You probably already know that a winter storm is set to arrive Friday, crippling air travel on the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. Thankfully airlines have agreed to waive change fees ahead of the storm, but when countless passengers are also trying to change their flights at the same time as you, how do you actually get through to an agent to assist you with a making a new flight? Well, follow these two tips and you’ll save yourself hours of grief:
Cut to the front of the phone line. Even if you only have basic high-school Spanish, the queues for Spanish speakers are often much shorter. And once you get past the computerized phone tree, the agents generally speak English.
In some cases you’ll call the main reservations line and select a different phone prompt for Spanish, but a few airlines have direct lines:
- American Airlines Spanish-speaking: 1-800-633-3711
- Southwest Spanish-speaking: 1-800-VAMONOS (really!)
- United Airlines Spanish-speaking: 1-800-426-5561
If hold times are endless, consider calling an international number for your airline. Fire up Skype or GoogleVoice, and you’ll be speaking to a reservations agent (potentially with a fun accent) in no time:
- American Airlines International Numbers
- Delta Air Lines International Numbers
- JetBlue International Numbers
- United International Numbers
- US Airways International Numbers
- Virgin America International Numbers
Beyond that, if you have elite status with your airline, you might have a dedicated phone number as well. In some cases this will put you through to specialized agents, though for others it will automatically route you to the front of the hold queue.
Either way, it makes sense to program those numbers from the back of your elite card into your phone. You never know when they’ll come in handy.
Use social media. With crowded airports and lengthy phone queues, rebooking might take some time. While you’re waiting, consider reaching out to your airline on Twitter. At many airlines the Twitter desk is staffed by reservations agents, so they’re able to process changes to reservations.
- American Airlines — @AmericanAir
- Delta Air Lines — @DeltaAssist
- Frontier — @FlyFrontier
- JetBlue — @JetBlue
- Southwest — @SouthwestAir
- US Airways — @USAirways
- United — @united
- Virgin America — @VirginAmerica
In my experience, American and Delta are the most competent and helpful, but it’s good to bookmark the other handles just in case. Spirit Airlines literally has a computer running their Twitter account, so I wouldn’t bother in that instance.
Keep in mind as well that many airlines will allow you to rebook online, meaning you can avoid working with an agent entirely. Bonus: In-flight WiFi means you can often rebook from the air, avoiding phone and airport queues entirely.