Reply to Flights keep getting canceled wwyd?

Forum Index » Travel Discussion

Reply to "Flights keep getting canceled wwyd? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You need to play airline arbitrage and buy a bunch of different, refundable tickets on different airlines to different airports (you said you were going to NY so I would try the 3 usual suspects). This is the only way.[/quote]

Yes, this is what DH did. He had to back from LAX to DC. He was originally scheduled to arrive at DCA at 9am on Sunday via CLT. He ended up flying to Chicago, spending a night, and getting here Monday afternoon into DCA by doing this.[/quote]

See that's a pro move right there. There was no way of getting back to DC on Sunday, so have to spend that night somewhere.  Chicago wasn't really affected by the storm and has a TON of flights to the DC region, and if you move quickly on Sunday morning, can probably get an open seat on one of them for Monday. The key is to keep as many options open, and to move fast to available ones as they open up, as during a storm like this, there are constant cancellations and people moving around.[/quote]

100 pct. This is the way to do it. Always keep moving closer to your destination or towards places with more flight options. In situations like this, you can’t wait for the perfect flight. [/quote]

Now I know. I would have taken anything, there were people at the airport who were trying to get to IL and it was going to take 36 hours with connections all over the country. In the future now I know if this might happen to buy a refundable ticket, but some airlines require a week advance purchase for this. [/quote]

You really don't need a refundable ticket, since once your original flight is cancelled, your ticket becomes refundable. I will say it is hard because if you want to preserve the original cheap pricing, you have to stick with your original airline, and possibly deal with calling/texting for hours to get through jammed lines.  Once you decide to jump to another airline and expand your options, yes you have to pay what you have to pay, your willingness to do so depends on how important it is that you get home.

We had a family member coming back on Monday, and on Saturday I booked a backup flight using miles that left 5 hours later on a different airline.  Award tickets are now fully refundable, so I figured it was an easy way to ensure we had a seat on the next best option in case things went wrong.  As it turned out, the original flight went out right on schedule, I canceled the held ticket, and the later flight ended up going out 3 hours late. But if the original flight had been canceled, at that moment there would have been 150+ people scrambling for options and filling up anything available, so that's why I booked the backup option a few days before.[/quote]

I am the airline arbitrage poster. The reason I suggest refundable tickets is because I suggest you buy multiple tickets on different airlines staggered to different airports and then when one finally takes off, you cancel the other ones (hence you need the refund status). For ex, the last time I had to do this was this past summer for a flight that I originally had with my kid from Nashville to DCA. But thunderstorms and some other issue with AA made the airline start delaying my AA flight several times very far in advance (which was a huge red flag). So I started looking for flights to BWI and IAD and bought a southwest ticket to BWI and I think a United one to IAD. So I literally had 3 sets of tickets for the same evening and watched to see which one took off. It ended up being the Dulles one which was the one scheduled in the middle of the other two (first flight kept getting delayed, BWI flight was for very late at night). This meant that I was arriving a different airport than where my car was parked, so I needed a ride back to DCA but I didn't care. My original flight ended up being completely cancelled (so got that refunded), and then the BWI flight I cancelled while in flight on the IAD flight.

Also using airline apps over all other methods (standing in line and on the phone) has worked will for me in the past. [/quote]

Ah got it, yes, so a similar strategy, except using refundable cash tickets instead of refundable award tickets.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics