Flight Delays Only Getting Worse

[MBeamTX]

If you're cruising this summer and plan to fly in on embarkation day, you may want to rethink your plans. There is an article in today's New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/business/05late.html?em&ex=1183867200&en=5ce58dc01c91aace&ei=5087%0A) that explains that as the on-time performance of airlines continues to deteriorate, the effect on passengers is even worse than the statistics indicate.

 

That's because about a third of all passengers have to take a connecting flight. Your first flight may be only an hour or two late, but if it causes you to miss your connection, you could be looking at a significant delay because so many flights are fully booked. You may be going nowhere for hours or even days. The NYTimes article says that Continental is automatically rebooking people who miss connections:

 

The system, however, rebooks people on the next available flight with a confirmed open seat and that is not always as soon as people might expect. Some are told their new departure is in three days.

 

That would certainly be a bad start to a cruise, wouldn't it?

 

Susan