Wednesday Night 8pm
I’m on the phone telling my mom to call the airline. She’s telling me that she’s sure she’ll be able to get out tomorrow but her flight will probably be a little delayed.
Me: “Well mom, can you see outside?”
Mom: “No, not really. There’s no visibility.”
Me: “Hmmmm. Mom, you know you might not make it for Christmas.” (One must prepare my mother for these things.)
Mom: “Well, if I can dig my car out of the garage, the roads are open.”
Me: ‘But there’s no visibility?”
Mom: “No. . .but I’ll be okay.” (She has now left Colorado and moved to the state of denial.)
Me: (Giving up at trying to convince my mom to voluntarily reschedule her trip.) “Okay mom, we’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll pick you up from the airport no matter what time you get in.”
If you’ve watched the weather over the last few days, you likely know that my mom didn’t get out of Denver on Thursday. Even if the airport would have been open, (which it was not) she could not even open her garage door or get her car out to drive to the airport.
Denver International Airport is the 5th busiest airport in the United States. The airport was shut down for a total of two and half days during the height of the busy traveling season. So if we do the math. . .hundreds of flights already full. . .thousands of passengers needing seats. . .and there are not thousands of seats. Something has to give–and that something is the passengers.
While my mom is certainly disappointed that she can’t come to visit our family for Christmas she is happy that she was fully refunded her flight and hotel AND got a better deal to come over her birthday which happens to be in a few weeks. Hopefully you don’t get stranded, but if you do take your lemons and make lemonade with these ‘ingredients’:
Your Magic Words
You remember these don’t you? Please and thank you and a nice smile still go a really, really long way. First of all, the ticket agent cannot help that Mother Nature mercilessly unleashed her fury in the course of one day forcing everything to a stand still. Yelling at said ticket agent, regardless of how frustrated you are will not help. In fact, it will make you blend in with all the other hundreds of grumpy passengers she’s seen that day trying to do the exact same thing you are. You want to stand out? A smile, a polite and friendly tone, and a little empathy for her difficult position is more likely to get you your desired results.
Early Birds
My mom actually knew her flight was canceled Wednesday night as she tracked it on the airline’s website. Because she was one of the first people to call, she was able to negotiate the best possible outcome for her. Along with the ‘early bird’ theme is this: your cell phone and/or internet access are your best friends in this situation. Think of it as legally skipping in line. When you re-book or do your business online or over the phone (even while you’re in line at the airport) you often get “into the system” before the poor guy in front of you.
However, it wasn’t just being an early bird that helped my mom negotiate a great deal. . .
Flexibility
It is not always possible to be flexible with your travel plans. But if you can it is well worth the extra trouble. My mom not only got a full refund for her flight and hotel, but extra vouchers, an upgrade, and she’s even staying a day longer in a nicer hotel. How was she able to pull it off?
By being willing to change her travel dates, the airlines were more than happy to offer her ’incentives’ to accommodate other passengers that had been stranded. Airlines do not always offer such nice incentives. However, as one who is a frequent holiday traveler, I can tell you that the busier the season, the more in demand your seat. The more in demand your seat. . .the nicer the incentives.
So my mom’s not coming for Christmas but next week instead. It’s almost as good as Christmas, she got some great deals out of it (including a voucher for her next flight out), and well, we’re drinking our lemonade!
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