As of June 1, 2022, traveling by air is not without chaos. My first and most important recommendation is this, if your destination is less than 7 hours – just drive or charter a chauffeured car. There is nothing enjoyable about flying right now on any airline, at any service level, or for any passenger class.
If you must fly, keep reading.
Download and use the app of the airline you are flying. You can do everything on it – get your boarding pass, track your bags, see your incoming plane, and change a flight. It sure beats waiting in the long line to talk to an agent! Usually these apps will tell you a flight is cancelled before the crew even knows!
Fly MUCH earlier than you need to – a whole day early if its important!! This past week I saw so many people miss important things like weddings, funerals, cruises, international connections, and graduations. The tears were very real, for very real reasons, and there was nothing the crew could do. If you have to be somewhere, go a day early. Have a glass of wine and stay in a hotel, enjoy your night not being stressed while everyone else misses their events.
ALWAYS fly the first flight in the morning so you have all day to be rebooked if the #@& hits the fan. Yes, that means it might be a 3:00 AM alarm, but morning flights don’t cancel nearly as often.
Please keep in mind that summer is thunderstorm season. A single storm can shut down an entire region which has a domino effect across the globe. Planes do not fly through thunderstorms. Storms usually build as the day gets later. Book early flights!
Schedule long layovers – Your 1 hour layover is NOT enough anymore. 30 minutes, not a chance. 3 hours minimum.
Every airline is short staffed and definitely overworked. Not just pilots and flight attendants, but also ground crews. Without ground crews there is no one to park the planes, drive jetways, get your bags on/off planes, or scan boarding passes. This causes many delays that snowball throughout the day.
When flight crews get delayed the flight crew times out. We can NOT fly longer than 16 hours. Its illegal. So it doesn’t matter if you have a wedding to get to, when we are done we are done. The way things are now, there are no back up crews, so when this happens your flight cancels.
Avoid connecting in any New York airport. It is literal hell. You have a 50/50 chance your flight will cancel or you’ll end up missing your connection. All of the airlines have been cancelling flights at their starting points just to keep the planes out, because there just aren’t enough people to manage the planes, so the gates stay full.
Be nice. Airline crews are overworked and tired. We will not help you if you are mean. No one cares that you are going to miss your cruise if you are a jerk. So even if we can help, we will save our help for someone nice. Tensions are high. Our patience is gone. If you make us mad – you will not be flying on our planes. We will leave you behind without a second thought, and laugh about it later.
Being drunk on an airplane is a federal offense, so don’t overdo it. If you drink too much at the bar waiting for your delayed flight you risk not being allowed to fly at all. We are too tired to deal with your drunkard self when we have legitimate issues to deal with.
Get trip insurance if you have a lot of money invested. I hate the whole idea of this, but I also hate the idea of losing money. Example: I was working a flight yesterday that waited over an hour for a gate. A family of 8 missed their flight to Rome. The only flight of the day. They were going to a cruise which they would now miss. They were all crying, there was nothing I could do.
Flights are FULL. If you buy the cheap seats you will not be able to sit with your family. It says so when you purchase your ticket!! Flight Attendants aren’t there to rearrange the whole plane just so you can sit with your family because you tried to save $100 on a third party website.
If a flight is oversold, and no one volunteers to give up their seats, who do you think is the first to be bumped? You guessed it, the family that saved a few $ by using sites like Expedia, Kayak, Hotwire etc.
Pack smart. Don’t be “That guy” Don’t hold up boarding because you have your carry on extenders open till they are busting and you can’t figure out how to make it fit in the overhead. (Passengers are stressed too, they can be aggressive when boarding a delayed flight)
Take showers, brush your teeth, leave the perfume off, don’t eat stinky food (caesar salad and tuna fish I’m talking to you!), and bring headphones. Trust me. These things sound basic, but add to stress on crowded planes. If you are stuck on the tarmac for 3 hours after a 4 hour flight, you will thank me for this.
Bring a sweater if you tend to be cold. So tired of half naked girls asking me to turn the heat up. We are working hard and we work up a sweat, so be comfortable wear clothes and being a sweater!!
Please keep your shoes on. That’s not water on the bathroom floor. Please wear your shoes into the bathroom!!!
Don’t tell a Flight Attendant they look tired. We are and we know. You may cause us to ugly cry right there in galley.
Bring snacks and water. Most airlines are barely getting ice these days and they are having catering issues due to inventory and staffing.
If you follow these tips you will be prepared. Happy Travels!
Special thanks to our guest contributor, Sarah Stevens.
Flight Attendant with 35 years experience.
