Air travel tips

Ouch! What a horrifying story (Nov. ’13, pgs. 2 & 66) — four-and-a-half days in transit from India to California! I commend the Burges for their self-restraint and resilience. Had I been in either of their shoes, I would now be awaiting trial in New York City for manslaughter. Maybe multiple counts of manslaughter.

While the Burges’ saga may have been unavoidable, the story does raise some issues worth pondering. Undoubtedly, air travel these days is a crapshoot, even under the best of circumstances. Regardless, measures can be taken to improve your odds. Thinking outside the box helps. 

I have no ties to the travel industry, but I love to travel. During my working years I traveled on business, and I traveled for pleasure whenever I could. Now that, for all practical purposes, I am retired, my partner and I take the “trip of a lifetime” at least once a year, and we do three or four domestic trips a year. In short, we get around, mostly to Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe. I’ve seen the insides of a lot of airports and spent nights in places that weren’t on my itinerary, and I’ve learned a whole lot. I offer the following advice.

1. Really, really, really (could I put in a few more reallys?) think carefully about flying at Christmas. The only worse time is Thanksgiving.

2. Think carefully about having flights booked by the travel company offering your tour. In my experience, tour companies quote relatively inexpensive prices for flights — a very appealing option. It’s not until the tickets arrive, shortly before your trip, that you find yourself booked on multiple airlines, requiring multiple transfers before reaching your destination.

While interairline transfers can work, the likelihood of being separated from your luggage increases exponentially with more flight changes, as does the risk of missing a connection.

Note: I recognize that booking your own flights may be impractical, difficult or impossible if you’re traveling “off the beaten path.” If you have elite status with an airline, booking with “your” airline is especially important (see No. 5).

If you’re concerned about arriving bleary-eyed in a strange country, most tour companies will arrange an airport-hotel transfer (for a price, of course, but it usually isn’t expensive) even if you don’t buy their air arrangements.

3. If weather is the issue, ask if the airline can/will send you to an intermediate destination and then on to your final destination. In the Burges’ case, JFK Airport was not a good place to be. Somewhere else — any place where the likelihood of being able to find a room overnight was higher — would probably have been an improvement. 

Of course, after 30 or 40 or 50 hours without sleep, negotiation skills do tend to deteriorate and the dream of going straight home becomes a fixation.

Note: as I understand it, the airlines are not required to provide accommodations for passengers or compensate them for extra expenses when a delay is a result of bad weather, but it is in their best interest to move passengers on if any reasonable options are available. It can’t hurt to ask.

4. Download the app for the airline onto your cell phone. You will be notified of flight delays and you may be able to rebook quickly, before passengers who haven’t downloaded the app find out that the connecting flight has been canceled, etc. (It doesn’t seem as though this would have been of any benefit to the Burges, but it can be very useful.)

5. Seriously consider gaining “elite flyer” status on an airline and stick with that airline. As Mr. Burge was told, “All passengers are not equal.” The airlines do cater to their elite flyers, offering perks from free, priority bag handling to free upgrades when seats are available, as well as extra consideration when trouble happens. 

Elite status is very complicated, so much so that describing all the ins and outs would take pages and pages. Check out the programs and credit cards for yourself.

I’ll just say that elite-status miles, which are different from plain old frequent-flyer miles, can be earned only by taking flights or by racking up a (very high) minimum amount of charges on a credit card that awards elite-status miles. 

The yearly fee for airline credit cards can be steep, but if you check bags, they go for free. My Delta Platinum AmEx also offers one free domestic ticket for a companion every year.

6. Never check your carry-on bags if you are flying standby. Resist the temptation, because your bags are going to be on a plane whether you are or not. Trust me.

In our most recent experience, a missed flight from Newark-Liberty to Munich due to bad weather, we were told that our checked bags would go with us on our rescheduled flight. In fact, one went to Paris and the other to London. Go figure!

7. The one thing left to mention is the maxim BE NICE. Mr. Burge gave no indication that any harsh words were exchanged, but I have learned that being angry at, snippy with or rude to a gate agent won’t get you anywhere. If anything, being surly will work to your disadvantage. Persistence can help, but you have to be polite.

My kudos to the Burges! I couldn’t have done it, myself.

Ms. KT PORTER

Slidell, LA