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Airline delays are just a fact of life for many who travel frequently. Most airline pilots commute to work by flying the various airlines. You could learn a few tricks by following airline pilots travel tips.
First, because pilots are traveling to work they need to plan carefully. One way to do this is to not be caught off guard regarding the local & destination weather. Look at the forecast particularly to see if any forecast for reduce visibility which brings the most travel delays. I always look at the weather channel before I go to work the night before. You could also start by tracking your inbound flight to see if it left on time. There are numerous flight trackers on the web that offer free services. Some airlines also have their own flight tracker. Once you know, or think your original inbound flight will be delayed, then you should plan early & try to see if your airline will let you take an earlier flight before its too late. This means you will be place on standby, but so what. You still will hold your seat on your original flight if you can’t get on the standby flight.
Also, in case you get on the standby flight you will be ahead of the crowd. If your departure airport gets bogged down with delays it could extend for days depending on how bad the weather is. Especially, if crew rest becomes a factor. Once airlines have crew rest issues, they will began to cancel even more flights. The key here is to get away from the bad weather airport as soon as possible. It doesn’t even have to be your destination. For example, If I know the Northeast is fogged in then my concern is to just get out of the Northeast then plan my route from there. That may mean flying to another stop over before heading to your destination. At least you avoid getting stuck all day at your departure airport.
If your flight cancels, you may have to be more proactive in getting the airlines to place you on the next flight, or even a flight on another airline. Most airlines have an exception policy which in cases of severe weather there remain provisions in place that will allow you to change your ticket. I always recommend you give your phone number to the airline when you buy you ticket. They sometimes will call you in advance when a flight is cancel. Sometimes the system gets bogged down & its too late for them to call passengers. The biggest heads up you will get is the flight tracker. Sometimes the flight tracker will tell you a specific flight was canceled. Also, if you fly a certain flight often you may notice that flights that depart to a destination were the crew remains over night at that destination most of the time will not be canceled.
Similarly, if the flight originates in the morning from an airport were the crew remain over night there’s also an equal good chance the flight will not cancel. Furthermore, when the aircraft & crew is already at your departure airport then it won’t matter much with weather at the departure airport. Your flight more likely will leave on time. Even if there is fog at the airport theres a good chance of your flight leaving on time providing the crew & plane is already there. Fog is more of a problem for arriving flights then departing ones. So the key is to find out if your departure flight is already there from the night before which will save you a lot of head ache.
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