In a twist of travel mayhem, my flight for this morning got canceled at 11 pm last night. It was a fun hour plus on hold with airline customer service but by 12:30 am I had a new plan that had me driving down to Madison today to take an early flight out tomorrow. I’ll actually get to my destination only a couple of hours later than originally planned, so it mostly works out. I’ll just have to come through Madison on my way back and add a longer driving leg to get home.
Anyway, there’s a lesson my parents have taught me recently about dealing with airline changes that I want to document for everyone. When something gets changed on a flight and you have no choice but to call to rebook/change the trip, have a recommendation in mind. As in, use all that time you’re waiting on hold to go to the airline website and find an alternative route that would work for you. Write down the flight numbers. The agents aren’t going to magically see open flights that you don’t or create a new route out of thin air, you are both working with the same information. And it’s so much easier to have figured out a plan yourself rather than troubleshoot on the phone.
I’ve had to do this twice in the last month (for this same trip no less, with a lot of guidance from my parents, thank you), but the relief in the agent’s voice when I cut them off as they take that deep breath in to start working the problem and offer “I looked into a route that would work for me, can I give you the flight numbers?’ . . . it’s palpable. Everyone’s job is so much easier. Especially when you’re on the phone after midnight and everyone is tired.
Wish me luck that the route I have tomorrow is the one that sticks.
With Love,
Natalie