How to Rebook Your Flight

In the summer months when severe weather (thunder storms, hail, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc) is rampant, the likelihood that your flight is delayed and/or canceled, unfortunately increases.  So in our pursuit to keep you "in the know," we went in search of some of the best flight rebooking tips we could find.  Our search landed us on this insightful "how to" article from Frommer's and from it we extrapolated the following section on how to expediently rebook your canceled flight. 

Airlines will always recommend calling their toll-free reservations number, even if wait times can be excruciatingly long and their systems risk shutting down under high call volumes. If this is the case, the best way to go is the airline's website, according to Kate Hanni, executive director of the consumer protection organization FlyersRights.org.  "You can see if you've been automatically rebooked (now a standard practice), reschedule a flight, or cancel your reservation altogether," Hanni says.

If you want face-to-face customer service, the gate or ticket agent is the traditional option. "It's a good idea to become your own information pub, says Rick Seaney, CEO of FareCompare.com.  "Sometimes the airline personnel don't know any more than you do. Get on your smartphones, laptops, or iPads, and look at airport status updates, weather reports, and flight schedules. If you help them help you, then you can get through the line faster."

A good resource for those without Internet at their fingertips is the FlyersRights.org hotline (tel. 877/359-3776). Phone operators offer travel advice in all forms: they'll look up flight availability, interpret contracts of carriage, and locate ground transportation.

Other wait-reducing tips: "Make a beeline for airport club lounges -- they have dedicated ticket agents, usually two of them," suggests travel guru and million-mile flier John DiScala of JohnnyJet.com.  Elite-status fliers can call the priority number on the back of their membership card.

Travel agents -- many with 24-hour concierge lines -- can also ease the hassle of rebooking, though not without a fee. "Agents have all the same flight information as the carriers but no line of frustrated passengers," says Jacque Salentine Busby, president of the Milwaukee-based Luxe Travel Deals. "Plus we can more readily rebook you on another carrier if necessary."

Which airlines have you had the best success in rebooking flights quickly?  What tips can you offer for rebooking that aren't addressed in this post?

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.