How to Cope with Holiday Flight Cancellations, Overbooked Planes, and Other Airline Adversity

< p>[#image: /photos/53e30725c2d3f39d3611027f]||||||< br>Photo: < ahref="" rel="cc:attributionURL">yahya/ / < ahref="" rel="license">CC BY-NC-ND 2.0< p>The snowstorm this past weekend that canceled thousands of flights and stranded thousands of airline passengers--just before the peak Christmas travel period--serves as a reminder that U.S. travelers have few < ahref="">rights when their flights are delayed or canceled. An airline's only obligation is to get you to your destination eventually; it doesn't owe you compensation for damages. Which is no comfort to travelers like Susan Karpa, who wrote in with this sad story:< p>< blockquote>"My husband and I were booked on a Uniworld holiday market cruise on the Rhine. We were scheduled to depart Chicago O'Hare yesterday and arrive in Basel, Switzerland, today. The heavy storms on the East Coast cancelled our USAirways flights. After an agent at the airport service counter spent 2.5 hours trying to get us to our destination, it became apparent that this was not going to happen. The only possible flight is for arrival on December 24, when the ship will be in another location. Uniworld is unwilling to give us a voucher for later travel, as we did not buy the travel insurance. We are out almost $3,500."< p>Yikes. Unfortunately, I can't help Susan with her predicament (she should have bought the insurance), but I < span>can tell you that if you're hitting an airport this holiday season, you should < span>follow these steps to minimize the damage that flight delays and cancellations can do to your travel plans:

  1. Make sure you're among the first to know if your flight is delayed or canceled.

Advance knowledge is power--the sooner you learn of a cancellation, the more likely you can nab one of the few seats available on an alternate flight--so sign up for trip alerts either from the airline you're flying or from FlightStats (or both). You'll be notified by e-mail or text message ASAP if there's any change in your flight.

  1. If your flight is canceled, instead of standing in the world's longest line to get accommodated on another flight--or, while standing in the line--use your mobile phone.

Call the airline or, if you booked through a travel agency, the travel agent. If you have elite status in the airline's frequent-flier program, call the dedicated elite number. If you don't but a family member or travel companion does, have him/her dial the dedicated number for you. Otherwise call the regular frequent-flier program number (if you're a member) or, failing that, the regular reservations line. If you've got a credit card that promises help in travel emergencies--say, the American Express Platinum Card--or you've bought travel insurance that provides emergency assistance, of course try that too. There's also a cool digital tool that can instantly give you seat availability on alternate flights:, which is downloadable to your mobile device ($4.99/month).

  1. If your flight has been delayed and no new departure time has been posted, ask the gate agent, "Where's the equipment?"

In my experience this is the best way to learn the truth about what your plane's new departure time is likely to be. If you ask, "When are we taking off?" the agent may well answer that he doesn't know. But ask, "Where's the equipment?" and it forces him to look into the computer and find out what time the aircraft left its point of origin (if it has indeed left), which tells you how much time you really have.

  1. As soon as it looks like you may be stranded overnight, make a hotel reservation (that you can cancel if you end up not needing it).

The tool I happen to like best for sussing out available hotel rooms in any given location is Mobiata's HotelPal--a free app you can download if you've got an iPhone. If there are no available rooms near the airport (as was the case the last time I was stranded in a snowstorm ... in Munich), make a reservation downtown and suss out your public transportation options there and back. Most hotel reservations can be canceled without penalty before 6 p.m.

  1. Know what you're owed if the airline oversold your flight and you're denied boarding.

If you're involuntarily bumped from a flight in the U.S. you're owed up to $800, depending on the amount of time you're delayed. (Here's the rule.) In Europe you're owed up to 600 euros for flight cancellation as well as denied boarding (check out the European rules here).

  1. Consider earning a free future ticket by asking the airline if it needs volunteers to be bumped.

Got time to kill? The peak holiday travel period actually represents one of the very best opportunities to earn a voucher for a future flight by volunteering to give up your seat and fly later. If you're booked on an oversold flight and interested in volunteering, don't wait until the gate agent calls for volunteers to give up their seats. Offer yourself as soon as you arrive at the gate, so your name is first on the list. If they do ultimately need volunteers, be sure to ask whether they're providing a confirmed seat on a later flight, so you don't end up stranded indefinitely.

Anybody else have tips for coping with holiday flight cancellations and other grisly airport scenarios? I'd love to hear them!