Making Lemonade: Lessons learned from a bad trip
In an attempt to make lemonade from the sackful of lemons Virgin Atlantic
gave us, we've compiled a list of pointers we want to remember for the
next time we travel, in case things go wrong.
1. Always bring a carry-on with essentials
for 48 hours.
We always do this in the event the airline loses our checked bag en
route, so that we have at least a change of clothes, toiletries,
medicines, etc. We didn't
expect to need our carry-ons for an overnight stay in the airport, after
our bags were checked, but we were sure glad we had them. By the
way, the airline
we were supposed to fly (Virgin) has a carry-on weight limit of 11 pounds,
so I don't think there was any way we could have avoided checked
luggage.
A few things I was glad I had in the carry-on that I might
not have brought:
• Wool socks -- it was COLD in the airport overnight
• A large cashmere scarf, which packed small but was big enough to double
as a small blanket.
• Hat or other head covering -- you lose a lot of heat through your head.
• Healthy snack food (should have had even more!). I always pack some dried
fruit and nuts. I wish I'd brought a little cheese and bread as well, since
the food offerings in the airport were very limited.
2. Bring a fully charged cell phone for the country
you are leaving, even if you won't be able to use it where you're going.
And keep the charger handy!
We did have a US cell phone but had packed the charger in a checked bag,
figuring we wouldn't be making enough calls to use it before
we could get to London
and recharge it. Wrong: We were on hold so long trying to reach
the airline for rescheduling
info that the battery was about to run out. 3. Find out ahead of time what
your passenger rights are. Bring a copy of pertinent regulations with
you.
The European Union has some pretty stringent laws about what airlines
have to do in case of delay or cancellation. Unfortunately, we didn't
have
that information
until it was too late to do us any good. You can't demand your
rights if you don't know what they are! This information is available
online;
search for
EU regulation EC 261/2004.
4. An iPod is a godsend.
It was almost impossible to sleep in the airport because all night
long, every 10 minutes or so you'd be jerked awake by a canned
security announcement.
My
favorite one was "K-9s are on patrol. Be sure your pets are caged." We
were told there was no way to shut those off.
The only way I got any sleep was to plug in the iPod phones
and turn the music up loud enough to block out most of the
announcements.
We had replaced
our
standard-issue iPod earphones with some that are much more
comfortable and have noise-cancelling
qualities, so they worked pretty well to block out surrounding
noises.
5. If you have to leave a plane after boarding, grab
anything in the way of goodies they've handed out and take it with
you.
If I'd been smart enough to take the airline pillow, blanket,
and goodie bag of stuff like earplugs and eyeshade, I'd have
been a lot
more comfortable.
Of course, it didn't occur to me then that we'd be sleeping
rough in the airport,
but if this ever happens again, I'm taking everything I can
lay my hands on to
be prepared, just in case. ....
6. Don't believe anything
the airline tells you if it's not verifiably to your advantage.
For example: Virgin told us there weren't any hotel rooms
to be had, and discouraged us from looking on our own.
Actually some people
did find rooms
late at night.
It's my understanding that the airline has to reimburse
them for that cost, so of course Virgin didn't want too much of
that going
on.
And watch out for an airline proactively switching
you to another flight. Virgin did that to people claiming it
would
give them
an earlier arrival
time, when
they must have known the flight they were being switched
to wasn't actually going to take off.
7. As a general
rule, try to book on an airline that has some in-depth presence at
the airport.
Virgin has only one flight a day from Logan, and as far
as we could determine, no management on the ground
there. When
things
went wrong,
there were
no back-up resources, and apparently no personnel available
to staff the desk.
If we'd
been on British Air, which has 2 or 3 flights a day
to London, there would have been
more choices available, and probably more people to
assist us.
8. Trip insurance can be a very good investment.
We were traveling on a package deal (air and hotel prepaid as one
sum). Maybe we'd have been able to recover our cost
without
the insurance
since the
cancellation wasn't
our fault, but I suspect it would have been a lot
more hassle, especially since Virgin refused to declare the more-than-2-day-delayed
flight cancelled.
It wasn't easy to get Virgin to supply the needed
documentation to the insurance company -- it took repeated calls,
emails, and faxes -- but we did finally get our money back!
9. If your
flight is delayed or cancelled, try to get written documentation
to that effect from the
airline
before you
leave the airport.
Never having filed a trip insurance claim before,
we didn't know what we needed. When we got the
claim form,
we found
that we
needed written
proof
from the
airline that the flight was delayed or cancelled.
Extracting that information later on delayed filing
of the claim. We also originally neglected to get receipts from the
van driver who
took us to
and from the
airport,
and that was also a
recoverable expense.
10. A laptop was a
useful thing to have.
When we finally did get to a hotel room, we were
able to send some emails regarding the schedule
change. Since most
hotels
now have
Internet service,
this was
much easier and cheaper than trying to make a
bunch of phone calls. It also let us
download the prior day's news story about the
airport closure and save it for later printing to document
our insurance
claim.
11. The most important thing to bring
-- a sense of humor, and if at all possible, someone to
laugh with!
... and more suggestions, posted on the Fodor's travel board, here:
12. Do a little research on alternatives (if
your flight is terribly delayed or cancelled)
before
you get to
the airport, and write
down the details
(with contact numbers).
For example, if you're
on Virgin leaving
at 6 pm, find
out which airlines fly to the same place
(direct or via connections), leaving within
the subsequent 24 hour period, take down
the flight details and the telephone numbers. The
more important
it is that
you get
to your
destination in
a timely way (e.g. business meeting, cruise
ship leaving, prepaid hotel room,
your
daughter's wedding), the more important it
is to have this information. Make sure you've
got the phone number for your airline (and
your
travel agent, if you used one).
13. Keep a
list of toll-free numbers for the major hotel chains handy, so that
you
can call
around
to look for
beds near the
airport.
14. Check out sleepinginairports.com for advice on the most comfortable places
in
airports
around the
world
- and for
entertainment value.
While you're
on the internet (using your laptop, at
the airport), check out flyertalk.com (especially
the forums for the airline you're flying
on). There are likely to be savvy frequent
flyers
with
good
advice and
current news
sending
messages from
the airport.
Check
it for a day or two before you fly, because
you might learn about looming problems
(e.g.
snowed
in airports,
strikes
in your destination,
etc.)
15. Have the phone number of the hotel
(or other place you're staying) on arrival, so
that you
can call to
cancel your
booking (or tell
your daughter that you're
going to miss her wedding).
16. Wear comfortable
clothes (rather obvious, but some people forget this
on occasion).
17. Be friendly and encouraging
to any airline staff you find, without
being
a pushover. Rudeness is more
likely
to result
in you getting
dropped to the
bottom of the line if favours are
being handed out. But be persistent (while
openly acknowledging the difficult
situation that
staff appear to be in); escalate
requests if you're
not getting
the answer
you need.
18. Keep in mind that airlines
usually want to keep their frequent flyers
happy.
If you
travel
fairly
often, stick
with one or
a few airlines -
you're more
likely to get better service if
you have elite status (even if your seat
is in
the back
of the plane).
19. A really big
book with tiny type (and then swap it with someone
else
when you're
finished)
and a
pack of
cards help
the time
pass.
20. Listerine breath strips - your travelling companions will
thank
you. Photos
Where We Went -- NOT!
Letter to Virgin Customer Relations |