What a mess Sandy continues to make.

As the number of flight cancellations grow to more than 15,000, travelers are scrambling to find alternate flights and in most cases, the choices they have are few - if any.

Anyone who is scheduled to fly over the next week needs to reconfirm their reservation a few times a day, just to make sure everything remains in place. Also, close attention needs to be paid to the seat assignments…making sure there is still a seat assigned. In days like these, airlines will frequently swap out aircraft as they attempt to respond to changing operational challenges. When these aircraft/equipment substitutions are made, the entire flight’s seat assignments are cancelled since the planes have a different seating configuration. The danger now is flights are oversold and anyone showing up at the airport without a seat assignment is placed on a standby list…which is the very last thing you want to be on during times of irregular operation as we are seeing now.

Please…pay close attention to your seat assignment.

If your flight cancels and the airline offers an alternative route, consider taking it - make a quick decision and do not allow the chance to secure a reservation to slip away. I am hearing many reports of passengers who spend precious minutes trying to determine which flight to take, only to be told that that option is no longer available. Someone pulled the available seat right out from under them.

Driving to other airports is an option many are taking. Passengers trying to fly out of the northeast are renting cars and driving west in search of an open airport which can offer flight activity…to anywhere! In times like these, you take the first flight out to whatever HUB you can as a way to increase your options. Hesitation could result in being stranded at an airport for days.

If you are told your flight is cancelled, do not assume it has to do with hurricane Sandy. Ask why your flight was cancelled…find out why! When a flight is cancelled due to weather, the airlines have no obligation to assist other than to offer passage on their next available flight, which could be hours or days later. If, however, the flight was cancelled due to a mechanical problem or a crew issue, then it is a completely different ballgame. Then the airlines are required to place passengers on the next available flight, regardless of cost or carrier.

Here’s the problem; airline agents are not completely honest with their passengers many times and will try to get them to wait for their next flight instead of paying to place them on a flight which departs sooner. These days airlines try to keep every passenger they can even if it means at times they are not quite as honest as we would all like for them to be.

If I am told my flight is cancelled, I ask why. I then go online to see if there is a reason for the cancellation on the airline website and then I may even call reservations (without telling the agent I am booked on the flight) and will ask if it is operating. When I am told no, I ask why so I can confirm what I am being told at the airport.

If I learn it’s a mechanical problem, I quickly check to see what other airlines are operating and see which one has available seats. A quick reservation with a 24 hour hold allows me to take the six digit record locator (reservation number) back to the airline agent who told me of my cancelled flight and remind them of their responsibilities under their Conditions of Contract and present the alterative flight itinerary they should have offered me in the first place.

There may be few options during this mess of a storm, but there are things we can do to better our chances!