Tips for When a Good Flight Goes Bad

My wife and I recently were flying from Salt Lake City to New York City via a connecting flight in Ft. Worth, Texas. After we debarked the plane in Ft. Worth, we went to get a bite because we had 2 hours before our next flight. While we were eating, our connecting flight was canceled due to unknown reasons (probably because of weather). This led to a great deal of surprise when we went to our gate only to find that it said the flight was canceled. Additionally, there were no gate attendants to tell us what our next step should be. No one in the concourse had any information.

Eventually, I concluded to go out past the security checkpoint to the airline's front desk. There I talked to an attendant who placed me on a different flight on another airline that would leave within the hour. I went back through security and my wife and I quickly went to our new gate. On the way there, I got a phone call from the original airline telling me they had placed me on a later flight on their own airline that would leave many hours later than the one we were on. I ignored. We took the flight on the other airline. Enjoyed it far more than we did our original airline (they actually fed us food!) and ended up getting into New York only a little later than we had originally planned.

So what's the tip here? Talk to a real person when your flight gets canceled in the middle of your trip. Make sure they own up to the problem. Don't let them pass the responsibility on to you. This will make for a better trip and make sure you get the value you paid for.