Pro Travel Tip

I was watching the news last night and they were talking about the number of flights being cancelled already and how much that number was set to grow throughout the weekend with the government shutdown.

They had a travel expert talking about travel tips for airline passengers.

There was one in particular that made so much sense.

He said that in reality the airlines will do their best to contact you if/when your flight has been cancelled. However, if you booked your plane ticket on a 3rd party travel website other than through the actual airline, the airliner might not be privy to your updated contact info (like your phone number or email). 

This wasn’t to deter flyers to stop using those other sites to get the best deal. But knowing how the system works could save you a lot of travel stress.

When you booked the ticket online, chances are you filled out your name, mailing address, email address, phone number, and payment method on the travel website and received your flight information.

Sure, your accurate data would be logged into the travel website but the actual airline itself may still have your old outdated info in their own system from the last time you’ve flown. Or that contact information just didn’t get transferred from the 3rd party website you booked with to the airline. Certainly, they shared your basic info with the airline (like your name and ticket number) but they might not have shared your email and phone number. The airline would then have to backtrack through the travel website where you purchased the ticket in order to reach you. This will just delay your ability to have an expedited rebooking process if the issue arises.

A simple solution: Make sure to download the airline’s app and use it during your trip. Even if it’s just to keep tabs on gates, times, delays, and cancellations.

That way you can be sure that all your info is updated in that app and in real time be assured that the airline will have all your correct phone numbers and email address. In real time, as a flight get cancelled or delayed, you will be notified through the app. At that point, the middle man has been removed. More often than not you can also choose how and when you want to be notified with a few selection preferences in the app.

You can still book wherever you feel comfortable to get the best deal on tickets but just make sure to use the airline’s own app once you have a flight itinerary. Enter your flight number into the app and it will sync together once you create your account or log-in with an existing account you may have previously set up.

That way if you’re bumped or cancelled or delayed at any point on the trip, you have can start the rebooking process sooner than later (sometimes right there in the app, as well).

Just remember to give a thorough look through your settings and contact info in the app and then you’ll be good to go with a little less stress during your travels.

Have a travel tip of your own to share? Email anytime, Laura would love to hear from you: Laura.McKenna@civicmedia.us
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