A lesson even for a travel planner

I tout the advantages of working with a travel planner, such as myself, all the time – less time, less cost, service, support, etc.. And. I’ve been a traveler all my life. So, what happens when the travel planner finds himself stuck at the airport?

Yeah, I think of myself as an independent traveler – I don’t need any help. After all, I’ve been planning trips for myself for over 40 years, and for others for over 30. So, a couple weeks ago, I was headed to Detroit for a seminar, which was to be held all day on Saturday. So, I planned a Friday flight to Detroit and return on Sunday. It was easy enough, and certainly not very far to go. But, in the end, I was really grateful that I had a travel planner to call!

So, I get to the airport and find everything is delayed. My 3:20 afternoon flight to Chicago was now going to depart at 4:30. No problem, my connecting flight isn’t until 6:50. There’s still plenty of time for a connection. However, I didn’t count on the winds.

The entire Midwest was experiencing heavy, heavy winds. Minneapolis was down to one runway for takeoffs and landings; and Chicago was experiencing heavy delays as they were down to only two runways. Additionally, Texas was experiencing storms. What does Texas have to do with this? I was flying on American Airlines and with their two major hubs (Chicago and Dallas) being hit by wind and storms, their entire system was off schedule.

As I sat waiting for my aircraft to arrive….3:30, 4:00, 4:30….I learned that my flight from Chicago to Detroit had been delayed to depart at 9:30 p.m. So, still no worry, plenty of time for a connection. However, at 4:45, I noticed that the 2:00 departure from Minneapolis to Chicago was still sitting on the ground in Minneapolis with an Air Traffic Control hold. It was just starting to move toward the runway for take off.

So, I decided I needed some backup plans. For me, attending the seminar was not optional, even if it meant driving all night to get there. Sp. I got in what was an increasingly long line to speak with the gate agent and immediately got on the phone to my office. I got a voice mail, but left a message, “Can you get me a car in Chicago in case I miss my connection?” In a couple minutes I got a call back. Ok, a car reservation is waiting for me in Chicago.

In my half hour before I got to the gate agent, I began to have second thoughts. I really didn’t relish the thought of a 4 hour drive in high winds at night from Chicago to Detroit (anyone who has driving through Gary would understand.) And, what if the flight from Minneapolis is cancelled? I need another plan….

So, I was back on the phone to my office. (Yea, cell phones!) This time Jennifer answered, almost expecting me to call again. “Are there any other flights tonight to Detroit?” She hesitated for a moment and said, “They’re all full.” “No, wait, there’s a 10:30 flight, but it doesn’t get in until 1:05 in the morning!”

“That’s ok.” I told her. “I’ll see if I can get on it.” “It’s wide open,” she said. “You shouldn’t have any problem.”

I know you’re asking why I didn’t have Jennifer ticket it right then. I was holding a ticket on American, and there is always the chance that they will endorse the ticket over to Northwest, resulting in no additional cost to me.

Just as I was the second person from the agent, the supervisor came on the intercom and announced that they may cancel at least one of the remaining flights to Chicago for the rest of that day. He suggested we either get in line or call the American reservation line to be accommodated on another flight.

As I approached the agent, I asked her if she could rebook me on Northwest to Detroit. She typed and looked at her screen and said that the flights are all full. “Could you look at the 10:30 flight?” I said. She paged down on her screen and said with surprise, “Oh, that one looks wide open. Let me call Northwest and check.” After what was a quick phone call, she had me re-ticketed. So, while everyone else was in line or on hold with American Airlines, I was headed off to the Northwest gates.

As I walked over to Northwest, I reflected on the fact that I would never had been placed on that flight, if I didn’t already know that it was available. And, the only way for me to know that was to call my travel planner. There was immense value in having someone I could call that could, if nothing else, give me good information.

As it turned out, I listed standby on a couple earlier flights with Northwest and got on the next flight out, rather than sitting around until 10:30.

I can also hear you asking, “Why didn’t you just book the direct flight in the first place?” It was a simple matter of the cost. The American flights with connections were over $300 less than the direct flight on Northwest.