flight cancelled from Palm Beach to Dallas

view from our Premier Ocean View Room at Four Seasons Palm Beach

We checked out of the Four Seasons Palm Beach at 6:15 this morning and headed to PBI for our flight back to San Francisco. Check-in was quick, security was non-eventful, and we were waiting at the gate ... when the dreaded announcement was made. "American Airlines flight 499 to Dallas has been cancelled due to snow in Dallas. Please make your way to the ticket counter to reschedule your flight."

My first reaction was consternation, but my second thought was to recall the advice of travel journalist Joe Brancatelli. Don't wait in line. Call your airline's 800#, which I did (while walking to the ticket counter). Rather than hold for 3-6 minutes (as my cell phone charge needs to last all day!), I elected to have American phone me back.

While standing behind dozens of passengers in a line that never moved an inch, I answered the return call, reviewed our options, and snagged the two remaining First Class seats that would get us back to SFO today. The phone agent then arranged to get my bags transferred to the new flights, I then printed out our new boarding passes from a kiosk.

The line still had not moved an inch!

So, thank you, Joe, for your great tip! Even though it's a subscription based site, joesentme.com is an invaluable source of travel advice and bargains. I highly recommend it.

By the way, FS Palm Beach is a very nice resort, and we very much enjoyed our stay. Pictured above is the view from our Oceanfront room, well worth the upgrade from an Ocean View. The room is significantly larger (almost a Jr. Suite in size) with a direct view over the pool towards the ocean. Ocean View rooms have an angled view of the ocean, very similar to the layout at FS Maui.

copyright (c) 2013 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.