The one thing people who are traveling right now need to have is patience. If you’ve made plans in advance, realize that airlines are making schedule changes all the time. Since all you’re promised is getting from point A to point B, don’t expect that you’ll be going by the route you booked or that the times will be the same.
Before everyone gets all worked up about writing a story about traveling during a pandemic, for some people it’s necessary. Whether for work, medical, family or personal reasons, not everyone flying is a horrible person who should just be staying home.
To preserve the identity of the passenger, I’m not going to reveal the city pair for this trip or the reason for travel. I’m only sharing it to show you what you need to prepare for if you have an airline trip booked soon. For reference, the flights are on Southwest, so rebooking when the price drops are allowed for no charge.
- Back in April, Southwest canceled flights, leaving a credit. Used that credit to book new flights for $255.
- The trip was rebooked when the price dropped to $188
- The original return flight was canceled. A non-stop flight was replaced by a two-stop trip, one with a 30-minute connection, arriving 3 1/2 hours later. The price for the same flights, if booked at this time, would have cost $1,100.
- Non-stop return flight added back to the itinerary, leaving 15 minutes before the original flight but arriving home at the same time.
- Southwest fare sale showed a price of $125 round-trip. Rebooked trip and still have $120 in credit to use for a future flight.
All of these changes have happened in July.
At the moment, everything seems to have worked out for the best but the trip hasn’t happened yet. What if quarantine is put into place for one of the two cities? Southwest could still change the schedule or cancel one (or both) of the flights and replace them with ones at totally different times or with a terrible routing.
If you have to travel at the moment. Be patient and understanding. Try to what you can online but if you have to call and speak to an agent, know that this isn’t their fault. Whatever else you do, please remember these things.
#stayhealthy #staysafe #washyourhands #wearamask
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
