These days it’s impossible almost to pick up a newspaper or go to an online travel news without seeing something about potential delays due to issues with TSA.
Yes, security lines can be a problem, and one lousy TSA agent can ruin your whole day. But, as far as actually impacting travel plans and ruining trips, TSA has nothing on the weather.
Here’s a few tips to keep in mind :
1. Just because the sun is shining where you are, don’t assume there aren’t weather issues somewhere in the U.S. Bad weather doesn’t have to be at your destination city — A client last week had a delayed flight from Dallas to Denver, where the weather was fine in both cities, but the original plane was delayed in New York.
2. Call, go online, or call your travel agent before you go to the airport. This is true at any time but even more so during the holiday/winter season. With more and more kiosks and less and less actual humans at the airport, the customer service lines can only get longer.
If you can get rebooked before you get to the airport, it will save a lot of time, and stress.
3. Ask about waivers. Last week, as an example, many carriers issued waivers for passengers to change or delay their travel plans to and from East Coast airports. In my experience, airlines are not normally proactive in offering these changes, or sometimes in offering to waive the charge.
However, if you see really bad weather predicted at your destination, and your plans are flexible, it doesn’t hurt to ask. Often the airline will be happy to let you reschedule because it means one less potential problem they may have to deal with at the airport.
4. Finally, remember, if the weather is impacting your plans, it’s impacting thousands of other people. Many of them, unfortunately, deal with bad weather by taking it out on airline employees and agents. Being calm and understanding is not only good karma, it increases your chances of getting what you want.
An added bonus — If you can resolve problems in advance, it means you are less likely to have to return a different day or change terminals after getting to the airport. You’ll only have to deal with TSA once.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
