Flying can be stressful, but for most travel you’ll need to choose a flight. While that seems straightforward, after flying hundreds of times and making a lot of mistakes, we have some suggestions that we hope will keep you from making some of our mistakes and lead to a more pleasant experience.
- Use a site / app like Google Flights, Kayak or Skyscanner to see the various choices, prices, and times for your flight. It will save a lot of time versus viewing individual airline sites, but…
- Always book directly with the airline if possible. If you run into a problem and you did not book directly through the airline’s website, you’ll need to get back in touch with whoever you booked with (Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) to get help – the airline won’t be able to help you in this case. This almost always adds complexity and reduced flexibility of last minute changes that you can make with the airline. Often they simply won’t help you actually leading to higher costs if something goes wrong. Even if it costs a bit more, book with the airline directly. Always.
- Book nonstop whenever possible. Chances of losing luggage, missing connections, getting stuck, or just stressing out running through the airport are magnified by connections. Heathrow, for example, is among the busiest airports in the world and many flights go through here but a layover in this airport can be a nightmare (long lines and security causing missed connections). However, if you can’t book nonstop consider the airport you will layover in and avoid the busiest/most notorious ones.
- Watch out for connection times. Obviously, you cannot always fly nonstop so connections are inevitable. But your airline may offer you connections that are totally unreasonable (we’ve seen as short as a 45-minute connection from a domestic to international flight– with terminal changes!). If your arriving flight is just a little bit late, you will at best have to jog through the airport and at worst miss your flight (which may mean a one-day or longer delay). Allow at least 2 hours for international layovers. For a purely domestic flight an hour may be (barely) enough time (because if you miss there will often be later flights). Importantly, if you book a flight with a tight connection, call the airline and explain that you don’t think there is enough time and would like a longer connection. They should without charge put you on a later second flight.
- For flights more than 6 hours consider booking either premium economy or business class. If you have points from a credit card this may be the place to spend them. Long flights in economy are unpleasant – long flight in business can be very pleasant indeed. But beyond that, you get access to faster check in, perhaps faster security, enhanced luggage handling, lounge access, and overall, much better service. If you do decide to spring for business however, carefully check the plane and layout – Delta One or United Polaris can be very different offerings from regular Delta or United business class and it depends a lot on the airplane. If you’re going to spend that much, be sure you know what you are buying. At minimum, book economy plus for a little extra leg room on the long-haul flights.
- Airlines are not the same. To get a sense of which ones are good or simply awful check out Skytrax . As an example, American Airlines – (which was grossly incompetent and rude on a recent trip to Peru) scores 2/10 (probably higher than they deserve) whereas Lufthansa (6/10) both fly to Germany. Unless you have serious commitment to American (frequent flyer miles or there is a huge price difference), choose Lufthansa. Having said that in these days of Covid, USA based carriers may be much easier to get refunds from for flight cancellations, etc. than smaller country-based carriers such as Aeromexico. If you find an airline you like, stick with it.
- You could get bumped. For whatever reasons, airlines oversell planes. I assume they know what they are doing though it’s hard for me to see how, for example, overselling a $150 flight makes any sense when they have to offer $1500 vouchers to send a passenger on a later flight. But expect it to happen. If you can be flexible you can get a lot of future travel credit. But it is a bit of a game – jump too soon and the airline gets off cheap – wait too long and you may miss out. Our suggestion – if you can be flexible, decide on a price point you are willing to accept, and if they offer that amount grab it quickly. On the flip side, do NOT passively allow the airline to walk all over you. If you are bumped, you have right to significant voucher compensation. If they bump you to a worse seat or a different class that’s additionally not ok. It is perfectly appropriate to stand your ground. It is not your job to solve the airline’s problems.