In a perfect world, the ideal way to avoid airline strikes is to avoid carriers that have labor issues.
Unfortunately in this economy, that may not be realistic. While British Airways MAY be wrapping up their strike after a second weekend, the cabin crew union leaders are threatening another round after Easter. Both Lufthansa, with a scheduled pilots’ strike April 13-16, and American Airlines, in the midst of bitter negotiations with more than one union, could also have flight disruptions this spring.
Now, one bit of good news, in general, most threatened strikes don’t happen. TAP Air Portugal just settled at the last minute with their pilots union. But as the British Airways situation showed, it’s safer not to count on it. And Lufthansa already had a situation this year where the pilots called off the strike after 24 hours, but the airline still canceled three days worth of flights in anticipation.
One way to be pre-emptive is to either ask a travel agent or do some online research to see if an airline you are considering is having labor problems, but often you might need to book before those problems surface. To make matters more difficult, some airlines keep their troubles under the radar until it is close to the actual dates flights could be disrupted.
So for the future, here are seven tips.
1. book through a travel agent. In many ways, as an agent, I hate to write this, because it’s been a hellacious two weeks. However, during a strike, a good agent can be a darn good friend. If the airline does go out on strike, agents have access to the most inventory options and often have preferred numbers to reach airlines. Also, an agent can keep checking and rechecking for available flights.
In the BA strike, I had several clients where the airline canceled the flights and said there were no available options for a few days. But, just by diligent searching every few hours, I was able to find seats. (In a strike situation, seat availability is a moving target. Some people may cancel completely, or need to cancel a return flight at the last minute because they were unable to fly their outbound schedule.)
Note, if you’ve booked online and call an agent for help this tip doesn’t apply. Travel agents can’t access records they didn’t book. And airline sales representatives who might be inclined to help out a preferred agency’s clients have no motivation when it doesn’t count as one of “their” bookings.
2. Always reconfirm flights. Reconfirm even if there hasn’t been notification from the airline of any problem. One of my son’s college classmates discovered at the airport that her British Airways flight had been canceled. It’s possible the airline did try to reach her, but when they are overwhelmed with so many canceled and changed flights, things can slip through the cracks. (Generally the airline notified all travel agents of problems with their bookings, but double-checking with your agent doesn’t hurt either.)
3. Make sure you can be contacted. No matter how you book flights, either with an agent or directly with the airline make sure they have a valid way to contact you. Either phone or email. It doesn’t do much good if backup flights are available but there’s no way to communicate with you.
4. Call, call and then call. If you booked direct or online and your flight was canceled without a good alternative, check back as often as possible for space. British Airways had a good number of their operating flights showing as “sold out waitlist closed,” but eventually many of them ended up having a seat or two open. Note, these open seats might last only a few minutes. So, either rebook yourself or try to reach the airline as immediately.
5. Get to the airport early. Doesn’t matter if your original flight is operating, or if you have reasonable backup flights booked, operations at the airports are going to be a zoo. Because there will be some people with seats and others without they are likely to be spending a lot of time at the check-in desks.
In additional, the flights that are operating are likely to be jammed full, so security lines are going to be long.
6. Ask for some form of compensation, nicely. If the disruption costs you any money, consider writing a polite letter to the airline afterwards. Writing “I am never flying with you blank idiots – or some more colorful noun – again” probably won’t be very productive, but explaining the situation and asking for a future travel discount or bonus miles may meet with a better response.
7. Keep a sense of humor. As I’ve written before, today’s travel nightmare may be tomorrow’s great story. If you can spin a good yarn, follow Tip 6, it could increase your compensation.
