064 - What to do when you miss a flight
In this episode of the Indie Travel Podcast, Craig and Linda Martin discuss what to do when you miss a flight. We speak from experience, though we’d prefer not to have to.
1. Stay calm.
2. Find an airline representative and get as much information as you can. Will the airline book you on the next available flight? How much does that cost?
3. Know your rights. Check the small print on your ticket or on the airline’s website if you think something isn’t quite right.
4. Think about your insurance policy if you have one - what does it cover? We often use World Nomad Travel Insurance.
5. Try to get as much information as you can to make an informed decision about what to do next.
Send in your stories and advice about missing flights, or leave a comment on the site so we can share your experiences.
Useful links
We weren’t joking when we said air passenger rights were thin on the ground. If you can find information on Africa, Asia, South America, Canada, the Pacific or non-EU parts of Europe, please let us know and we’ll include it here.
Don’t forget to vote on the Blogger’s Choice awards, as well as doing the listener survey for us.
Some good sites we’ve found recently are thesydneyvisitor.com - podcast and advice by Garry Searle, and an article by Christine of “Almost fearless” titled 10 Unexpected Costs of Owning Things, about selling up before you leave on a trip and how liberating that feeling is.
Affiliate of the week
Lastminute.com is running their “Unleash Summer” promotion until August 18, which gives a ton of great bargain package deals on European and North African holidays. If a package deal is cheaper, and sometimes it is, we fit them into our itinerary. Most of the deals have flights leaving from London, which is a great hub to explore Europe from.
Poll of the month:
Photo thanks to izarbeltza.
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30% off Lonely Planet Guidebooks2 Responses to “064 - What to do when you miss a flight”
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July 1st, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Your “stay calm” advice (or “Don’t Panic” if you’re a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fan) is probably the most important. The ticket agent (or customer service agent on the phone) typically has a lot of latitude and your attitude is one of the chief determinants with regards to how hard they want to work to help you out.
Another suggestion is to call the airline _before_ you miss your flight and attempt to re-book. Many low-cost tickets are worthless if you don’t cancel prior to flight departure. If you know you’re going to miss your flight (e.g., sitting in a massive traffic back-up or in a strike-bound train), use your mobile to ring up the airlines. This gives the airline a chance to re-sell your seat, which can make them much more accommodating with regards to re-booking. This may not work with European budget airlines. My experiences with EasyJet hasn’t found them to be the most flexible or customer service-oriented airline. Unlike Southwest in the US, I’ve found that EasyJet treats their passengers more like transactions to be squeezed for maximum revenue than customers with whom a relationship should be built.
It also goes without saying that airline frequent flier status is very important here. A United Airlines Global Services or 1K flier will get a lot more service than a one-time passenger. Status fliers have their customer service numbers to call where they can reach highly trained non-outsourced non-offshore agents who know how to work the system and are empowered to do so. Again, this doesn’t apply when flying EasyJet and their ilk, but a key reason to concentrate your flying on a few airlines.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Thanks Mark; you’re a much more experienced flier than us and your knowledge of the US system really helps.
Chris Christensen also emailed us with your suggestion to call the airline in advance. It’s our experience that budget airlines don’t make it easy for you to do that. In fact, it can become ridiculous at times: changing your ticket can cost more than the original price.
Easyjet are probably the friendliest of the budget airlines, but there’s still a big step between them and a club lounge.