Surprise! When Flights Go Wrong (and How to Protect Yourself)

Flight cancelled abroad? Here's what to do when travel disruptions hit. I'm sharing 3 mistakes I made on our Portugal spring break plus one backup flight trick every traveler needs to know.

Two cancelled flights, two mechanical failures, a sprint through Dulles, and a late-night Lyft from DC to Baltimore - that's how our Portugal spring break ended. I'm sharing what went wrong, three planning mistakes I made, and one backup flight trick that saved us.

00:00 Welcome and Updates 
01:11 Portugal Trip Plan 
02:28 United Rebooking Chaos Begins 
03:51 Stranded in Lisbon 
05:05 Fighting for a Better Route 
08:04 Backup Flight Trick  
10:55 My Travel Mistakes
14:06 EU261 Claims and Wrap Up

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Don't miss this inspiring, practical travel with kids podcast hosted by family travel expert Melissa Conn, founder of The Family Voyage, certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, and mom of two who proves family travel is achievable for everyone.

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Transcript

Melissa 0:02

Hey there and welcome back to Family Travel Unpacked. I'm your host, Melissa, and in case you're new here, you can always find tons of detailed destination guides, travel tips, hacks, and more on my website, thefamilyvoyage.com. And if you've been enjoying the show, be sure to hit follow wherever you're listening, so you never miss an episode. While you're at it, drop a five star review to help other families find the show. Now, I know a lot of you really enjoyed last week's Alaska with Kids episode, and you're eagerly awaiting part two about the differences between an Alaska road trip and an Alaska cruise. It's still in the works and I hope to have it for you next week but sadly, United Airlines had a different plan for us this week. We're coming off an awesome spring break trip to Portugal, which I talked about before, and I'll be sharing more about that in the upcoming weeks. But we were supposed to get back Monday evening on a great low stress one-stop itinerary I booked last fall. Jokes on me! I had to reschedule the Alaska interview I was gonna do on Tuesday. So today I wanna talk about how to handle travel disruptions the right way. I'll tell you about what went wrong, what I'm doing about it, and three mistakes I made in the planning process that I want you to avoid. There's also one trick I use that I want every traveler to have in their back pocket. First I wanna tell you about what was supposed to happen. On trips like these I usually book US flights that go into one city and out of another, it's called an open jaw flight. In this case, we arrived in Lisbon and we were set to depart from Porto about 10 days later, which was gonna save us backtracking three hours to Lisbon in the end. On Monday morning, we got up and started getting ready to head to the airport for our noon flight from Porto to Newark where we were slated to have a four hour layover before the quick hop home. That would give us plenty of time to get through passport control and stop in the lounge for dinner. Now there are only a few flights a day from Porto to the US and they're all operated by United or its partner Tap. But only United runs their planes early enough in the day for you to catch a connecting flight. Once you get back to the US, the tap flights are all in the evening. And at this time of year, there's just one united option Each day. Assuming everything went right, none of that really should have mattered for us. Lisbon is a much bigger airport. If I'm just looking at United and tap schedules, there are five flights a day that run to the East Coast in the first half of the day. So here was my first mistake since my husband and kids really needed to be back on Tuesday for work and school, I should have flipped our itinerary to give us more fallback options. You'll hear more in a few minutes about why it probably wouldn't have mattered in the end, but it's possible that if we'd been in Lisbon Monday morning, we could have made it home that night. So things started to go sideways Monday morning. Ronnie got an email from United at 8:30 that we'd been rebooked. For some reason I got notified by text only, no email. There was a mechanical issue with the one plane United had in Porto, and it was being taken out of service. So we were gonna have to fly to Lisbon on tap in the afternoon and then catch United Flight to Washington Dulles in the evening. Then we'd stay near Dulles Monday night and arrive home Tuesday morning. It wasn't ideal, but we're seasoned travelers and we can work with that kind of stuff. The weird thing is that this email said the Lisbon to Dulles flight was taking off before we'd get to Lisbon, but when I looked at the tracking, it was running really late because the inbound flight had a problem in dc. That was a whole other interesting story that we learned more about later, but it's not important for what we experienced Anyway, I started texting with the United agents to go over our options because that's really the best way to work on this stuff when you're overseas. I didn't wanna spend hours on the phone and potentially rack up a huge bill. Plus, we were gonna have to check out of our accommodations at some point. Everything seemed to be basically fine so we used the shifted timeline to go check out another cool spot in Porto, and then we headed to the airport with plenty of time for the flight to Lisbon. As we were about to board the plane though, I got a text that the Lisbon to DC flight for the day was canceled After coming in seven hours late, that one supposedly had a mechanical issue as well. Who knows? But we started getting all sorts of re-booking messages that only sort of made sense. So when we got to Lisbon, I ran ahead of the rest of the family to find a United staff member to help us with vouchers for a hotel, food, and also figuring out how we were gonna get back to the us. Like I said, there are a lot more options from Lisbon, so it wasn't a bad thing that we went down there. Plus, we had been told that at Lisbon they would have United staff. Well, that was only partially true. Apparently United kept their people in the airport long enough to help the passengers who were already there for the flight, but they didn't wait around for people like us who were coming in later. So I got sent all over the ticketing area, looking for humans that weren't there. I ended up sitting in the Lisbon Airport for two hours trying to get a straight answer from a bunch of different online reps about what I was supposed to do for hotel and food. In theory that's in the United App, along with the self-service rebooking options, but none of it was working correctly because that first canceled flight didn't drop off our itinerary. But I learned something useful after having two chat reps on different platforms, pointing fingers at each other: united just can't issue vouchers overseas. I don't know if other US airlines are the same, but for United, you need to pay out of pocket and then submit receipts. I learned this morning that you can submit up to 10 of them. Eventually, I just booked us a hotel and a taxi to get there and figured we'd work out the details later. Okay, so back to the flight situation. When I was trying to figure out how to get us back to the us, United had two flights to the East Coast on Tuesday. An earlier flight that was showing a three hour delay- too late for the connecting flights that had four seats available- and a later flight that would give us just one connecting option, getting in at midnight. Neither one of them was a great option. Like is it better to get in at midnight, which is 4:00 AM in Portugal, and then get up for work and school in the morning? Or is it better to sleep at a hotel in DC and then go straight from the airport to work and school at 9:30, a little late? United booked us on the later flight and gave us the final leg Wednesday morning. All along, I kept asking to use their agreements behind the scenes to get us re-booked on American or Delta. They both had solid itineraries and were operating regularly. Honestly, I just wanted out of United's ecosystem. But a dozen different reps told me that their system wasn't showing any interline availability, so I was outta luck. If all that sounds confusing to you as a listener, just know that it was equally confusing and overwhelming for us going through it. I was nonstop refreshing all of these different flights to find the best options, and at some point the delayed earlier flight got magically on schedule again, and it was gonna be on time to catch a connecting flight that could get us back to Columbus at 7:30 PM Tuesday. Guys, that felt like such a victory. I'm here patting myself on the back, Ronnie's giving me fist bumps. We went to sleep Monday night in Lisbon, feeling like we had a really solid plan in place. But meanwhile, I'm still texting with United to get us a backup flight from DC to Columbus because we were slated to have an hour and 21 minutes. But Dulles is a huge airport and we're gonna have to go through passport control and security before we schlep to the absolute farthest part of the airport. It was my home airport for half of my life, so at least I knew what I was up against. Now, unfortunately, United won't let you join the standby list for a flight that's later than the one you've confirmed, only for an earlier one. I honestly don't understand why that is, but it's their policy. Anyway, we boarded the plane in Lisbon around 11:00 AM for an 1155 scheduled departure, and then the captain boarded the plane after us. Apparently United really wanted this one guy to fly the plane back to the US rather than the other captain that was available. So our departure schedule got pushed back. The captain was confused and frustrated by it too. By the time we were wheels up, it was 1:17 PM an hour and 22 minutes late. Now, I don't know how your math skills are, but the last time I checked, an hour and 21 minutes is less than an hour and 22 minutes. Clearly that wasn't gonna work. United uses a technology called Connection Saver to help them decide when to hold a flight. So I was hopeful that between making up time in the air and the tech solution, maybe we could make it. Now shout out to T-Mobile here. If you have your cell phone plan with them, you can connect to United's wifi for free for your whole flight. So I'm texting with United reps on and off for those seven and a half hours in the air trying to move us to a later connection, and they just couldn't or maybe wouldn't help us. I don't understand how the reps are so obtuse, but they kept insisting that we should be able to make our flight. But I know better, and you probably know better too. So this is where my sneaky solution comes in. I started looking for any flight on any airline from any airport in the DC area that would take off late enough for us to make it. When we were on the way, the estimate was that we

8:17

would land at 5:15, so I was

Melissa 8:18

focused on flights that took off from Dulles no earlier than 7:00 PM and from the other neighboring airports no earlier than 9:00 PM I looked at other airports in Ohio, but there weren't any better options. It turns out there was a 9:30 flight from Baltimore to Columbus on Southwest. We've actually taken that flight before, and if you've been listening to this show, you know that my husband and I each have a Southwest Companion Pass that lets us take the kids for just$5 when we fly. We also happen to have a massive stash of Southwest points, and that saved the day. While we were in the air, I booked us two tickets on points and then the two companion tickets. In case you didn't know, US law requires that cash airfare purchases get a 24 hour cooling off period, and most US airlines extend that to points bookings too and plenty of them are far more generous and will let you cancel a points booking at any time. But in general, you can always cancel within the first 24 hours for a full refund to your original form of payment. So the trick to have in your back pocket is that if you end up in this kind of messed up travel situation, you can buy that"just in case" flight and not worry about being on the hook if you do end up making your connection. I made plenty of mistakes in this story, and I'll tell you about the other two in a minute, but I consider this one my big victory. Now, to be perfectly clear, United isn't gonna reimburse us for that ticket, just like they probably wouldn't if we'd rented a car and driven ourselves home. But if you can find a cheap last minute ticket with points or cash and you really need to get home, sometimes it can be worth it to eat that cost, especially if you're sitting on a lot of points. I'm sure you know where the story goes next. Our international flight was even later than the estimate we were given in the air. We literally sprinted through the airport, including my husband valiantly carrying one suitcase with a broken handle- that happened when we were disembarking in Lisbon the day before. My apologies to the two kids we knocked down along the way. But there was just no way, even with global entry and no check luggage. Boarding for our connecting flight closed while we were on the train to cross the airport. And the sucky thing is that they were still missing about a quarter of the passengers- United actually tells you in the app how many people have boarded as they go through the process. To wrap this up quickly, we grabbed a Lyft- shout out to my card pointers act for letting me know that I had a$10 discount on the very expensive ride from Dulles to BWI. thankfully, the rest was smooth sailing. We got home just before midnight on Tuesday, about 28 hours late. If I'd waited for United to fly US home, it would've been 10:00 AM Wednesday. That's more missed school and work another night paying the dog sitter a missed appointment for me and even less time to get myself situated before my mom arrived to visit on Wednesday afternoon. That concludes the crazy story of our flights back from Portugal, but I think the kids are pretty jaded about flying for spring break now, in case you missed it, you can jump all the way back to episode five to hear about last spring break's flight mishap. So let me circle back to those other two mistakes I made and what I should have done differently. First, and this is really stupid, I let our travel insurance policy lapse. For the last few years we've been carrying an annual travel insurance policy with Allianz. It costs about a thousand dollars a year for our family of four to get the coverage I want with the premier plan. And I have it mostly for medical evacuation, but I used it last year when our trip to Costa Rica was disrupted and it more than paid for itself, especially because the reason for the disruption wasn't Southwest's fault so the airline left us high and dry. Letting the policy lapse wasn't intentional. The expiration was the day before we left for this trip, and I just got really busy with other things and didn't take care of it. So that's totally on me. In this case, our cancellations and delays were 100% United's fault, and Europe has excellent protections for travelers, so things like hotels, meals, and taxis will be covered. Plus we'll get 600 euros each under the EU 261 compensation law. I am in the process of filing for all of that now on the United website, and it's pretty straightforward. But having that Allianz Policy active would've done three things for me. First, I could have reached out to their helpline when United was being difficult, and the Allianz reps would've given me the information I needed. Second, instead of worrying about a hotel voucher, I would've just booked that hotel in Lisbon and moved on since it definitely would've been covered by my policy. And third, it's possible that the Southwest flight to eventually get us home would've been covered. In fact, they might have even told us right away to book a flight on American when it became clear that United couldn't get us home in a timely manner. So while I'm coming out better than break even on this whole nonsense situation, I think having that travel insurance policy would've made things way less stressful. The other big mistake I made was using my Amex Platinum card for our flight home from Porto. I know that sounds crazy because it's such a high-end card, but there's a good reason why I almost never use it for flights. So the Amex Platinum actually has really great travel protections, but they only apply if you pay for the entire round trip flight on that platinum card. That means if you're flying on points and just pay for the taxes, or if you book two one-way tickets like we often do, the Amex coverage doesn't apply at all. That's just crazy to me, but it's the situation, so I don't use that card for flights. It rarely makes sense for the way we book travel. I almost always use my Chase Ink business preferred when I'm booking flights, but most of the Chase cards that charge an annual fee give you really solid trip delay coverage. Another option I sometimes use is the Capital One Venture X card, which is a little more generous in terms of how long the delay needs to be before it kicks in, but it isn't as generous when it comes to things like missed hotel stays and activities. I didn't need those for our Portugal trip because the delay came at the end. But in Costa Rica, we missed our first hotel and some activities. I really can't tell you why I used the Amex Platinum card this time. I honestly don't remember, but that's what I did, and so I have to deal with the consequences. This is where using a great travel credit card and layering a travel insurance policy like Allianz on top can really help. First you get whatever reimbursement you can from the airline if it's their fault, then you can use a combination of your credit cards coverage and your travel insurance policy to handle the rest. If you think of those as three pieces of Swiss cheese, you can put one on top of the other so that there aren't any holes left in your coverage. Whew. So we've been back now for 18 hours, and I spent the first hour of my day getting two tired kids to school, navigating the United website to submit our EU 261 compensation, and then separately for reimbursement of our expenses. I saved all our receipts from the hotel, ride shares, and meals. United already got back to me about the required compensation within an hour. They offered me either the required 600 Euros cash, or 50,000 points, or a$1,000 united travel credit for each person. I think we're going for the cash because it's the most flexible option, and I'll fight them as much as I need to for reimbursement of our other expenses as well. Unfortunately, this is the kind of real world travel disruption that happens every single day, especially as airlines try to cut corners in their operations to maximize profits. I hope you never have to go through it, but the most important thing is that you keep your cool and know your rights. And when you're planning the trip, pay attention to the details of your credit card's insurance coverage so that you make sure you use a card that's gonna give you the protections you need. Be sure to check out my credit card recommendations down in the show notes so you can choose one that works well for your family. Stay tuned for an upcoming episode to hear about all the awesome stuff we did in Portugal, not just the mishaps. And I'm gonna shoot for part two of that Alaska conversation next week, so hit follow wherever you're listening if you wanna catch that. Thanks so much for listening. Until next time, wishing you safe and uneventful travels.