TOP TIPS
I work for an airline – these are the three things you should always do if your flight is cancelled
AN AIRLINE employee has revealed the top three things passengers should do if their flight is cancelled.
With cancellations and delays happening all over the world due to staff shortages and other impacts of the pandemic, these tips could save your holiday.
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Posting the video on her , Natalie said gave her best pieces of advice amid a wave of flight cancellations both in the UK and the US.
Her first piece of advice was to google the "Bill of Rights" with the airline name - in the UK, the alternative is the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
She explained: "It will let you know what your rights are as a customer and what kind of compensation you would get for being on the tarmac for an hour, or if maybe you've been in the airport for five hours, what you get for that."
For example - the Ryanair website currently says that compensation will not be paid if the cancellation was announced more than 14 days in advance, if the delay is outside of Ryanair's own control, or if the flight is delayed but you still arrive at the final destination less than three hours than scheduled.
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Airline worker Natalie's next bit of golden advice is to download the official smartphone app of the airline you're flying with.
This could give you up-to-date notifications just as fast as the airline employees located at customer service points at the airport.
However, if there's an issue and you need to contact someone to arrange a new flight in the case of cancellation or delay, Natalie urged all of her followers to make sure they contact the company they booked with.
While that could be direct with the airline themselves, it's highly likely that anyone who booked with any third party would just be told to contact them directly.
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Natalie's third piece of essential advice for anyone experiencing a flight cancellation or delay is to use a .
The aviation site gives passengers the ability to track the location of your specific aircraft, by inputting the relevant flight number and date of travel.
Doing this even hours before you arrive at the airport should help you gauge if your flight will be running on time or not.
Airlines including easyJet and British Airways have cancelled thousands of flights in recent weeks, citing a shortage in staff caused by Covid.
BA reduced its schedule earlier this month, which will last until May, in a bid to prevent short term flight cancellations.
The CEO of Ryanair has warned that Brits should expect the travel chaos to continue for months.
And long airport queues are continuing to plague holidaymakers across the UK, especially at Manchester Airport.
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It's not just the airports - thousands of passengers have had their holidays disrupted by the P&O Ferries cancellations after all services were suspended this weekend.
And to cap it off, lots of families have been forced to cancel their holidays due to huge delays in passport renewals, which has seen many wait more than the recommended 10 weeks.
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