What To Do When Flights Are Delayed or Canceled

Heads up my friends, we’re heading into the worst travel weeks for flight delays, oversold planes and cancellations – ahhhh the joys of holiday and winter travel! This year there’s a new tool to use – TWITTER!  Many of the airports across the US have their own Twitter pages that will give you the most up-to-the-minute information about parking availability, delays, which screening lines are shortest etc.  You should also be checking your airline’s Twitter page for similar fast-changing info.  You can find our new list of airlines on Twitter at our Twitter page WGTravelTips.  The folks at Travelocity are also pitching in to help Thanksgiving travelers.  They’ll have “spotters” at major airports across the country Tweeting updates about airport conditions.

1) Steps You Can Take In Advance of Your Travel
The sad truth is that there are very few legal obligations on the airline’s part to provide for your well-being when a flight is delayed or canceled, so it becomes increasingly important to plan in advance in order to avoid as many disruptions as possible.

• Whenever possible take the first flight of the day.  These flights are most likely to take off on time because the plane arrives the night before and if it is delayed or canceled you will have the most rerouting options.
• If you cannot fly nonstop, consider the connecting city carefully.  In winter choose a city to the south Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas etc, rather than a northern route connecting in Chicago, New York etc.  Allow 45 minutes or more in layover time just in case your first flight is delayed.  Read more

H1N1 Travel Insurance Explained

Will standard travel insurance policies cover you for cancellation if you or a family memeber comes down with H1N1 just prior to traveling?  The answers to this question have been changing recently.  Here’s an excellent article by the LA Times that gives an excellent overview of the up-to-date answers.

New Gluten-Free Allergy Alert Travel Cards

Staying healthy on the road is a particular challenge for folks with food allergies.  Anyone with significant food sensitivities should visit SelectWisely.com and order their terrific allergy alert cards – available in a wide range of languages. They have recently introduced a new card which alerts restaurant waiters to your Gluten-Free food requirements.  The cards are available for travel to either Asia (Chinese, Japanese & Thai), or Europe (Spanish, Franch & Italian).  Select Wisely also offers a wide range of alert cards for various food allergies, medical conditions and emergency cards.  Read our previous post for tips on traveling with food allergies.

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