-update, you can be at the front of the pack when it comes to making that rebooking call.

4. Go to the airport early. I read one expert say that you should wait until the last minute to go to the airport, in case your flight gets cancelled. Their reasoning was: if your flight is going to get cancelled, you want to save yourself a trip to the airport. And while I get that rationale, you have a much better chance of being able to work out a Plan B if you’re already at the airport and can talk to an airline rep in-person. With the volume of cancellations in this scheduling madness, customers are waiting three or four hours on hold just to get a representative. If you’re at the airport, you’re likely to have a shorter wait to get some help in-person.

5. Enroll in the airline’s loyalty program. Before you check in for your flight, you should sign up for the airline’s loyalty program. Airlines do give preferential treatment to folks who are loyalty members. Plus, some airlines have special phone lines that only loyalty members can use— so you might be able to use the airline’s Bat Phone, essentially, and have a shorter wait to get a representative on the line.

Those are my top five recommendations for positioning yourself most advantageously in case of a dreaded flight cancellation. If your flight is cancelled, here are my two recommendations for what to do next:

1. Ask what they can do for you. Some airlines are able to give you special help if they cancel your flight. According to the NYT: American Airlines will arrange an overnight stay for customers whose flight is delayed and does not board before midnight on the scheduled arrival day; JetBlue offers compensation for flights delayed three or more hours, from $50 to $200, depending on the length of the delay; and Delta will put up passengers whose flights are canceled between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. at one of its contracted hotels for the night. Many other airlines have similar contingency plans in place. However, not all airlines will offer these perks automatically—oftentimes you have to ask to get these vouchers, so speak up!

2. Call the international numbers. I love this hack from Scott Keyes, of Scott’s Cheap Flights. He told the New York Times that an airline’s international phone numbers tend to have a shorter wait time than the dedicated US-phone number. He said: “You want to make sure you know what the cellphone rates are, but if you’re calling Canada, it’s around two cents a minute. It’s going to be a 20-minute call versus a three-hour wait if you’re calling a U.S. hotline. I think it’s worth 40 cents.”

xo,

Here are more ways to get it together and get it all:

🎙Click here to subscribe here to my daily financial advice podcast, Money Rehab.

📖 Click here to order my latest book, Miss Independent