Last Update: 12/30/15

Purchase paper tickets, fly early, and think alternate cities 
By Peter Greenberg
NBC TODAY TRAVEL EDITOR

Aug. 8 — While United Airlines is apologizing for flight delays and cancellations, while passengers are getting angrier by the hour, some airports are beginning to resemble refugee camps and other airlines are filling up. Is there anything you can do if you absolutely, positively have to get to your destination? 

IT’S BEEN a bad time for many carriers, with weather, air traffic and labor problem delays. June may have been the worst month on record for airline delays. But August is shaping up as the worst month for one airline in particular ... United.

And more delays are on the way. United has announced that is is canceling nearly 2,000 of its flights next month.

Aside from weather, air traffic and union problems, there are two additional snafus that the airlines don’t really want to discuss: unrealistic flight schedules, and flying more planes than they have pilots.

And there doesn’t seem to be a workable solution for at least a month.

In the meantime, what can you do in this unfriendly consumer environment? Here are my tips to give you at least a running start in the race to avoid the delay disaster. 

1. Paper tickets are your friends. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Electronic or e-tickets are a problem in this situation. Although the airlines argue that it makes flying more convenient, the real question is, to whom? An e-ticket actually diminishes your options if there are any flight irregularities, especially endless delays. A paper ticket, on the other hand, is a negotiable document that in most cases can be — and will be — honored by other airlines. If you’re holding an e-ticket and there is a delay, more often than not you will end up standing in a long line — to get the paper ticket you should have had in the first place. And in the process, many of your other flight options may have — literally — taken off without you.

2. Book the first flight of the day. If flights are cancelled, your standby status on succeeding flights is better.

3. Think alternate cities. Midway instead of O’Hare; Islip instead of JFK or LaGuardia; Burbank or Ontario instead of LAX. In many cases, think of driving to get to your plane: Milwaukee is a favorite option, because to many savvy travelers it really is the hidden Chicago airport. The same is true for Colorado Springs instead of Denver, or Baltimore instead of Washington, or Providence instead of Boston.

4. Remember rule 240. Remember that paper ticket advice? Couple it with rule 240 and you have a halfway decent chance of getting out of town in the event  if a delay. Rule 240 (many airlines may know it now as Rule 120.20) had its beginnings under the old pre-deregulation Civil Aeronautics Board, but thankfully survived the post-deregulation transition to the U.S. Department of Transportation. What is rule 240, you may ask? In the event of any flight irregularity of any kind (with the exception of weather), invoking rule 240 means the original (and delayed) airline takes your paper ticket, endorses it over to the next available flight, not their next available flight, and off you go.

5. It’s not the flight number, but the aircraft number that makes the real informational difference. If your flight is showing up as on time, or even if it is showing up as delayed, you need accurate information. So, call the airline and ask them the aircraft number assigned to your flight. Then ask them the actual status of that aircraft number. For example, let’s say you’re flying from Seattle to Chicago on the 2 p.m. flight and it’s now noon. You ask and are told the plane is on time. But then you ask for the aircraft number, and discover it is aircraft number 423. You then ask the status of number 423 and learn that this aircraft is currently in Topeka. Guess what? You’re not leaving at 2 p.m. The same applies for flights already listed as delayed. If the plane is not at the gate, do the same routine to determine how long the delay will really be. And, as a general rule of thumb, add 20, 30, 40 or 60 minutes to the actual arrival time of that flight to determine the earliest departure time of that flight, depending on aircraft type (737, 727, 757 or 747).

6. Finally, there may actually be some good to come out of the United mess, and if you’re a member of the United frequent-flier program, you could benefit from some double dipping. In the short term, if you’re booked on a United flight and the flight is canceled, even if you fly on another airline, you should complain to United’s frequent-flier program and demand you get mileage anyway. In many cases, although United has no formal policy in place, it will give its frequent fliers that mileage even though they didn’t take the flight. In some cases, they may send out vouchers good for discounts on future flights, or free upgrade certificates.

In the long run, top United Airlines management, concerned about their tarnished image leading to a loss of their top echelon premium passengers, may well respond with a serious air fare sale within the next three weeks in an attempt to woo those customers back. And while the fare sale may not last very long, the airline may open up the calendar and make discounted flights eligible through the end of the year.

Peter S. Greenberg is the NBC “Today” show Travel Editor.