Delayed or Grounded Flight? Here's Your Plan B
A computer malfunction, and a failure of a backup system contributed to a massive shutdown of United Airlines' operations last Friday. For about eight hours, planes were grounded, thousands of passengers were stuck, and the system -- with few exceptions -- provided no realistic alternatives for business travelers.
Of course, these kinds of delays and snafus happen with alarming regularity. So frequent fliers should come prepared.
But the solutions are surprisingly low tech. In a world dominated by Wi-Fi and kiosks, it's easy to become complacent and dependent entirely upon gadgets. so easy in fact, that we're trapped by them.
However, there is a plan B and I practice it in almost all aspects of my travel life.
- Keep at least one operational rotary phone in my office and at home. When the power goes off, the phone WORKS.
- Print up the confirmation and boarding pass at home. A paper trail helps. I've had situations where computer systems at airports/airlines malfunctioned, and it was that paper in my hand that got me on the plane. In the United case last week, some passengers with pre-printed boarding passes got on their flights.
- Carry full-fare, refundable tickets with you. I pick my four most frequently traveled air routes -- LAX to Washington D.C., New York to Los Angeles, New York to Chicago, New York to London -- and I purchase full-fare, refundable tickets and keep them with me at all times. If one of my flights to those cities cancels, I pull out the full-fare ticket, race over to a competing carrier that has interline agreements with my primary carrier, and use THAT ticket. I almost always get a seat. One caution: Fully refundable tickets have a lifespan of one year from date of issue. So keep track of when you purchased them, and then roll over all the unused tickets in the 11th month and issue new ones.
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