Here’s some advice for fliers this holiday season: be prepared | Travel Views

We’re entering one of the busiest travel seasons of the year when weather is unpredictable, planes are packed, and airports can turn into torture chambers. That’s especially true if flights are delayed or cancelled, and you find yourself stranded.

Here’s some good advice for travelers this holiday season, prepare for delays and cancellations. Sooner or later, what has happened to thousands of unlucky travelers could happen to you. And it’s best to have thought through your options beforehand rather than have to come up with a plan in the middle of a crowed, chaotic airport.

That advice comes from being stranded recently in Heathrow in the middle of the night after fog delayed a slew of British Airways flights, leaving hundreds, if not thousands of frustrated passengers unable to make connections out of Heathrow.

What was even worse, British Airways offered pitifully meager help. The airline couldn’t handle hordes of passengers demanding rebooking, forcing them to have to find their own way out of Heathrow. In fact, airport agents implored stranded British Airways customers to just leave the terminal, handing out $10 meal tickets and vouchers for hotels that already were fully booked.

Many people were faced with sleeping on the cold, airport floor, or booking hotels with prices of more than $500 per night. Many people just burst out crying.

It was a nightmare scenario that has happened many times before and could happen again. Heathrow is the fourth busiest airport in the world that routinely subjects passengers to misery with flight cancellations and delays. But it’s not the only place travelers have found themselves stuck. Heathrow is bad, but Forbes and other reliable travel sites say London’s Gatwick airport is even worse.

It’s best to do whatever you can to avoid having to connect through behemoth airports like these. Denver, Chicago and Los Angeles also are plagued with cancellations and delays and are among what Forbes described as the most stressful airports in the world.

No matter what airport you go through this season, have a plan for what to do when your travel is disrupted. And that must include investing in a good travel insurance policy. If you have to spend $500 a night for a hotel, you’ll feel a lot better knowing you’ll get the money back.

If you purchase your tickets with American Express, Mastercard or Visa, they may include travel insurance but be sure to check the reimbursement limits. They can vary widely, and you could have to cough up thousands of dollars for hotel stays and new airline tickets on the spot.

It’s also a good idea to see what help the travel insurance companies or credit card concierges will provide to help with rerouting or booking another flight. Their toll-free numbers are on the back of your credit card. But when pandemonium strikes as it did in Heathrow, hundreds of other people may be besieging their phones at the same time. And there’s only so much they can do if all flights out are booked.

At the very least, credit card concierge services should be able to help with hotel bookings as well as helping with lost baggage, ground transportation and rebooking the next day. It can be hard to locate a help desk at many airports, as it was at Heathrow. Getting help from a credit card concierge is far less risky than resorting to companies like the “We Know Group” at Heathrow. Its agents took advantage of stranded passengers by only offering bookings into the most expensive airport hotels with luxury transportation.

But the smart traveler who has been duly warned can avoid such sharks by being prepared for the unpleasant side of travel when it inevitably raises its ugly head. Don’t take to the airways this holiday season without a well-thought-out plan to get out of what could quickly turn into a torture chamber.

Joyce M, Davis is PennLive’s Outreach & Opinion Editor, as well as an author and former foreign correspondent who has lived and worked around the globe. She is also president/CEO of the World Affairs Council of Harrisburg.

Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter @byjoycedavis.