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April 10th, 2008

How to endure flight cancellation chaos

Posted by: Leah Eichler
Tags: Ask, , , ,

americanairline.jpgAbout 100,000 passengers have been affected after American Airlines canceled over 1,000 flights. Travelers will endure more pain as the airline says it expects over 900 more cancellations on Thursday. Watch this video on the travel chaos.

Cancellations angered travelers at several airports but Dallas was the hardest hit, followed by Chicago’s O’Hare.americanairline1.jpg

Angry bloggers weighed in. “This must be the single biggest aerial traffic disruption since 9/11, right? And it’s created by whom — American private enterprise and federal regulators,” writes Bruce Sterling.

In additional airline news, United Airlines raised some of its fares.

What do you do to get through the airline and airport delays? Share your tips with the thousands waiting at U.S. airports today.

5 comments so far

My tip is to avoid American Airlines for the next little while. Hope that helps.

- Posted by Terry

Learn to fly point to point!!

- Posted by UR

Stay away from airports, they suck. The magic of jet airplane travel has been wrecked by high fuel costs, overzealous security inspections, a crazy pricing structure and general stupidity. Those who can afford it are buying personal jets outfitted as flying hotel rooms, all those jets do is crowd the runways and air space for the rest of us.

- Posted by Bill

Most airline websites have extensive information on the type of equipment airlines operate on particular flights. If MD-80s are being taken out of service, for example, you can look for flights that operate with other types of aircraft. Airline sites also have information on on-time performance that can be helpful in choosing flights. And, as a general rule, fly earlier in the day. You have more options if things go wrong.

- Posted by Patrick

On one news show I heard a passenger complain that because of the canceled flights she’d have to wait in Chicago overnight to get to Detroit the next day. Duh… Why not just rent charter busses to carry the passengers short distances like Chicago-Detroit rather than make them wait days in the airport? Bus would only take 5 or 6 hours to make the trip. Much more sensible. A lot cheaper for the airline than making the passenger wait and fly later, and better for the passenger who gets there a lot quicker.

- Posted by RvW

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