After epic airline failures this past summer, many passengers bracing for holiday travel chaos may be in for a pleasant surprise.
NBC 5 Responds found many signs that air travel has improved in the last four months, from the number of flights delayed or canceled, to consumer complaints in general.
That progress is reflected in the numbers: During the week of Thanksgiving, flight tracking company FlightAware reported less than half of one percent of all flights were canceled. FlightAware spokesperson Kathleen Bangs told NBC 5 Responds there were 410 cancellations out of 136,300 total flights nationwide.
It's a dramatic difference compared to one particularly busy holiday travel week this past summer.
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During the Juneteenth and Father’s Day holiday week, Bangs said FlightAware found 3.5% of all flights were canceled, or more than 11,000 cancellations out of 315,668 total flights.
Here in Chicago, this past Thanksgiving week, FlightAware found the number of flight delays from O’Hare or Midway were in line or just under the national average.
Nationwide, from Nov. 21 to Nov. 27, FlightAware found 16.2% of all flights were delayed, with the average delay time of 42 minutes.
During that same week, 10.6% of all flights leaving from O’Hare were delayed, with an average delay time of 51 minutes, while 16.3% of all flights leaving from Midway were delayed, with an average delay time of 34 minutes.
The U.S. Department of Transportation also noted in a recent Air Travel Consumer Report that the number of consumer complaints they received from August to September decreased by 15.6%.
There’s still more work to do though.
While the number of complaints dropped from August to September, the number of complaints are still more than 380% higher compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, the Department of Transportation recently reported.
And the nature of those kinds of consumer complaints can turn a good vacation bad.
Michael Rowdon of Crest Hill recently traveled to Europe this past October and said he had a picture-perfect vacation, until his flight home on Lufthansa Airlines.
“It took five days for [the airline] to locate my bag,” Rowdon told NBC 5 Responds. “I was pretty disappointed because this bag’s an old friend.”
Rowdon said the airline lost his luggage, and when he finally received his bag a week later, there was more bad news. The bag’s handle was completely torn off.
Rowdon filed a claim for the damage with Lufthansa Airlines, in accordance with the airline’s policy online, but after nearly two months of waiting, he said he still hasn’t heard back. Rowdon says it’s the principle of good customer service for him.
"I'm sure that there's a lot of people that would just write this off and say, ‘Well, you know, I'm a victim. It happens.’ And throw the bag away,” Rowdon said. “I just don't think that's right.”
Rowdon’s experience articulates one of many areas of focus for regulators in Washington: Improving air travel across the board.
“We had been pressing the airlines, and the airlines had been responding,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg told NBC 5. “We don't care where your headquarters is, if you're operating in the US, you have to meet our high standards on safety and our standards on consumer protection.”
Recently, the U.S. Department of Transportation published a dashboard online for passengers, laying out every airline’s policy when it comes to flight disruptions or ways to contact the airline if there’s a problem.
To see the dashboard laying out airline policies, click here.
There are several ways you can prepare for the busy holiday travel season.
Consumers’ Checkbook released their list of “60 Strategies for Finding the Best Travel Deals and Avoiding Trouble” this year.
Here are some points to consider:
- Pack some essentials in your carry-on luggage, just in case your trip takes longer than expected.
- Download the airline’s app and subscribe to alerts, so that you are first to know if there’s trouble
- If there is a problem with your flight, react immediately. You will likely be competing with other passengers for another flight, so any information you can find in advance of your trip for additional flights to your destination may keep you moving.
- Check the weather forecast in the areas of where you’re leaving and landing. Airlines will often issue fee waivers in advance, if there’s bad weather. There also might be an option to leave earlier, later, or to a different city at no extra cost.
- Consider buying a wifi tracker to place in your checked luggage. That way, if the airline loses your bag, you might be able to pinpoint its location on your smartphone, from wherever you are, and help the airline track it down faster.
- If you have an issue with an airline, and their phone lines are busy, some passengers have success reaching a representative over social media to help with their concerns.
