Travel: What to do if you flight is delayed, hint don’t rely on airline hotels

OK, just a reminder as sometimes you get unlucky and your flight is delayed, you are going to miss your connection and you need a hotel. Here are the things not to do:

1. Don’t depend on the airline to take care of you, most of the time, without airline status you are just one of hundreds of people and you are just as likely to be without a hotel (or in a horrible one) than to have everything work correctly.

2. Here is what I do, first is to make sure you book your tickets with a credit card that has trip cancellation and interruption insurance from cards lien Chase Sapphire Reserve and American Express Platinum or Visa Signature

3. Then when you know you are going to miss your connection, get on that inflight WiFi or on the ground and immediately go to Expedia or whatever and book the hotel in the airport if it has one. This one is going to go really fast because everyone else with a business travel agent is doing the same.

4. Call the airline right away even when on the plane and check your rebook. This saves you from having to stand in long lines as the reservation people (particularly if you have status) will rebook you. Some airlines like British Airways even let you do this online where usual the web is better, so check this first and get a good flight out.

5. When you get to the airport, it is likely there will be hundreds of people waiting in taxi lines and other things, this is the time to see if Uber works there and if you can schedule a pickup. Remember this cost is going to get picked up by your trip cancellation insurance so save a reciept, it can even make sense to hire a black car as that will make your time easier.

6. When you finally land at the missed connection, you can just breeze out of the terminal to your waiting car (or if you are lucky walk to the in terminal hotel).

7. You will miss your hotel voucher of course, but that’s nothing really since the trip insurance will cover all of this.

8. For extra credit, see if Uber Eats or Instacart work in the area and have a nice dinner delivered to your hotel as you are landing.

9. Keep your receipts and then you submit them to your credit card. The ways vary by card.

10. If you have an early morning flight, then book a cab in the morning from your hotel. Or you can check to see if Uber will schedule a pickup for you.