Yes, flying from point A to point B is a challenge these days.  Particularly if you are connecting through a hub or traveling to or from one.  Arm yourself with phone numbers.

Are you a frequent flier member of the airline you are taking?  If not, join right away and you usually can do it online.  If you are a member, good.  Why?  Because most frequent flier programs have dedicated phone numbers you can use to access a reservations agent.  Get that phone number and access to those agents. 

If you are flying internationally, get the phone number of the alliance (OneWorld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam, etc) your airline belongs to.  Frequently member airlines will cooperate with you when you are having trouble with a connection. 

Look for codeshare partners on flights you want to save money.  For instance, when I was traveling to Moscow from Dallas, I saved over $200 by calling Finnair and booking the flight through them instead of American Airlines and the very same route using the same flights on American Airlines flight numbers was really that much more.  In addition, because I was flying as a Finnair passenger, I got priority boarding *and* frequent flier points on American Airlines.  I should also mention that when I called Finnair, I got a nice reservations agent immediately instead of an automated system hopelessly trying to recognize my voice.  Sweet, huh?

When you are going to be in a foreign city, leave prepared with the booking phone number of your airline in that city.  Even better, travel with a cell phone that you can access service globally if possible.  That way, when you are stuck at London Heathrow with 20,000 other passengers, you can call the US and get a hold of your airline there.  I use ATT (Cingular) service myself which is a GSM system that is compatible with most systems around the world.  Yes, the fee to call the US can be a bit expensive but it is a lot cheaper than battling your way through problems locally . . . sometimes.

Consider traveling to a different hub than London or Amsterdam.  The truth is, it takes about the same time to fly from DFW to Frankfurt and then on to another destination in Europe as it does to fly to London and use their preferred partners.  There are plenty of hubs to choose from such as Frankfurt, Munich, Madrid, Brussells, Rome, Zurich and many others.  Try a foreign airline that offers Frequent Flier points on your plan but which uses a less crowded hub to connect their traffic through.

That same strategy can be used domestically as well.  Look for less congested hubs.  Instead of Chicago or Detroit, consider St. Louis or Cleveland.  Instead of Atlanta, consider Charlotte.  And choose on the basis of seasonal weather.  You do *not* want to fly into New York City in the summer unless it is your final destination for instance.  Likewise, Chicago and Detroit can often be affected by weather in the oasisnaturalcleaning.com summer.  DFW or Atlanta airport hubs can often be much more reliable because they eperience drier weather in the middle of the summer.   

Check Weather.Com and see what the seasonal weather is like at your choice of hubs and plan accordingly.  It usually doesn’t cost more to go through a different hub and you can save a great deal of time connecting through a hub that is slightly out of the way as opposed to trying to connect through a busy, weather affected hub.  It isn’t a guarantee against problems but it does greatly mitigate against potential problems.

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