Avoiding Summer Flight Delays

It's been a tough year for air travelers. Planes have been close to full, and flight delays have been the worst since the '90s.

Why the long delays, particularly during this summer travel season?

On The Early Show Friday, travel expert Pauline Frommer, creator of the Pauline Frommer Guides, called this "an ugly year for summer travel," and explained to co-anchor Julie Chen that, "There have been a lot of summer storms, and when that happens, there's a corollary delay that happens, because the flight crews can only work a certain number of hours, and the airlines are so understaffed that, often, they can't find other flight crews to replace them, which only builds in the delays. So it's storms and staffing."

But Frommer offered advice that could help you get where you're going on time:

Fly at the right time

"Tuesdays and Wednesdays tend to be slower than the other days of the week," Frommer pointed out. "So, you get fewer delays on those days. Also, it's so important, if you can, to fly earlier in the day. The storm systems tend to happen later in the day, and all those ripple delays that follow storms are also happen later in the day."

Even if you're not experiencing bad weather in your area, you can still have weather delays, Frommer noted, saying, "You may not see them, but they're somewhere in the area."

Avoid tight connections

It's not a good idea to miss your flight, Frommer observed, "because the flights are going out so full. The planes are going out 85 percent to to 95 percent full this year. So it could take two, three planes before they find you an open seat."Avoid huge hub airports

"Atlanta and the three New York City airports have the worst record for delays," Frommer said, "but you have to remember that two-thirds of all travelers are being funneled through the top 26 airports. So you have much more of a likelihood of being delayed at those large airports, and sometimes going to, say, Oakland instead of San Francisco, you'll have much less chance of delays, and you're going to get lower ticket prices at the smaller regional airports, often."

Do your homework

"There are sites," Frommer said, "such as AvoidDelays.com, and Department of Transportation sites that will tell you which are the worst airlines, which are the worst flights. For example, AirTran (Airways) has a flight between Charlotte and Atlanta that is delayed 96 percnet of the time!"

Why?

"I would assume It's weather patterns in that area, but it could be congestion on the runways. You never know."

Know Your Rights

The most important one, Frommer said, is "Rule 240."

"If the delay is the fault of the airline and not of the weather," she said, "invoke Rule 240. March up to the desk and say, 'Rule 240!' And Rule 240 states that they must get you where you're going, even if they have to put you on a flight from another airline, even if they have to pay for that. So, use Rule 240 on the legacy carriers, such as United, Delta, American, etc. It won't work on (for instance) Southwest and Jet Blue, but if it's their fault that you can't get where you're going, they have to get you there by the rules of carriage."