Be prepared for snags in family travel plans

As family travel season kicks into high gear, my experience provides a cautionary tale on what can go wrong and what you can do to fight back.

In my case, I assumed I'd done everything right - purchasing airline tickets six months in advance for a memorable spring-break trip in March with my high school senior. Not only had I committed early on to going, the airline had had my cash since October.

A week before leaving, I realized we didn't have seat assignments for the first leg of our travel like we did for the rest of the trip. So I checked in to make sure we were confirmed on the flight, and was told "yes sir."

That proved to be a false sense of security on departure day. A quick conversation an hour before the flight with a ticket agent, and our travel plans began unraveling. She said the flight had been oversold by two seats and that the airline had tagged us to be disposable. But we were not to worry because the agent was confident that two people would give up their seats in exchange for $250 cash vouchers and reservations on a later flight.

The offer asking for volunteers never happened.

As our friends boarded the flight, we limped away from the ticket counter. So much for "confirmed" reservations.

What followed over the next day was one misstep after another as the airline rerouted us. Think of it as 24 hours of high-altitude turbulence and you begin to get the picture.

Here's the quick breakdown of the rest of our nightmarish experience: First, we were placed on a flight that departed later that day from Kansas City to New York for the first leg of our trip. But the allure of spending a night in the big city quickly vanished when the plane was 40 minutes late in departing. There was also no hotel room, even though the airline had promised a room and had given me a voucher to pay for it.

Thank goodness for cell phones and credit cards.

The next morning, we arrived at the airport - again with confirmed reservations on a different airline for the final leg of our trip- only to be told that there was no reciprocal arrangement to accept these tickets. Now, I'm generally not one to blow my stack but this pushed the boundaries of my patience.

After two hours of conversation with multiple ticket agents, my credit card purchased the last two seats on the flight. The gods were with us - not the airlines, but the gods. So much for paying for the trip in October.

My experience is exhibit A of the types of nasty surprises that some unfortunate travelers will no doubt encounter this summer while on their way to a leisurely family vacation.

Track flight status "live" online - Wavuti

For example, one of the planes my friend was going to take from LA airport to Amsterdam was delayed, even though there were no details for the cause of delay, the information alone that this plane had not yet left was enough to help me dig for more 'real time' information from other news and social networks websites. When it finaly took off, I was able to see the 'exact' time it lift off the ground. y friend couldn't text me when they left, but I already that that info. Thanks to the website that also keep records of other days the same plane took of so I could see the trend in the past. That information alleviated some of the worries for I was able to realize that this one delay wasn't an isolated case, infact, there have been long delays aup to 4hrs, some delays in this airport are due to various unavoidable circumstances.

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