Works for Me Wednesday - Canceled Flights
written by ertlnet
at Wednesday, January 14, 2009
As I was ready to board a flight last week, it was canceled due to a maintenance issue. The gate agent announced we could get in line to rebook if we had a tight connection at the next airport. EVERY SINGLE PERSON in that waiting area rushed the counter! I ended up being the very last person in line. There were probably at least 30 people ahead of me now. This is gonna take awhile! From my cell phone, I called the reservations number of my airline and found I had already been rebooked on another flight that was leaving in about 30 minutes. (The guy ahead of me in line asked for that phone number!) If I had just waited in line, I would not have been able to catch that next flight!
I arrived at my new gate in time to sit and relax (it was delayed). After awhile I saw someone huffing & puffing and out of breath arrive at the gate. She had been siting near me at my original gate and had finally made it through the rebooking line to find out her new plane was leaving shortly. (Well, it was supposed to, but unbeknownst to her it was slightly delayed.)
Calling the airline reservations number helped relieve the stress of waiting/wondering if I was going to make all my further connections.
The rest of the story - Unfortunately my newly rescheduled flight had a few delays and complications causing me to miss the next connection so I spent 5 hours in the next airport, but that's another story!
Head over to Rocks in My Dryer for more hints and tips!
11:27 AM
It is always good to have the phone numbers for the airlines in your cell when you travel!
And if you are traveling during the holidays when stuff like this happens, it is actually better to get a real ticket instead of an eticket, because you can go to ANY airline to reschedule with a paper ticket!!
1:20 PM
Good to know, thanks for the tip!