What to Do if Your Flight is Canceled or Delayed

Spring is a great time to travel but storms, system outages, delays and cancellations have made air travel very challenging so far this year. If you do arrive at the airport and find your flight is canceled or delayed, handling the disruption can be much less upsetting when you know your rights as a passenger and resources for rebooking. Here are a few tips that can help make air travel during these chaotic times as smooth as possible.

Before your trip

1 Reduce or optimize connections.

The more connections you have, the more chances there are for cancellations or delays. If it makes financial sense, book direct flights whenever possible — those extra dollars you spend may end up saving you a lot of hassle.

2 Book flights earlier in the day with a direct carrier.

If possible, book earlier flights because once a few cancellations happen, it increases the chances of later flights being delayed or canceled. Also, booking with a direct carrier (such as United or American) rather than a regional partner (United Express or American Eagle, for example), tends to get priority for staffing and airport access.

3 When at all possible, avoid checking luggage.

Changing a flight at the last minute will sometimes mean checked baggage gets left behind, trailing your new itinerary. Bringing just a roller bag small enough to use as a carry-on item makes it easier to grab a replacement flight, not to mention providing a change of clothes should you get stuck somewhere.

What to Do if Your Flight is Canceled or Delayed (continue)

4 Use travel tools.

Staying up to date on flight and weather information can help you predict and manage delays and cancellations. Download the airline’s phone app, make sure your contact information is updated with your carrier and turn on notifications on your phone.

5 Consider using a travel agent.

Should things go wrong, you can use your travel agency for support. They have ways to connect with the right people to rebook a flight that’s been canceled.

At the airport

1 Be polite to airline customer service reps.

Being polite, either in person or on the phone, is not only the nice thing to do — given the amount of stress airport and airline employees face — it may inspire them to take that extra step to help rescue your travel plans.

2 Know your rights.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) requires airlines to give a full refund to passengers if a flight gets canceled for any reason. Many airlines will try to offer travel vouchers for future trips, but you do not have to accept credit in lieu of cash (or a refund of frequent flier points plus taxes paid).

3 Ask your airline for help in case of delay, but be prepared for little or no compensation.

The DOT rule is that passengers are “entitled to a refund or compensation if the airline made a significant schedule change.” But what exactly constitutes “significant” has not been defined and varies widely between airlines. Airlines will typically offer meal and hotel vouchers if a flight is delayed or canceled due to staffing or mechanical issues, but they often won’t do so if they claim the delay is due to weather — even if the weather is on the other side of the country.

4 Explore all options if you need to rebook.

Phone wait times for airline customer service can be lengthy. Try a multipronged approach to rebooking: Contact your travel agent if you used one, check your airline’s website and app, and try to talk to in-person representatives at the airport customer service center and to gate agents.

If you have airline lounge privileges, talk to a customer service rep at a lounge, where the line is likely to be shorter.