What to do if your flight is CANCELLED

I had the same thing happen — chat answered first — for a JetBlue fight domestically.
I like how you work lol

Tell us about your experiences or fears with canceled flights below!

Lauren, you do definitely have a particular set of skills! 👍🏻

I think the first step in your schematic of how to deal with canceled flights should be
A) do not panic/stress. When you gather all of this information on your piece of paper 😆🗒 travelers should acquaint themselves with keywords like "open jaw, GDS (global distribution system), base fare," or even the exact details on flying standby. Speaking like a professional air department (IATA) will definitely expedite any rebooking. Raising your voice does not help!

I was lucky in my early career to work for a very small company based in destination management to Europe and we had two people in our air department who did nothing but book flights for our groups all day.. I learned the terminology (same with hotels) and always got great treatment and a satisfactory rebooking.

Frequent travelers have this down but even occasional travelers can sound like those who travel millions of miles.. just learn the lingo!

And yes, I always beg friends to NEVER use third-party bookers. These websites sound tempting but basically they're just blocking out flights and if those flights sell out or are canceled you were left in the lurch. ALWAYS book directly with the airline / hotels. If you book through a hotel and your room is either downgraded or canceled or you are "walked" (that's another industry term people should understand) .. if you had booked directly with the hotels reservation department you will be prioritized in getting your room or even an upgrade if you're only there for a couple of nights.

Hotels and Airlines basically deal in tetris.. shorter stays can be moved around or even upgraded if room is available whereas longer stays are more difficult to fit into that Tetris grid. The boarding gate or hotel front desk would rather happily give an upgrade and get you in than deal with a downgrade. Group / consortium bookings always book "run of house" meaning any available room.

A hotel front desk is able to practically guarantee the room type you have reserved. This is also important in booking connecting rooms if you travel with children. "Adjoining" rooms will simply mean that they are next to each other, whereas "connecting" rooms is a door between the two rooms. This cannot be guaranteed by a third party booker as that is only noted in the special requests, the front desk is who blocks the rooms.

With airlines, beginning of the week, early booking times Etc always oversell and knowing this and having the terminology and understanding of these situations practically guarantee a smooth rebooking.

Looking forward to more fabulous images!

This was super-useful. Thank you!

I booked my first flight ever back in august and did not realize I shouldn’t have booked through a third party… woops. We will see what happens come December.

Wasn't planning on taking my laptop with me on our next trip, but it sure would come in handy if one of our flights gets cancelled. Great tips, Lauren! Glad it all worked out fine.

Fantastic information & presentation! You totally nailed the video script, transitions & editing! Fun to watch! Well Done!⭐️

You’re amazing friend

Thank you for sharing your experience and tips! My instinct would probably be to call someone or talk to the ticket agent immediately. Your advice to slow down and write down all your information is so smart. Airline folks can help you more efficiently if you are prepared with all your info. Thank you!

You're video's are so informative and helpful I have to work on having patience love traveling seeing new places but when things don't go as planned I always get frustrated and very upset but I'm learning to destress and refocus. I hope you enjoy you're solo trip can't wait to take my first ever solo European trip next year or so Norway looks amazing and the snow love it stay safe.

Thanks for the video! Basically we want all the video ideas that you think of :)

Do you have a video just on travel credit cards and points and such?

Did you use third party sites in the beginning of your traveling time? Have you been traveling a lot your whole life?

So looking at the date that you publish this I was flying back Amsterdam to Detroit that exact day lol, I got into Detroit at like 5pm. I should have waved!

Hi can you do a video on traveling alone as a female and what you do to help feel safe in a new country.

This is the reason to go carry on only! Great info!

My husband and I learned the hard way about 3rd party flights, never again. We did flights through Viking when we booked our cruise. After my husband spent about 5 hours on the phone with various people we ended up just buying another flight out of pocket to make sure we could make our connection home. Lesson learned.