Photo courtesy: nydailynews.com Frustrated passengers deal with flight cancellation

With Christmas right around the corner, you might find yourself overwhelmed with the details of purchasing of food and goods, preparing for visitors, or preparing to travel. From crowded shopping malls, to stuffed shopping carts, it doesn’t leave much time to focus on what you need in order to travel easier.

Spend a few minutes assessing what could go wrong during your travels. While many times your travel will start and finish without a problem, that one time when things do not go right can lead to a mental breakdown.

Typically, becoming one of the mix in holiday travel crowds can be daunting. Then add in canceled flights, difficult weather, lost reservations, no available transportation- taxis or rental cars, and soon you find yourself reaching for that extra strength headache medicine. What will you do if that headache continues once you arrive and you find that you need medical attention?

Here is a quick guide that will help you to deal with some of the stress of traveling during this holiday season.

Verify your flights, and confirm seat assignments before check in times. 

If your flight is cancelled, your options will vary based on the cause of the cancellation. Remember that ticket agents hold discretionary power to book you on another flight and or to offer Hotel or meal vouchers. Be patient and polite, and no matter how painful it is to smile through your frustrations, this will help to get you what you want or need.

Know your rights. If your flight is cancelled, you are entitled to a full refund if you wish to cancel your trip and begin again on another date- even if you have purchased a non refundable ticket.

The airline is responsible for booking you on the next flight with available and open seats. During holidays, this may not always be a short time frame. Be sure to ask the ticket agent for flights on another carrier.

If you’re in the check in line when your flight is cancelled, call the airlines 1-800 number. Often times the wait in line will be longer than the hold time via telephone. if the wait time is excessive, you can “accidentally” select the prompt for international ticketing option, which are usually faster and staffed with senior representatives.

Releasetechnique.com

At a time when technology moves us at a faster than ever pace, often the technology can fail us. To avoid having your hotel reservation being “lost“,  be sure to call to confirm all reservations made either online, or by phone. Do not take the emailed confirmation as a guarantee that the hotel has in fact reserved your room. When you book a reservation online, the actual transaction often happens by fax ,a technology that isn’t always entirely reliable, especially when the paper runs out.

Check with your medical insurance to determine the location of approved medical facilities in the area. Knowing where to go in the event that you should become ill, or injured, this will save you a lot of time and possibly a lot of money. Often times, the closest hospital will not be an „in network“  or approved provider, and driving just three more miles could be the difference between having your medical expenses paid for by your insurance, or you accumulating the difference in or possibly the entire bill.

Almost every major airport offers shuttle services- in some cases the shuttles take you from a point A- the airport, to a point B- hotel, other airport services (rental car, or additional terminals), offices or parking lot locations. While many travelers think of a shuttle as being used only for hotels, it is important to know that very often there are shuttle services available from airports that will take passengers to further away destinations. Example, passengers flying into Phoenix, Az have two shuttles that transit passengers to locations that are more than 75 miles from the city of Phoenix, including Prescott, Sedona, Flagstaff, etc. The cost depends on the destination, but using a shuttle to travel from Phoenix to Prescott will cost you between $22 and $38 depending on which company you decide to use. this of course is just an example of one fare, many airports have shuttles that have daily schedules for your convenience, with prices starting at about $12.

Confirm your hotel reservations before arrival.

Let your credit card company know in advance that you will be traveling. In the effort to reduce fraudulent charges, credit card companies are continually changing how they audit all accounts. Occasionally credit cards companies and their systems will detect that your card has been used in an unusual location resulting in a freeze on your card. Some systems recognize this from a person who frequently uses their card from multiple locations. However, this is not always the case as the companies adjust their systems and their policies to protect the card holder. Dealing with this already frustrating scenario becomes worse when you call to discover that in order for the hold to be released, the credit card company requests documents from you (billing address with verification, copies of photo identification, etc.) which you most likely will not have access to at least some of from a travel destination.  Avoid this by placing a call to the toll free number on the back of the card and let them know of your travel plans. 

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