What to do if your flight is cancelled - Weather, mechanical, etc

[crashbb]

If you have a printed boarding pass and then the flight is cancelled...you then call the airline to rebook a new flight (understood) but then do you need to get a new boarding pass? Would you do that at an airline kiosk or at a desk?

Thanks in advance-

Yes you would. The boarding pass is for a specific seat (usually) on a specific flight (always). If you change either/both of these things, you'd need a new boarding pass.

You should be able to do it at either the airline kiosk or desk. I've actually done it at the gate before (assuming the it is still before the original flight time, it is unlikely that security would know that the flight was canceled - they just check that the boarding pass is in your name and for that time period).

 

[rosiep]

Thank you....another great mystery solved!

 

[dudspizza]

bumping the only thread I have ever bookmarked........ good info here.

 

[bumbershoot]

I am not trying to be argumentative, but what DO you do if you are travelling (especially with a kid) and are not carrying much cash and no credit card and semething happens to delay you for a day or two?

I never saw your question!

It just never happened. If it had, we would have just had to sleep in the airport. But it never once came up. Only now that we do have a CC (for DH's business trips...he's paid per diem ahead of time in cash, then he uses the CC and we pay the CC using the per diem sitting in the account) do we worry about such things!



I'm not sure if it's in this thread, but DH is on a trip to a place just about as rainy as Tacoma. Since we have the soft-sided luggage only, I urged him to put his "important" clothes into big plastic bags inside his luggage. He was mystified until I reminded him that if it's raining outside, it's going to be raining on luggage unless the carts are enclosed as things go from plane to airport. He thought I was brilliant! And he had big bags hanging around, so it was easy. I figure it was this thread that made me think of it, so thanks!

 

[debster812]

*bumping up* for the 2010-2011 Winter Travel Season

 

[hsmamato2]

Thank you!!!

 

[Minnesota!]

awesome thread! We had bad bad bad experiences with weather delays last February. resulted in me and my youngest son at Caribbean Beach and my older son and DH still stuck in Atlanta.

It was an awful day!

however...its why my flight in 32 days is free - Airtran comped us 4 roundtrip tickets because of the way they handled everything!!

 

[dudspizza]

just bumping to get bavaria back on the top of the boards!

 

[M2DD's]

posted twice

 

[debster812]

A timely bump given the weather we're having on the East Coast right now.

Good Luck to anyone trying to travel this week. Make sure to pack plenty of patience, I suspect, especially here in the NorthEast, it's going to be slow going for a while.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Another bump... Delta, AirTran and others are cancelling flights on Sunday 1/9 which will probably spill over to 1/10. May impact a lot of marathon travel plans!

 

[PatMcDuck]

I am flying Tuesday from Philadelphia to Raleigh-Durham NC. I am pretty darn worried. Our little trip to visit colleges looks like a bad idea right now..... I jumped on $30 air from SW.

The STUPID thing I did was book the rental car and hotels via Priceline! To do this in January, was taking a risk, but I did not even worry about the weather. I am such an idiot! Now it looks like the next storm will hit Tuesday night into Weds, I think, so we may get out. But icing is expected in NC and we have to drive quite a bit......

Live and learn.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Pat, they probably don't - but see if Priceline has any kind of weather cancellation policy; also, if you're a gambler see if you can sell your hotel reservation, at least, on craigslist. I wouldn't trust the car rental, but I think Priceline's rules do allow transfers.

 

[happymommy]

This is timely advice! We were in a movie on Dec 26th at Downtown Disney, due to fly home, when I (had my phone on vibrate and on my lap) got a message from Southwest that our flight was cancelled. I stepped out, and got on the phone with Marriott and got connecting rooms at the Rennaissance at the airport (our car was packed with our luggage, since we'd already checked out of the Boardwalk Villas). I had no luck with Southwest, so thought I'd just wait till later to call, and the website wasn't helping me (I think they were swamped and the wait time on the phone was 2 hours).

Turned out, I booked my husband the next day on Airtran in business class. The kids and I couldn't get home for until the 29th, so I just kept the rental car and we enjoyed the hotel (it was very nice!) and we even spent a day back at the MK and Epcot (only $5 extra to add a day to our tickets).

Luckily the kids were still on Christmas break, and we could afford to spend the extra on the hotel and meals (but if we'd had travel insurance it would have helped with that, so I'd definitely buy travel insurance next time).

I heard there were tons of lines at the airport and people sleeping there even. I do know the Hyatt was booked up, since I tried them (thinking it would just be one night). Glad though - my husband is Marriott Platinum so we got club rooms with breakfast and snacks included.

If your flight is cancelled, the last thing to do is to go to the airport! Book a room and then call or go online.

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Great post and very timely for us. So far it looks like snow on Weds., the day we're supposed to fly out to MCO. Glad to have these tips, although I hope I won't have to use them!

 

[MDM]

LittleStinkerbelle, We too are supposed to fly out on Wednesday from Westchester. Don't think we'll make it out. Maybe on Thursday! Hopefully.

MDM

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

LittleStinkerbelle, We too are supposed to fly out on Wednesday from Westchester. Don't think we'll make it out. Maybe on Thursday! Hopefully.

MDM

Sorry to hear that! We are flying Delta out of LGA and they have already issued a travel waiver announcement for tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm trying to figure out if we could get a late afternoon flight tomorrow and make it out ahead of the storm. I'm still trying to get a handle on exactly when it's supposed to start and how much accumulation there will be. Good luck to all of us!

 

[kaytieeldr]

Your airline will work with you, but the sooner you call the more options you have. Also, be prepared for long waits on the phone (so if their website allows you to make the changes, do it that way instead) and be sure you have a hotel room for the extra night/s before you make any changes!

 

[LittleStinkerbelle]

Just tried to rebook online. It is waiving the change fee but trying to charge us $900 for the difference in fare. Is that how it's supposed to work? We're not changing our cities, just moving up by a day.

Tried calling Delta and it says they are unable to take calls at this time due to extreme weather .

 

[Brian Noble]

If you have a weather waiver, but your original flight is not yet cancelled, you generally do pay the difference in fare, but change fees are waived. That usually means you are paying full-fare prices. If your flight is cancelled you do not pay the fare difference.