When we consider a plane ticket, how often do we include the cost of our time or opportunity costs in the price? How much will it cost us if we miss a meeting or a dance recital or a day of vacation?
The cost of replacing luggage, canceled flights or medical assistance is no longer something that only frequent business travelers have to think about. In the airline companies' effort to cut costs and stay in business, the customer suffers. OK this isn't new but what is new is a change in how we travel because of it.
We are used to the rule of getting to the airport 2-3 hours early, but I suggest we travel a whole day early if we are trying to keep an appointment. It's a much bigger gamble these days to fly the same day you need to be at an event or meeting.
But with corporate budget cuts, it is sometimes difficult to justify the extra day of travel. And with family, it's hard to feel good about adding a day to your business trip that is dedicated to "what ifs." But if you don't, you will likely pay- either with the consequences of a missed meeting or the face of disappointment for the missed recital or the frustration of losing a hard earned day of rest.
Weather is an airline's best excuse and a passenger's nemesis when flying. If weather is the cause of a flight delay or cancelation, no compensation is due to the passenger. In other words, you are on your own - find and pay for your own hotel or sleep in the airport until another flight can take you to your destination.
Mechanical difficulties and oversold flights are more passenger friendly because you will be compensated with either a hotel room or flight vouchers.
Sometimes you get lucky and get rebooked on a new flight when your flight is canceled or experiencing long delays. However, if your original flight has a connection, be sure that the airline for your new flight can rebook you again if necessary. I found this out the hard way. I rebooked only the first leg of a trip and, after running a mile to the other side of the Salt Lake City airport to the new gate, I found out that flight was canceled too. The newly booked airline could not reroute me because they needed the first airline to "release" the entire ticket. Confused? Me too.
Add small kids, elderly parents, special needs or medical challenges and the cost ratchets up considerably. To boot, some airports, like Salt Lake City, are discontinuing their club car service to cart passengers around. So those who have walking issues but are not wheelchair bound need to forget about arriving on time at a newly assigned gate and families with small kids will have to cardio- train prior to traveling in case the need to sprint across the airport arises.
