dealing with travel stress | be proactive

view down the aisle of a Continental Express regional jet

Let me preface everything I write by saying that the travel stress I faced yesterday pales in comparison to what the passengers on Saturday's Asiana flight 214 have endured. My heart goes out to them, especially to those travelers who were injured or lost their lives in the crash at SFO.

My trip to upstate New York had been planned for some time. I had planned to fly Delta from SFO on Sunday morning to Albany, NY, connecting in Minneapolis. When Asiana 214 crashed at SFO on Saturday morning, my first reaction was typical of most of us who turned on the TV and watched the horrifying image of the burning jet just across the Bay.

It also occurred to me that this tragedy could affect my own travel plans as SFO was completely shut down for several hours. When it re-opened, the two north-south runways remained closed with some flights diverted to Oakland and San Jose, international arrivals being routed to LAX, and many flights simply cancelled. So I faced a very pragmatic question: what was the incoming Saturday flight that would become my outbound flight on Sunday morning? A phone call to Delta reservations obtained that information. The inbound plane, coming from Atlanta, would not arrive until Sunday morning, although an on-time departure to MSP was still anticipated. Because I had a three hour scheduled layover in MSP, I was not overly worried.

However, Sunday morning brought a new and unwelcome wrinkle as I kept on top of developments via Delta's website. My outbound departure to MSP was now said to be "diverted" to SLC (I suspect because of FAA requirements about the number of hours that a flight crew can operate an aircraft before a mandated rest period.) My revised itinerary now showed a minuscule layover in SLC before a connecting flight to MSP. 

And then one more, and devastating, wrinkle. The departure to SLC now was delayed, making it impossible to make my connection MSP. I learned this fact a mere 15 minutes before I planned to leave for the airport.

Sometimes being a travel agent has its advantages. Booting up Sabre to determine alternative ways to get from SFO to ALB that Sunday, United actually had space on its 10:45 a.m. flight to CLE, with a short but legal connection onto ALB. I booked the flight, then left for the airport.

There was still work to be done, however. (1) Checking in online while in the car to San Francisco (I was not the driver!), I even changed my assigned seat on my iPhone. (2) I phoned Delta to cancel the first half of my itinerary. Important fact to know: if you don't show up for a flight, the airline will cancel your entire itinerary. Delta had wait times of 30-60 minutes, so I took advantage of their helpful service to automatically call me back when an agent was ready for me.

SFO was pure pandemonium. Ticket counters were jammed with endless lines of passengers, but with my iPhone boarding pass, Priority security line status, and TSA Pre-Check clearance, I was literally through security in 30 seconds and spent 30 minutes in an absolutely packed United Club before heading to the gate. The UA flight to Cleveland actually departed on time with no line of planes waiting to take off, and we landed in CLE 20 minutes early. I had an entire hour to catch my Continental Express flight to Albany and arrived in Albany a couple of hours earlier than my originally schedule flight with Delta.

Lessons to be learned. When there is trouble at the airport, anticipate that there will be problems and that you're best off dealing with them yourself: 

(1) Don't wait for the airline to contact you. Delta never contacted me with any of this information, either by phone call, text message, or email. I obtained all of this information only by proactively seeking it from the Delta website.

(2) Don't wait for the airline to suggest alternatives. Their website said that while I'd miss my connections, they would get me to my destination, but they didn't say how or when. That wasn't good enough. I got to my destination the same day only by taking matters into my own hands.

(3) Spend the money. If you have to be someplace at a given time, spend the money and straighten it out later. Last night Delta refunded the outbound half of my trip with them.

(4) Be proactive. Get the facts. Determine the alternatives. Make decisions. And then sit back, relax, and enjoy your flight.

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.

four tips | how to avoid travel stress

A cruise passenger issued a call for help in a recent post on fodors.com. Their 5-night Costa cruise begins this Sunday, departing from and returning to Savona, Italy. Looks like an interesting itinerary, from the map on Costa's website. But 6 days before the cruise starts, they discovered a problem with their itinerary. Their return air flight departs Milan at 1:50 p.m., just a few hours after their cruise is scheduled to arrive back in Savona. Depending on traffic, the drive to the airport could be 2 1/2 - 3 hours ... and of course, you should arrive two hours early to check in and get through security.

They are exploring the idea of departing the cruise a day early in Marseilles and taking the train to Milan, but what a shame to miss out on a full day of a short cruise. I suggested they arrange for a private driver to meet them at the port ... and that they arrange for an early disembarkation. Other posters added that they should leave the ship at 8 a.m. to be on the safe side.

Four tips on how to avoid travel stress in the first place:

1. Never arrive for your cruise the day of departure. Too much can go wrong with late or cancelled flights, and you might miss your cruise's departure. Always plan to arrive a day early.
2. Pay attention to connection times. Only got 60 minutes to change planes in Paris? You're very likely to misconnect.
3. Get someone else to look at your itinerary before you book it. This is one advantage of using a travel consultant. We are very conscious of these kinds of issues because we deal with them on a daily basis.
4. Buy travel insurance. It's surprisingly affordable, will provide medical coverage when you're outside the country, and can protect you in the event of trip interruptions* and cancellations due to medical reasons.

* probably not if they miss their flight because they planned an impossible itinerary

travel consultant (search here on Google)

copyright (c) 2012 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. .