A simple guide for surviving weather delays when you’re flying Delta and you’re certain to miss your connecting flight
As avid travelers, we’ve spent a lot of time on planes and a lot of time in airports. 90% of the time, those flights go smoothly. But every now and again you get smacked with a doozy of a delay. For whatever reason, for me, the really massive crises usually happen in Toronto. Ugh. Just saying the name of the city sends chills up my spine. But this time, I was flying Delta out of BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport in Baltimore, MD when I got that dreaded alert “Flight delayed. Won’t make connection”. It’s hard to know exactly what to do, or how to approach long delays – especially weather delays – so I’m gonna walk y’all through today’s experience so you can see how I weathered the storm – literally.
First Things First
The first line of defense against a delay of any kind is to use the right app to track your flight status – one that will send you alerts even before the airline does. Enter TripIt. I’ve been using TripIt since something like 2013 to keep track of all my travel itineraries. All you have to do is forward your flight, rental car, hotel, or other travel purchase confirmation emails to TripIt, and your itineraries will populate automatically! It’s not always flawless, but it does a pretty great job. You can always go in and tweak whatever doesn’t get synced properly.
The best part of TripIt though is the flight updates. It’ll let you know whether your flight’s on time, whether there’s been a delay, and how it’s going to affect your connection. If the delay is long enough that you’re not going to make that connection, TripIt gives you a link to look at alternative flights. Pretty great. Oh, and I always get TripIt notifications to my phone BEFORE the notifications from the actual airlines themselves. Not too shabby.
So You’re Delayed. Now What?
Your heart sinks, your blood boils, you look outside and see the sun starting to peek through the clouds like a metaphorical slap in the face. It’s okay, we’ve all been there. Unfortunately, even improvement in weather doesn’t mean your flight’s going to get off the ground on time if there’s been a significant backup throughout the day. But that said, before you take any action, head up to the check-in desk and ask if there’s any chance the flight will get UN-delayed or moved back up. Believe it or not, this does happen, and travelers who run off to a lounge or the nearest bar to kill a couple hours without checking with the gate agent can end up missing their flight. No bueno.
That said, once you’re certain you’re in it for the long haul and you’ll be missing your connection, you’ve got three priorities on the to-do list:
- Get re-booked on another connecting flight
- Whip out that Amex Platinum or Priority Pass card and locate the nearest lounge.
- If your new connecting flight won’t leave until the next day, like in my situation, you need to find somewhere to stay – FAST! (And, of course, cheap. Duh.)
Re-book Your Missed Connection
In the past, this meant standing in a horribly long line waiting to talk to a stressed and overwhelmed gate agent who’s had people yelling at her or him for the last few hours. Nothing about that is fun or easy, but fortunately – at least on Delta – when it comes to weather delays you’ve got a few other options:
- Delta Re-books You Automatically! That’s right. The second you get the notification that your flight’s been delayed and you won’t make your connection, the gate agent – or someone in internet land – is already working to find you the next available flight to your destination. You’ll receive an email with the change, and you’ll be prompted to visit the website and either approve the change or look for a new flight on your own. This is awesome. But if you’ve got other questions that this process doesn’t answer, you can…
- Call reservations or use courtesy phones located in the gate area. These options will get you through to an agent much more quickly and painlessly than waiting in the throng of people at the desk.
- Chat with a representative online at Delta.com. If you’re more of an internet chat person and hate talking on the phone, this option’s for you! Click here and scroll to the section that says “Contact”. Open it up and click “Message Us”
Free Airport Lounge Access
Okay. You’re all rebooked and set to hang out for the foreseeable future among thousands of other angry/frustrated/hangry travelers. Fantastic. OR – you can escape to a probably-also-packed but way more comfortable Priority Pass lounge! I guarantee everything gets better when you’ve got free booze, food, and comfy chairs. If you don’t have the Amex Platinum or a Priority Pass membership, you can also pay for one-time access to any of these lounges, but I really don’t think it’s worth it unless your headspace is DESPERATELY in need of some chillaxification. Fortunately, getting your hands on a Priority Pass membership is actually pretty easy if you’re going to start getting into the travel hacking game anyway. And, uh… you should. Free membership is an included benefit with all of the following travel credit cards:
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Citi Prestige® Card
- Hilton Honors™ American Express Aspire® Card
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card
- U.S. Bank Altitude™ Reserve Visa Infinite® Card
- Hilton Honors™ American Express Surpass® Card
- Mastercard® Black Card™ and Mastercard® Gold Card™
- The Ritz-Carlton™ Rewards® Card
You’ve got LOTS of avenues to secure complimentary lounge access – certainly one of those cards will fit your travel preferences. And all of the above cards have tons of other benefits, too. Priority Pass is just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll talk more about using credit cards as the backbone of your travel hacking strategy in future posts.
Find a Last-Second Cheap Hotel
Free brownies and beer in hand (yes, I’m classy like that) I pull up Hotels.com and start searching. Hotels.com is my go-to hotel booking site at the moment for one major reason – their loyalty program. After ten stays on Hotels.com, they’ll give you a FREE NIGHT valued at the average price of the ten completed stays. Think about that for a second – you’re already getting points if you’re booking your hotel on a credit card that has a rewards program, but if you do it on Hotels.com you’re ALSO working towards a free night simultaneously. This is what we in the biz call “double-dipping”, and it’s one of the best travel hacking strategies to accumulate rewards quickly.
Speaking of rewards, I’ve got a Free Night Award just sitting in my account waiting to be used. Since I usually stay in cheap hotels, the voucher is worth $58. The cheapest hotel I can find near the airport in Salt Lake (that also has a free hotel shuttle!) is $70 + tax. All in all, I ended up paying $22 at the very last second for a place to stay – transport from and to the airport included.
Let’s Recap
Weather delays aren’t fun. Okay. Cool. We all agree on that. But what IS cool is making a frustrating situation better than it could be. My Grandfather always used to say “You gotta be somewhere – might as well make the best of it.” And I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to my travel hacking game, this weather delay ended up costing me a total of $22 when it could’ve easily cost seven times as much. Let’s break it down:
- Food for 6 hours of waiting at the airport: $20
- Two beers: $20
- Hotel: $80
- Uber to/from hotel: $25
- TOTAL added cost from weather-related delay: $145
- TOTAL paid thanks to travel hacking: $21
So there you have it! The benefits of playing the points/rewards game should be pretty apparent. And when you’re faced with unexpected weather delays like the one I had here, those points and rewards can end up being a lifesaver.
Oh, and one more thing: stay cool and friendly and relaxed. Treat the gate agents with respect and compassion. This is the worst part of their job, and they spend hours listening to people yell at them about how sunny it is outside so why can’t we just take off now. Added bonus? If you’re really nice to them they have a lot of freedom to offer you all sorts of nice things like food/drink vouchers, upgrades and more. It pays to be nice!
Any other questions about weather delays that we didn’t answer? Let us know! Comment below!