Admittedly, there are some times when it’s flat out impossible to leave until the last minute for a special event, whether it’s a holiday, wedding or something else. But really, if you can, go ahead and plan in that extra day.
In the majority of cases, travelers have a little flexibility. Now, most people know that flying say, through Chicago in the middle of winter, is iffy and that flights later in the day tend to be more delayed than morning flights. However, even flights to and from warm places and early a.m. departures can and do go wrong.
Today’s example was clients booked on a 6 a.m. United flight from Vancouver to San Francisco, with a seven hour connection before a flight to Europe. (In this case, the clients had even allowed time for an errand in San Francisco.) This plane is usually on time, and the weather is clear in both cities. In addition, the husband is one of United’s highest level fliers and they were in business class.
So it should have been a slam dunk.
But a creeping mechanical delay turned into an unfixable problem requiring a new part, that resulted in the flight being scheduled to leave at 3 p.m. and finally canceled.
In my client’s case, we were able to get them two seats on a theoretically sold out flight at 1 p.m. and United allowed them to change their flight to Frankfurt to tomorrow. So they got lucky. And, fortunately, they have a place to stay in San Francisco, and they had nothing critical scheduled in Europe Christmas Eve.
In general, however, what this incident points out is that there are NO guarantees in travel. Even a short flight can have a mechanical delay and weird weather can happen anywhere. (In addition, maybe you have booked a flight between say, Los Angeles and Hawaii, but the plane could be coming in from New York.)
If you absolutely gotta be there, plan to arrive a day early. If the worst thing that happens is that you have an extra day at your destination, it does beat missing the event completely.
Besides, if you’re reading this blog you probably have a smart phone and/or laptop and can turn it into a semi-work day if necessary.
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
