Local Travel Expert Offers Tips and Tricks to Avoid Summer Travel Nightmares

(KNSI) — Travel woes continue to plague the summer vacation season as flight delays and cancellations pile up.

One local travel expert offers tips and tricks to protect your summer fun.

Bursch Travel Marketing Director Gretchen Winters says if you’re heading out, pack your patience and have a plan.

“If you have a special event that you want to attend, a wedding, a birthday, a party, whatever, plan to arrive at least 24 to 48 hours ahead of time. Then you can build in that cushion that will give you that peace of mind.”

She says flying nonstop to your destination will eliminate the risk of missing a second flight or having the second flight canceled or delayed. If your flight is canceled and you have to stay overnight, you could be entitled to getting the hotel covered. Passengers can also be eligible for food vouchers if their flight is delayed more than four hours or canceled.

Next, Winters suggests working with a travel agent and springing for travel insurance.

“That’s what we really recommend. Because that covers you for any kind of medical situation, baggage trip delays, any of that. The coverage is really, almost essential to have nowadays.”

London’s Heathrow Airport is begging airlines to stop selling tickets for flights there immediately and has capped passengers at 100,000 per day who are allowed to fly from the airport through September 11th. Officials say staffing shortages have crippled the facility to a point where there are concerns about passenger safety and well-being.

Winters expects summer travel to remain hot but hopes most of the issues causing the delays will be resolved by the start of 2023.

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