Guest Blog: Get Rebooked Quickly & Stress Free When On A Delayed Or Cancelled Flight

We have asked a few select guest bloggers to join us on this blog as part of a six week mini series on hot button aviation topics that effect you, the traveler. These guest bloggers will no doubt enrich your travel experience by bringing in their own various perspectives and experiences from different horizons. Today we would like to introduce Steven Frischling as the first guest blogger*.

Steven, aka: Fish, and founder of The Travel Strategist, is a globe trotting photographer and recognized airline travel expert who has a knack for making sense of detailed, complex travel scenarios and understanding the intricate nature of the commercial airline industry. In the interest of sharing his in-depth knowledge of travel logistics and the intricate workings of business travel, Frischling founded the popular travel blog Flying With Fish in 2006. Flying With Fish offers regular travel tips for "Those Who Fly & Those Who Want To Fly Smarter." You can follow Steven's daily aviation and travel-related tweets on Twitter.

Today Fish will be sharing his tips on efficient and stress-free rebooking for those travelers affected by delayed/cancelled flights.

Winter is the time of year when travelers fear the weather and unfortunately are most likely to deal with unexpected delays, cancelled flights, rerouted flights and 'unforeseen' weather affecting their travel plans.

Whenever a flight is significantly delayed or cancelled there is usually a chaotic rush to be the first people in line at the gate-area counter. A planeload of passengers vying for limited amount of rebooked seats is often a slow and irritating process. This process is not only frustrating for the passengers, but the airline personnel as well. Delayed passengers tend to be angry and take their frustration out on the airline gate agents and this further slows down the process.

Should you be on a significantly delayed flight or a cancelled flight you have options to reduce your stress. Everyone wants to catch the next flight and you can increase your likelihood of a favourable rebooking while also saving yourself the irritation of standing in line only to be told "There are no more connections tonight to Portland via Detroit." So what can you do? You can always make sure you have the following information with you:

1) Always have the phone number to the airline you are flying with handy. If the airline has multiple phone numbers, find them and fly with them. The less time you spend fumbling for this basic information, the more likely you are to get yourself traveling again.

2) Know your alternate travel options for both your airline and their airline alliance partners, or code-share partners on the route you need to fly. You can get this information easily on the airline's web site, the website of their airline alliance or other online airline reservations sites. Knowing your options will save both you and the airline you are working with a lot of time and legwork.

3) Always have the itinerary of your current travel information. This information needs to include not only your intended flights, but also your PNR/Record Locator. This information is found on every airline reservation, and is emailed to you even when you book through sites such as Travelocity & Expedia.

With this information you can skip the long angry line of passengers and find a quiet place to sit down, call the airline, endure the irritating hold music and wait for an agent to rebook you on the phone. Very often agents on the phone have more options to help displaced travelers and if you are calm, polite and patient they are also often able to compensate you with a few extra frequent flyer miles if you are a member of their frequent flyer program.

Once the agent on the phone rebooks you, walk to the next gate and get ready to fly.

Happy Flying!

-Fish
http://www.flyingwithfish.com/

*The opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Harrisburg International Airport.

Delayed at MDT? Suggestions for Passing the Time...

Are you currently delayed at Harrisburg International Airport waiting for some hopeful news about your flight? While you wait, why not pass the time with these practical or silly suggestions?

Practical Pastimes:

• Plane or Snow Equipment Spotting: On the third floor of the terminal is an observation deck with a great view of the runway. Try to spot our various pieces of snow removal equipment as the crews busily work to keep the runway, taxiway and apron clear of snow. If you're lucky you might just spot an occasional plane today too!
• Enjoy a Hot Beverage: In the food court pre-security is a McCafe and a Hudson News Euro Cafe, both offer a great selection of hot drinks. On the B-concourse (post-security, boarding pass holders only) is a Starbucks, also featuring a wide variety of hot drinks to choose from!
• Surf the Web: Enjoy our free WiFi through out the terminal. A great way to keep up-to-date on the status of your flight and the weather forecast. Who knew we'd be getting this much snow?!
• Relax with a Massage: Massage chairs are located on the secured side of the airport, enjoy a 1, 5 or 30-minute massage. Almost as good as the real thing.
• Take some Time to Eat: We have a great selection of concessionaires to choose from: McDonald's, Varsity Grill and Hudson News Euro Cafe (all located pre-security), along with Capital Cafe and Starbucks(B-concourse (post-security, boarding pass holders only)).

Silly Pastimes:
Our suggestions for how to keep the kiddies entertained! Or the young-at-heart too!

• 1 Tile, 2 Tiles, Red Tiles, Blue Tiles: Why not try to count how many tiles are in the Star Mosaic located on the 2nd floor of the terminal, pre-security. If that idea doesn't strike your fancy, perhaps try to guess what each of the scenes represented in the Mosaic actually are. (Hint, hint: each scene represents a part of the region that MDT serves!)
  If you really want to know, email us at Info@SARAA.org and we'll send you the answers!
  
• Rockaway Baby: If there are several people in your party, see who can rock the rocking chair the longest before they lose count of how many times they've actually rocked!
  
• O, Tannenbaum: Did you take notice of the 14' Holiday tree located pre-security? It has a lot of red, blue and gold balls on it. Bet you can't count how many are on it!
• Harrisburg Where Art Thou?: The words "Harrisburg International Airport" appear multiple times through out the terminal. How many occurrences can you find?

We admit, these are some corny ideas, but it sure will help pass the time! Have we missed any pastimes that you think should be added to the list?