What To Know If Your Travel Is Delayed or Cancelled (aka The Newark Airport Edition)
As I deal with the fallout this week.
When my husband and I bought our first home last month, we invited his family to come down for a few days. While some folks would be driving down from New Jersey, others booked flights from Newark spanning Thursday to Monday—a quick trip, but one where we could show them around, accept their offer to help unpack and paint, and spend time together for Mother’s Day.
But then, this past week, news continuously poured out about the issues at Newark Liberty International Airport—hundreds of flight delays and cancellations, compounded by multiple problems at once: air traffic controller shortages (plus FAA layoffs from the Trump administration), aging tech and equipment failures, bad weather, and runway construction. While the ATC shortages have been an ongoing issue for years—something I wrote about previously after the January midair collisions—this conversation has been thrust back into the spotlight.
These issues won’t be dealt with overnight, and in any case, the impact of these cancellations and delays have already started rippling. One of our family members had their Thursday night flight on United proactively cancelled three days early. Luckily, we pivoted our plan quickly: We rebooked him on a new JetBlue flight from JFK, and let him keep the airline credit on United for the future. Here’s hoping that it will go smoothly from here on out.
But when you’re planning a trip that goes awry—maybe even before you’ve left—what should you do?
1. Decide how urgent your next move is.
The weekend we got married in New Orleans was the same weekend as the NCAA Final Four a few miles away (unintentional, it was post-Covid). Because of this, so many loved ones encountered delays and cancellations and we spent a lot of time pre-wedding navigating their options as quickly as we could.
So this might sound obvious but, if it’s a travel plan that can’t be flexible or rebooked at another time, the most urgent thing is to find a new plan before other flights or accommodations sell out. Remember that if a delay or cancellation happened to you, it’s probably happening to many others—and the faster you can get in touch with customer service before they get swamped (if they aren’t already), the better.
I usually recommend trying to call a non-general customer service line or using various modes of contact to get in touch. For example, you can often text United using their app or speak with someone if you have a United MileagePlus card. So often times, I’ll dial the number from their card and use their app and see where I can talk to someone first.
From here, you’ll learn your options: Will they waive changes for your booking if it’s within a day or two or from a different airport? Are they not accepting rebookings, but they’ll give you a refund or flight voucher? Maybe they’ve automatically rebooked you for the next day?
Whatever the case, you can find out if you’ll need to progress to step 2…
2. Consider the alternatives.
If you’ve been rebooked or you easily can, then no worries—you can skip to step 3. But if you’re stuck and unsure what alternatives are available:
See if any other airline flights (or trains, buses, etc.—using flights here interchangeably) at different times are available from the same departure location.
If not, see if any alternate trips on the same airline are possible from a different location (i.e., JFK instead of EWR).
Consider taking the flight voucher or refund from the original carrier and booking with a new one. You can use something cheap like Point.me or PointsYeah to see what points deals are available last minute, too.
Although less than ideal, explore other modes of transportation if your plans aren’t flexible—can you get a rental car? Take the train? Hop on a long-haul bus?
Worst case scenario, rebook your trip for other dates—the good news is that unless the cancellations or delays were out of the carrier’s control entirely, they should be free and willing to rebook you and if you use a premium credit card, you may also get some cancellation or delay insurance compensation.
A note on this: Some of you may remember this older post on filing for EU261 compensation last summer—it’s a good reminder that depending on where you are in the world, some countries or unions will reimburse you big time for major delays or cancellations. $1,300 back in our pockets made adjusting our accommodations a lot easier to swallow.
3. Finally, see if you can file a claim.
Depending on how you booked (i.e., what credit card you used), the carrier’s own rules, or if you acquired travel insurance, you may also be entitled to coverage or compensation for your troubles.
Premium cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Reserve, Capital One Venture X, and American Express Gold or Platinum cards come with some pretty handy insurance coverage, if you remember to read the fine print.
Like I mentioned, some transportation carriers will also have rules or commitments for customers that they agree to uphold. Here’s the dashboard for the major US airline carriers, per the Department of Transportation. No matter what, I find it’s worth reaching out to the airline especially if the delay or cancellation was for reasons they could control. They want to retain your loyalty and their reputation, so they’ll usually send something your way. (Nowadays I even proactively get apology emails with vouchers or miles before I land, depending on how bad the delay was.)
Depending on your delay or cancellation, your travel insurance may also accept claims for reimbursement. Usually you’ll have to be delayed 4-6 hours or more for this to kick in, but it’s good to know your policy before you leave. If you’re curious about travel insurance, I did a full primer here—I always get a policy when traveling internationally, and sometimes will get one for extra special or expensive domestic trips, too.
Sometimes if you get rebooked, you might get downgraded from the original class you were in depending on capacity. Definitely reach out to the airline in this case—you paid for (or were eligible for) that original seat fair ‘n square!
Plans often go awry, and two of the most important traits you can have as a traveler is to be flexible and resourceful. Knowing more than the average traveler of who to talk to, where to file claims, etc. can help minimize the pain and expedite finding a solution. Hopefully you’ll never need to use the above information, but in case you do, I hope it’s helpful!
👕 I’ve tried many a white shirt, and all of them have paled in comparison to this one. It’s comfortable enough for travel days and versatile enough to pack for various outfits and styles. Also less than $50!
👀 May’s Flying Blue promos are pretty enticing: US to Europe or Asia starting at 18,750 points one way.
📚 The best books of the year (so far). I’ve seen Isola shared everywhere…maybe it’s time to add it to my Libby holds. (New York Times)
🍿 Go see Sinners. That is all.
❤️🩹 This broke my heart and put it back together. All from two passports.
Before I go, one last thing: A brand I already swear by reached out to me last week for coverage on this Substack (unprompted!), and it brought me such joy that this little project I started last summer has become a Real Thing. So truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being here. It does not go unnoticed or unappreciated.
—Henah x
