Flying on Memorial Day

[gar63]

My cruise leaves out on Memorial Day at 4:00. I'm starting to hear of a lot of delays in the Atlanta airport. I booked my flight (not with the cruiseline)without much consideration for delays. My flight leaves Atlanta at 10:40 A.M. and is supposed to arrive in Miami at 12:30 in the afternoon. That gives us about a 3 hour time-frame to get to our ship. This is our first cruise, (and first flight in 25 years!) and I didn't think anything of booking the flight so close to the cruise, until I started reading that most of y'all arrive the night before. I'm getting a little worried that we are cutting it too close! Especially it being a holiday! I called Travelocity to see if I could change my flight to Sunday, but they said it would be an extra $130 per person to change. I don't know what to do! Any of you *seasoned* flyers have an opinion???

Thanks!!
Patty

[cmason]

Holiday's usually don't result in really long delays, as airlines can plan for them. Airports, though, can get crowded, so plan ahead. Usually, weather is a bigger factor in long delays.

Your best bet is to get an earlier flight. Check your airline schedules, and try to fly standby on an earlier flight. Simply arrive at the airport in time for the earlier flight, check-in, and ask if they have seats on the earlier flight, and to put you on standby. If they have the seats, they will usually put you on the earlier flight, no charge. In any case, you want to allow plenty of time to get into and thru the airport, so arriving early won't be a waste of time.


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[GeoffMIA]

The good thing is that a flight scheduled to arrive around that time will probably have some passengers that did book their air travel through the cruise line. Therefore, the agents at the Miami airport will know the status of the flight and if it is delayed, they sometimes (hey, there are no guarantees in life) will hold the ship until those passengers arrive.

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