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Booked on a Cruise leaving this Weekend have a Plan B if your Flying


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Anyone who is booked on a cruise leaving this 4th of July weekend as an airline employee I implore you to please have a plan B if you are flying.

 

If you can try to fly out a day earlier than you planned.  If that is not possible then do same day standby which for most airlines is free for revenue passengers and try to get out on an early morning flight. It is better to sit in a hotel lobby in Florida, Galveston, New York or wherever your cruise is leaving from than sitting at the airport hoping and praying your flight doesn't get delay or canceled. If all else fails BE PREPARED TO DRIVE IF NECESSARY.  If you can't leave a day earlier than planned, or can't move your flight to an early morning departure and your flight gets delays have a reasonable cut-off time in mind how long you are willing to sit at the airport and deal with rolling delays.  Once you hit your personal cut-off time if your flight is still on a rolling delay do not hesitate get in your car or go rent a car and DRIVE.  Some airlines are already issuing waivers to passengers booked between July 1 and July 4th.  Normally airlines only issue waivers when there is a major snow storm, or a hurricane so the fact that some are already issuing nationwide waivers is a indication that there is going to be some major operations meltdowns this weekend do to staffing shortages. This holiday weekend DO NOT MISS YOUR CRUISE BECAUSE YOU DON"T HAVE A PLAN B.

 

The FAA only allows pilots and flight attendants to work so many hours before they are "illegal" and are required by law too go into crew rest and the length of crew rest depends on the total number of hours they were on duty.  So a pilot who was on duty for 12 hours or a flight attendant who was on duty for 14 or 16 hours is not going to be legal to fly for at least 10 to 12 hours. 

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We do fly to our cruise city the day before in early morning (nothing later than 8:00 am) and most times an airplane is sitting at the gate waiting for boarding.  Post cruise In the afternoon flying home, the incoming plane we are going to board is frequently late to arrive.

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I try to never fly.  I haven't flown for decades before my most recent cruise out of Seattle.  I live in Alabama and because of my dislike for the Seattle Terminal and City as a whole, I'll never be going back.  If it wasn't for the three other folks that I cruised with, I wouldn't have gone on that cruise.  But, I digress!  Living in Alabama, it makes it easy to get to my favorite terminals/ports by car, all within a days drive.  They are Canaveral, Everglades, Miami and Galveston.   I know how lucky I am to be located so conveniently to so many great terminals. 

Most of my issues with flying aren't with the airlines, although flying isn't what it used to be, it's mostly about the intrusion at TSA and getting worse.    

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Our flight to Seattle earlier this month was cancelled three days before hand but they offered us a flight in that was earlier by a day.  We took it and Alaskan Air gave us a small refund.

Our flight home from Seattle was cancelled.  Then the flight they booked for us the next day was cancelled.  We ended up in Seattle for an additional 3 days total all on Alaskan Air's dime.  Not complaining, but YES HAVE A BACK UP PLAN!!!!!!

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I went 2 days early for my last cruse. It was an easy decision for me to make since my cruise was on a Sunday and my flight was after work on a Friday.   I had fun visiting with my sister and soaking up that FL sun.  I have never been so relaxed before a cruise before.  I even got my COVID test on Friday morning. 

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