Running Late for Your Flight? What to Do!

At one point or another every traveler runs into a time crunch. That feeling develops in the pit of your stomach as you race against the clock to the kiosk to print out your boarding pass. DENIED- it is 29 minutes before your flight and your pass won’t print.

Many travelers would be tempted to give up. Don’t! The most important thing you need to do is to try to get behind security. In many small airports it is realistic to think that you could still make your flight in 29 minutes. The problem however is that a ticket agent will not print you a boarding pass that close to flight time.

What should you do in a situation like this?

1- Stay at the kiosk. You are only wasting time involving an agent.

2- Look for the option to select standby on a later flight. It will usually have you swipe your credit card and charges roughly $50. However, you will only be charged this $50 when you get on a later flight.

3- Run to security. As a well prepared traveler you should be able to get thru quickly barring a long line. Your tardiness is not an excuse to cut the line- so cross your fingers and hope for a short one!

4- Go immediately to the gate. Explain to the agent that you couldn’t print your boarding pass because of the time. They should be able to print it at the gate.

5- Voila! You are on your way- and because you are on your original flight, no $50 charge.

Anyone else have good tips? Or maybe a horror story? 

Nasreen Stump is a freelance writer who lives in Vermont, when she isn’t on the road for work. Check her out on Twitter @ramblingstump !