<p>My son just called to say that he missed his flight home. This has never happened to us before so I’m not sure what the protocol is. I told him to take care of it, but I feel like he needs to get some direction. What can he reasonably expect from the airline? Is there anything that he can ask from them so that we do not have to eat the whole cost of these round trip tickets?</p>
<p>I am hoping that the wise people of CC can share some of their wisdom. Thanks for any advice.</p>
<p>Have him talk to the airline. We missed a Delta flight earlier this year and they charged us $50 to take a later flight that same day.</p>
<p>Policies vary by airline and even more widely by the person you are speaking with and how you approach them. He should go to the airport ticketing counter (if not already there) and ask for forgiveness for missing his flight home to be with his family. (Note the “be home with family” - help the person understand why this trip is important to you.) Depending on space availability (not very good at this point in the year) he may be able to be on a later flight today at no cost.</p>
<p>Extreme worst case is not good (purchase of a new full fare ticket).</p>
<p>I would not try to create a story as to why the flight was missed or demand anything. Getting on a alternate flight at a reasonable price will depend in part on the person your son is talking to and how they feel about helping him (if they can do so within airline policy and seat availability.)</p>
<p>I missed a flight on Southwest recently and the only penalty was having to wait a couple of hours to get on another flight. Which is why I like flying Southwest. I don’t know about policies of other airlines, but am curious. Main problem that I see at this time of year is seat availablity on flights. Things are full.</p>
<p>He needs to be polite, humble, apologetic and appear sad at the same time with the agent he is working with and say “yes sir/ma’am” as much as possible. Gate agents & customer service agents have quite a bit of power & discretion at their disposal. They will bend over backwards for you if they can, however if you annoy them, they will go by the book. Good luck. If he doesn’t get much satisfaction from one, try another. At least it’s today and not tomorrow. Capacity is very short this year.</p>
<p>Son missed a United flight a few months ago. Had to pay “change fee” which was approximately $75 and was put on next flight to destination with an available seat. He was nice (overslept), they were nice.</p>
<p>Thank you to all those who chimed in. I was able to give him some instruction based on the suggestions here and he was able to get a later flight for an extra $50. That is a small cost compared to the huge lesson that he learned today. I’m thankful and impressed that he was able to work things out. </p>
<p>Thanks again. I really appreciated all the advice.</p>
<p>Excellent outcome and solid CC advice all around. Perfect. Being nice to the counter and gate people in addition to being the right thing to do almost always works in your favor. DS flew home once with overweight luggage and no money. I asked him what he did: quote: “I made the puppy eyes at the girl and told her I was going home to see my mom for the first time in a long time. She smiled rolled her eyes and waved me through.”</p>
<p>Excellent and fairly inexpensive lesson to your S. I once missed a flight with a friend (our fault) and went to the ticket counter very contrite. The agent was very nice and sympathetic, offering me a flight the next day at no extra charge and gave a voucher so we could have the lower priced airline rate for an inexpensive nearby hotel WITH free shuttle. </p>
<p>Lesson learned for us–double and triple check the time when you’ve flown through many times zones & stay within earshot of the gate.</p>
<p>“stay within earshot of the gate” - best advice ever.</p>
<p>I am a very seasoned traveler. </p>
<p>Last year coming home from NY, I was to switch planes in Denver. No biggie. 45 minutes between flights. Plenty of time. Landed early. Awesome. My ticket said departure gate 30 (making up that number) and I landed at gate 28. Right next door. Awesome. Walked around a bit, used the ladies room, got a coffee, walked some more, and 20 minutes to flight time, went to gate 30. Huh? Not a soul around. No one. What? Jammed to the flight board…my gate 30 flight was now leaving out of gate 2! TWO! I johnny hustled my way to gate 2, with literally 2 minutes to spare. I was so unsettled. I had just “assumed” (oh yes, I know) that if it was printed on my ticket that it was “law”. </p>
<p>So in addition to “stay within earshot of the gate” (they were calling my name) - double check the flight board(s) for any changes that may have taken place.</p>
<p>So happy this worked out with a small change fee. I really think most gate agents are nice and want to help…</p>
<p>I’m now in need of advice – my daughter’s flight on Southwest tonight was cancelled because of the weather. I started another thread.</p>
<p>Another lesson I learned the hard way: If you get an itinerary modification, examine it carefully! I got one last year. I noticed that the connecting flight out of NY just left a few minutes later, no biggie.</p>
<p>On my morning of departure, I noticed that the agent put a NY sticker on my checked bag. I said, “I’m just flying THROUGH NY - why does the tag show it’s my destination?” “Oh, well, you’re flying INTO JFK and OUT of LaGuardia.” What??? I protested. When the agent looked into it, she said rather accusingly, “WELL, you made these reservations MONTHS ago, and the airline doesn’t fly from here into Laguardia any longer, so they booked you into JFK.” Sure enough, that’s what my itinerary showed, but I never thought to check the revision THAT carefully! Grr. The agent said I could catch a shuttle from one airport to the other. Uh, no. I had to be politely insistent until she rerouted me through a different airport entirely. What would have happened if I hadn’t noticed the luggage tag?? Unbelievable.</p>
<p>My son missed a flight home from Chicago a couple of years ago when he overslept. When he woke up (about the time the flight was leaving), he got in a cab, in his pj bottoms and bedhead, and went immediately to O’Hare. He was a sight. The gate agent laughed and put him on the next flight, no change fee.</p>
<p>Too funny jrpar! I’m glad it all worked out and I will let my son know that that is always an option if he ever faces this situation again. He also overslept. Honestly, I’m not sure something like this won’t happen again; I can only hope.</p>
<p>Southwest’s policy is if you arrive at the airport within an a certain amount of time of your missed flight, they will put you on the next available flight with an open seat, no charge. I honestly think the time frame is two hours, which seems like a lot to me.</p>
<p>The problem now is that the flights around the holidays are completely full, so finding any flight on any airline can be more difficult than usual.</p>
<p>OP’s son got very lucky that there was a seat available on a later flight.</p>
<p>^ “Southwest’s policy is if you arrive at the airport within an a certain amount of time of your missed flight, they will put you on the next available flight with an open seat, no charge. I honestly think the time frame is two hours, which seems like a lot to me.”</p>
<p>It may have seemed like a lot to them as well. I think I heard on NPR this week that their policy on re-booking a scheduled flight is changing as of January. Just a head’s up to people who have return flights pending or will be flying next year. It should be double-checked- I may not have caught the full story, but wanted to mention it in case it helped.</p>
<p>All this flight talk brings up how easy it would be to miss a flight.</p>
<p>For those of you who fly to Newark, since United and Continental merged, United is now is Terminal A and C. That means that if you are to change planes make sure which terminal you are leaving from. You have to catch a shuttle bus inside the airport to take you over otherwise if you exit one of the terminals you have to go through security all over again.</p>
<p>I went into terminal C thinking my plane left from there and found out it was leaving from Terminal A. Finding the shuttle bus is also a bit hidden so I had to ask a few folks. Luckily I had lots of time.</p>
<p>When I got to Terminal A a young woman who had flown in from Texas was walking up. She had arrived at Terminal C. She hadn’t realized about the shuttle and had to go through security all over again. </p>
<p>They tried to tell her she couldn’t take something she had in her bag through. She told them I just flew in from Texas and am just making my connection, why would they let me take it and you aren’t? They let her but she really wasted so much time.</p>
<p>Just read online that some airlines are very responsive to twitter for re-booking cancelled flights, including jetblue. Anyone have experience with that?</p>
<p>Also, I couldn’t find any further info during a very quick google search regarding my comment above (#18) about Southwest’s upcoming policy change; it may apply only if you don’t show up at the airport. Sorry for not being able to be more specific, but may be worthwhile to check if it impacts you. </p>
<p>It does seem that these policies are flexing for this storm during the holiday season.
Good luck to everyone. This reminds me of 2 years ago when the storms in Europe made it hard for students abroad to get home in December.</p>