Delayed and Cancelled Flight Tips⎜Get what you deserve...

In today's video, we're going to be talking about the dreaded topic of flight delays and cancellations. A recipe for a travel nightmare at the center of it all. Thousands of flyers spending another day stuck, stranded, and frustrated. And I'm going to give you some tips and tricks and how to be prepared for these unfortunate situations. Make sure you stick around to the end of the video as I will help guide you to make sure that you receive the full compensation that you deserve for those delays and cancellations. Let's get into it. It starts with preparation. And even though these situations are oftentimes out of your control, there's a lot you can do to be prepared. Read the fine print. Now, this is something that most travelers don't want to take the time to do, but can ultimately end up saving you a lot of money in the long run, especially when it comes to delays and cancellations. Making sure when you read the fine print, get a good understanding of their cancellation policy because that way, if you do have a cancellation, that process of rebooking and restructuring your trip can be a lot easier and a lot less stressful. Next, you might want to consider investing in travel or trip insurance. A lot of this comes down to personal preference, whether you decide to invest in this or not, but it's really easy to set up if you want to. Most of the time, wherever you're booking your flights, whether it be through the airline directly or through some third party like booking.com or Expedia, they will offer some sort of insurance at a premium. As well as you can also look into insurance companies directly like Safety Wing. We've done that before for some of our longer trips. Now, Meg and I don't always invest in travel insurance, but here are some reasons to why you might want to invest in it. The first one being is you might have to cancel it, right? If there's any chance that you might have to cancel your trip, it might not be a bad idea to invest in that insurance. Two, if you have put a lot of resources into a specific trip. For example, if Meg and I are just going for a long weekend, somewhere close by, very short flight, most likely we won't invest in that insurance. But if we're planning a trip to Africa, where we're putting a lot of money and resources into it, we will definitely consider investing in that travel insurance just to give us some peace of mind. And probably the last and most valuable purpose of getting travel insurance, the comfort that you have the flexibility to move around your dates, cancel, or change your trip at any point can just be really helpful and worth the money for a lot of people. Make sure you download your airline's phone application before you get to the airport. Airlines do a really good job of updating those apps. And also it can just be a great place to check your flight status as well as make changes if you need to. Also, you're most likely going to need it when you get to the airport anyhow. So this can just be a great step for your preparation for your flight. Don't check baggage if possible. There's a lot of reasons why checking bags can be a lot more stressful and cumbersome traveling, but even more so when we're talking about delays and cancellations, as soon as your luggage gets out of sight, it can be really hard to retrieve if those situations happen. So do your best to try to just pack in a carry-on sized bag. Packing can play an important role in helping you be prepared for these types of situations as well. There's nothing worse than being stuck in an airplane on a tarmac or just stuck in an airport and not having the stuff that you need. So what Meg and I like to do is we'll first start by making sure that we have an extra outfit packed in our personal item. You never know when you're going to need a new fresh pair of socks or underwear or a new pair of shorts or pants or a long sleeve. I also always pack a swimming suit in my personal item because you never know, but having some extra clothes with you can be really, really helpful, especially if that flight gets delayed for two, three, four hours. Now you're also going to want to make sure that you have ample snacks and water available to you for those delays. There's nothing worse than being hungry and dehydrated on a already very difficult travel day and now your flight gets delayed. I'm not a big advocate for bringing like meals on a plane, but lots of snacks like granola bars can be a great option because you never know during those delays if they're going to be able to do like beverage and snack service on the planes. So having some available to you is going to be key in making your flying experience or those delays a lot more comfortable. You also might want to make sure you have like a battery pack or something like that to charge your phone being that you never know if you're going to have access to outlets or things like that during those delays. Before we get into what to do if your flight gets canceled or delayed, I would like to hear from you. Let me know in the comments if you have any tips or tricks that helps you navigate these difficult situations. I'm always curious to learn from you guys. You guys know tons of stuff. So let me know in the comments as well as if you have any stories that you would like to share of crazy cancellations or delays that you've went through. I feel like as travelers we can all empathize with this and it's just kind of fun to hear other traveler stories. So let me know in the comments if you have any crazy stories of cancellations or delays. Now we're going to answer the big question, which is what to do if your flight gets canceled or delayed. And this is going to sound cheesy, but my advice to you is stay calm. Now it sounds simple, but it's very hard to execute on. If you're an experienced traveler, you'll understand and realize that this is just part of the process of travel. Unfortunately, at some point, if you travel enough, your flight is going to get canceled or delayed. And keeping a calm attitude and a calm mindset can help you navigate the situation a lot more quickly and a lot more effectively. It's way easier to think clearly when you stay calm as well as get the most compensation for what you deserve in this situation. A lot of times people get super worked up and potentially super angry. And a lot of times when you're dealing with specific airline workers or third parties like Expedia and booking.com, that type of attitude does not get very far. You're going to get a lot further if you can stay calm during the situation. Okay. So your flight is canceled or delayed. You received the news. You went through the process of making yourself calm. And now you're like, Ian, what do I do? And my advice to you would be this. You're going to next want to get in contact with the airline. There's a couple of different ways to do this, but here's how we have found success doing this. We will first start by finding the customer service desk or kiosk or wherever they have an employee working to help you with this situation. You get in line. While you're in line, I would also recommend pulling up their app or a phone number to get in contact that way as well. Oftentimes you can get in contact via a mobile chat feature or a phone number actually quicker than the line moves. And they can help you over the phone or on the app just as efficiently as the person behind the desk can. So don't be too afraid if the line is super long, you have a lot of different options to get in contact with the airline. While you're waiting in line or on hold, I would also recommend doing some of your own research when it comes to which flight you would like to be rebooked on. Recently, me and Meg were flying from Spain back home and this exact situation happened to us where our flight was canceled and we needed to rebook. So what we did is we went online and we found flights that were desirable to us and we came to the table when we were talking to the airline employee with those options and they were able to just book us on the flight that we wanted. A lot of times if you just go up and you let them rebook your flight, they'll just put you on any random flight which might not be the best option. It might be like two days later or super late at night or super early in the morning. So coming to the table with some flight options that work for you can really help in reshaping your trip. Now let's talk about compensation for lost time and potentially money. From our experience, we've learned that this doesn't need to be a rushed process. Your first priority should be rebooking that flight so you can get on your way again. Every airline has a little bit different policy when it comes to cancellations and delays and you're going to need some time to digest all that material to make sure you're getting the most out of what you deserve. There's so many different places to look like the airline directly or some sort of third party like Expedia or your trip or travel insurance. Oftentimes airlines will offer you like a voucher or something like that for a delayed or canceled flight but keep in mind that might not be your best option. But a lot of people jump on that opportunity just because it's quick and easy but in reality you might actually be entitled to more money based on their policy. So for example, they might give you a $400 voucher but you might be entitled to close to a grand based on their policies. So don't always necessarily just jump on that option. Make sure you take your time and do your research. The overarching point I'm trying to get across when it comes to getting what you deserve as far as compensation is don't rush the process. You can always file a claim once you get home. Don't feel the need to get all of it solved and done while you're at the airport. One last thing I'll mention, make sure that you check your credit card. A lot of times people forget about this but if you have a travel credit card like for example we have Capital One and sometimes credit cards will offer some of that trip insurance as well for delays and cancellations. So for example, my credit card I have the Venture X and it offers up to a $500 per traveler for delays and expenses that were accrued during those delays. So food and hotels. So don't forget to check your credit cards for potential compensation. Flight cancellations and delays have got to be the worst part of traveling. But being prepared for these situations can help mitigate these negative memories and help you focus on all the good that travel brings. If you want to continue on your journey to being a prepared and experienced traveler, I would highly recommend checking out the video we made about how to survive long-haul flights. This video might be game-changing for you to make sure that those long flights are a much more comfortable experience. If you enjoyed this video, please give it a thumbs up as well as subscribe to our channel for more content like this. We will see you in the next video.