What to Do If Your Holiday Flight Is Delayed
Keep calm, and follow these steps
After spending days packing, planning the perfect route to the airport, and making sure you have followed all TSA rules on holiday gifts, you arrive to your gate—only to find out your holiday flight is severely delayed.
The best made plans can still fall apart, and delays and cancelations are some of the most frustrating travel experiences. Despite how random flight delays can feel, there are some precautions travelers can take to avoid them, as well as some steps to take when it happens.
Not all carriers are created equal. Travel + Leisure compiled a few of the best and worst in both airlines and airports using data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Salt Lake City (SLC), and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) had some of the best records for on-time departures, with all three seeing less than 15 percent of their flights being delayed. Both of Chicago’s airports were some of the worst offenders concerning tardy flights, with one in three flights at Chicago’s Midway International Airport leaving late and more than one in four at O’Hare.
Hawaiian, Alaskan Air, Delta and Virgin are the best carriers for on-time departures, according to 2014 data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.