Will a Flight Delay Cause you to Miss an Important Event? Here Are a Few Things They Won’t Tell You: A blog about delays and flight insurance along with what to do if you need to cancel your trip due to delayed flights.

Airlines are experiencing more and more delays, especially as we enter the holiday season. The airlines know that passengers want to get home, but often are not willing to pay more for peak travel times like holidays. This causes the flights to be packed and often overbooked, causing longer wait times for boarding and deplaning, which in turn results in more delays. On top of that, many airports are overcrowded because they have not been expanded or updated to accommodate the growing number of travelers. Airports are also understaffed which can cause lines at check-in and security to be longer than usual. All this adds up to even more delays!

I recently returned from a business trip to San Francisco. On the way there, my flight was delayed by 4 hours and on the way back I had to change flights due to a 3 hour delay. I was lucky because I had a window of time to return home and the changes did not affect me that much.

However, what if you are flying in for an important event like a wedding or funeral and your flight is delayed? Are you protected? Here are a few things they won’t tell you about missed flight connections, travel insurance and what you can do in case of delays.

If your flight is delayed, ask for a hotel voucher!

If you are delayed overnight due to airline delays or weather, make sure you find out if you qualify for a hotel voucher. In most cases, the airlines will provide an overnight stay at an airport hotel if your trip is delayed overnight due to weather or mechanical issues.

If you get one of these vouchers, make sure that the airline pays for it directly; do not pay for it yourself. If you do, they may not reimburse you later and it’s not worth taking that risk.

If your flight is delayed and you might miss an important connection or event (like a wedding), ask to

The FAA expects to lose almost $1 billion this year in airline fees because of flight delays. Not only should you be prepared for the worst, but you should also have a plan in place to minimize the damage and minimize your stress.

There may be no way to avoid a flight delay, but you can avoid having a panic attack when one happens. Here are some things they won’t tell you about flights and delays:

**Don’t Trust What They Tell You About Flight Cancellations.** Airlines do not always know when they will cancel flights. In fact, they are often the last to know about it. They may not even know that there are problems until passengers begin complaining about them on social media! Flights can be delayed due to weather or mechanical issues, or even just because of air traffic control at the airport. Airlines may even tell you that your flight is on time, only for it to be delayed because of a problem on the ground that affects your plane.

**Call Your Travel Agent.** No matter what type of travel insurance you have, if you’re not sure what to do or how to get home safely after an airline delay, call your travel

If you’re planning a trip, one of the most important things you should consider is whether or not your flight will be delayed. For most travelers, this is a secondary consideration – after all, we hope that our flights will be on time, and that our vacation goes smoothly.

Unfortunately, sometimes problems do come up. And in the case of delays, if you’re not prepared for them, you may find yourself stranded in an airport for hours on end. Which can be frustrating and expensive – even if you do have a backup plan in place.

In this article, we’ll discuss what some people consider to be the “worst case scenario”: when your flight is delayed and you have no choice but to cancel your trip altogether. We’ll also discuss what to do if you need to cancel your trip due to a delay.

When it comes to booking flights, planning ahead is the key to finding the best deals. But even with careful planning, delays and cancellations can happen. You may have a work meeting that you can’t miss or a wedding to get to on time. Flight delays are inevitable and will happen, but there are a few things you should know before booking your next flight that can save you some hassle if delays or cancellations occur.

1. What Causes Flight Delays?

Most of us don’t think about what goes into flying a plane from one destination to another. The weather at both locations, maintenance issues, and crew availability all play a role in whether or not you will be able to get on your flight on time. Delays happen even when everything goes right with the plane, as there are other factors at play such as air traffic control decisions and airport congestion. The more connections you have, the more likely it is that something will go wrong somewhere along the way.

2. Why Don’t Airlines Refund My Ticket When There Is a Delay?

If an airline cancels a flight due to something they could control such as staff availability or mechanical issues, they are required by law to offer passengers their choice of an alternate flight

1. An airline will never tell you to buy insurance and most travel agents can’t sell it.

The only person who can sell you flight insurance is the person whose name is on the credit card used to purchase your ticket. When I called the reservation line, they told me that I could not buy insurance from them.

2. If your flight is delayed, and you have a connecting flight, you may miss your connection and not be covered for a delay.

According to the policy, “You must call Travel Guard before leaving on your trip to add this coverage.” I booked my ticket through a travel agent and they didn’t even bother to mention flight insurance, let alone tell me that I had to call someone else within 24 hours of booking my trip!

3. You may be denied coverage if you book a stopover or open jaws with an overnight stay in between cities (this is very common when traveling internationally).

I wanted to go to Paris first and then fly back home from London two weeks later. The insurance did not cover this type of trip because there was a 24-hour layover in Paris before flying out of London.

I was going to write about the French elections, but then I got distracted by an email from a reader who had been following our advice about travel insurance (see ­How to Travel Anywhere for $50 a Day) and then discovered that in his case it didn’t work.

In general, we think it makes the most sense to insure only very expensive trips: If you are paying $10,000 or $20,000 for a vacation, we think it is worth buying an insurance policy that will pay to get you home if something goes wrong.

However, this reader had bought insurance for a much cheaper trip (less than $1,500) and then discovered that the policy would not cover him because he had been delayed less than 24 hours. This seemed ridiculous—and I agree that it was—but in fact the rules were pretty clear. And they were also outrageous.

The problem is that the airlines have learned that they can make more money by delaying flights until they are certain they will leave on time rather than leaving on time and then getting stuck in traffic and having to delay them anyway. So everything has changed: Nowadays you are far more likely to be delayed en route than before you start your trip!

The result is that