It seems like everywhere I turn these days, there’s another travel publication touting travel tips for victims of canceled flights. Many tips make me yawn (hello, I know how to call the airline on my cell phone). But I did come across a travel tip this week that a) I hadn’t seen repeated ev-uh-ry-where else and b) struck me as a great piece of advice. The source? My dear dad, a frequent business traveler and ever bountiful source of strategic musings. Here’s the story:

Earlier this week, he flew to New York for a meeting. While there, he received an email from the airline telling him that his scheduled flight had been canceled.

Instead of looking for seats on later flights, he did just the opposite and asked the airline for an available seat on an alternate flight much earlier in the day. Luckily, his schedule permitted an earlier departure, and he was able to rebook without a hassle.

Considering that many travelers only discover canceled flights right before they head to the airport or once they’re already there, it stands to reason that there will be much more competition for available seats on flights departing after the original, canceled flight in question. Travelers who discover canceled flights hours ahead of time have the chance to rebook before the masses descend and the mayhem begins.

After hearing my dad’s success story, here’s my advice: Sign up for email and/or mobile phone flight status alerts and check the status of your flight online the day before you depart, as well as early on the day of departure. Yes, it sounds a little anal. But it’s worth the hassle if it saves you hours at the airport jockeying with hundreds of other stranded passengers for a handful of seats on later flights.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Air Travel, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.