The Worst Travel Nightmare Happened to Me — Here's What You Can Do If It Happens to You

It’s no secret that flying can be stressful, but it’s often the most convenient and fastest way to get from Point A to Point B (and yes, Point B for us is quite often Orlando International Airport).

From dealing with travel delays to cancellations and lost luggage, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. However, a member of the DFB Team recently had a travel nightmare, and we wanted to share this story with you in case you ever have to deal with something similar.

So this happened at the Detroit Airport last year. Overnight rain caused some airport roads and tunnels to get flooded, so much that transportation to the entire Delta terminal was shut down, and we were stuck in another terminal, and yep, we were booked on a Delta flight. So we, along with many other travelers, were stuck in a terminal trying to figure out how to get to where we needed to be.

Imagine being stuck at the airport ALL day

Delta was not very helpful in the situation and basically informed passengers who were stuck in other terminals that there wasn’t much the company could do in that situation. We ended up missing our first flight because we couldn’t get to the Delta terminal. Note there was an inter-airport bus running, but the wait for it would’ve been HOURS long. We tried to rebook our Delta flights but had issues with that. Eventually, we got help from Southwest and FINALLY got a flight to our destination. However, it was a LONG day at the airport, to say the least.

We also had to demand a refund from Delta for our first flight and to rebook our flight, although we got bumped from that one because we missed the original flight. It was impossibly frustrating, to say the least. Delta did not cover the cost of our Southwest flight, but we were refunded for our Delta flights.

So what should you do if this happens to you? First, being weather aware might help, especially if you know it could cause problems at the airport. Now flooding airport roads is NOT something you really CAN prepare for, but knowing if bad weather has affected the airport could give you a heads up to call your airline and see what’s going on and how that might affect you.

Also, it’s always a good idea to book your flights with a credit card that comes with some travel protection — if you get stuck overnight, you can often get reimbursed for a hotel or a rebooked flight if something like this happens and the airline isn’t willing or able to help. If you don’t have that, buying travel insurance is also a good way to cover yourself for these kinds of weird occurrences. Also, don’t be shy in demanding that the airline take some responsibility even if it’s something like this that is outside of the airline’s control.

Now, we’re not trying to freak you out because something like this doesn’t happen often, but it’s always a good idea to be prepared for travel to go wrong in some way.

Stay tuned to DFB for more.