Missed your flight? Bummer. 7 tips ensure you make your flight.

TRAVEL TIP TUESDAY

Air travel in post-pandemic times is not a picnic, but there are ways to avoid the hassles of missing your flight. 

Here are my best tips to avoid the letdown of a missed flight.

1. My first, and most important, recommendation to all my clients: Fly direct. Stopovers, change of aircraft and worse, change of airline/change of terminal building, increase the risk of a missed flight.

2. My second recommendation has also been proven by experience: Avoid low cost air carriers. Why? Because these carriers are economical for a reason - they have very strict terms and conditions, especially cancellation and refund policy - you would have to sacrifice your first-born male child before you will ever see a refund.

3. Be sure to arrive at the airport with time to spare - time to spare does not need to be useless time - bring a book, bring your knitting, use the airline lounge, or the airport lounge, for that quiet cup of coffee before barding. You will be glad you did if there is a longish line at security. See tip #6.

4. Another good tip is to download your airline’s app to your smart phone. That’s where you find your flight’s alerts and last minute changes and other valuable information relating to your flight.

5. In these post-pandemic times, ensure all requisite documents are in order - especially proof of vaccination; and if the airline, or the destination country requires a negative antigen test, be sure you have proof of this. Airlines can, and will deny boarding to passengers without proper documentation.

So these tips so far are important for the planning phase of your travel. Now you are in travel mode and you’ve missed your flight.

6. Did you sleep in? Too bad. Was the security check-in too time consuming? Too bad. The airline considers you a no-show (this is not a good thing) and you should get on bended knees and pray for a sympathetic agent to take your call. Call your airline right away as it has the option to cancel your return flight and that will leave you with precious little options. If the wait time in the phone queue is long, go the the airline app you downloaded in the planning phase and alert the airline.

7. Missed your flight because of an operational issue? This is a much better scenario for you. There will be inconveniences, and stress, for sure, but a least you have a leg to stand on. And depending on the type of ticket you bought, you may have two legs to stand on.

For travel advice you can trust, please reach out to me:

Marilyn Mirabelli * 416.962.7447 * mmirabelli@expediacruises.com