How to Find Out Why a Flight is Delayed: Understanding the Causes

Even after you book a flight, nothing is guaranteed. The excitement of your upcoming journey can overshadow the uncertainties of air travel. While making a reservation, airlines don’t guarantee everything about your trip. Sometimes, there may be various interruptions, such as delays and cancellations, and unexpected issues can still arise, affecting your plans despite having a confirmed ticket.

The following information illustrates everything about your air trip; if your flight gets delayed, you must know what to do in such a condition and how to cope with it.

How to Check if the Flight is Delayed?

Airlines provide flight trackers on their flights to let passengers know how they can be aware of their flight timings and tracks. But in case the airlines are not providing flight trackers, then you can alternatively check it by:

• Clicking on My Bookings/flights and filling in your flight details will take you to their official website, where you’ll find all the information within a minute.
• By calling the airline’s customer services, you can get accurate information regarding your flight’s location.
• If you’ve booked the flight through a travel agency, you can contact them for further flight information.
• The airport website also provides all the information regarding the flights and also provides their trekking services.
• Check the flight’s social media handle by checking on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts.
• Sometimes, news related to the airline you’re flying with. Issues, accidents, or major operational changes might be covered.

Reasons for Delay

Sometimes, luck might not be in your favor. This statement means it might depend on various failures that occur on the journey, which are not easy to control for both the airlines and the airport services.

There are two types of situations for flight delays:

Controllable Circumstances	Uncontrollable Circumstances
Controllable situations are situations that can be managed and influenced by the Airlines. Such as: Security Weather, Air Traffic Strikes.	Uncontrollable situations are those that can not be managed and controlled by Airlines. Such as: Technical Issues Connecting, Passengers Boarding, Passengers Aircraft Preparation.

What Compensation Do Airlines Provide for Flight Delays?

Usually, airlines take care of their facilities for their passengers, but in some aspects, if the flights are not able to make it on time, then they compensate their passengers with various amenities for their misinterpretations by accommodating meals, refreshments, ticket refunds, additional flight tickets and many more. In case the flight is delayed for 24 hours, then airlines must offer full refunds and hotels for overnight stays to their passengers.

How to Anticipate Flight Delays?

Passengers should stay updated with details regarding their flights because sometimes airlines don’t provide exact information about the trip. Staying alert with information regarding your flights is one of the tasks that travelers should do while traveling. To anticipate flights, passengers need to stay on top of weather conditions because the weather must be good before flying. Apart from this, be alert to the inbound status of your plane at the airport.

Basic Passenger Rights When Flights Delay

There are various aspects by which a flight gets delayed, but it is important for travelers to know their basic passenger rights if their flight gets delayed, such as:

• If the flight is delayed for more than 2 hours, then passengers are entitled to have free of cost meals and refreshments depending on the duration of the wait.
• If domestic flights get delayed for more than 6 hours, the airline must communicate with passengers and let them know about their rescheduled flight 24 hours before departure.
• The airlines must give free hotel accommodation to passengers with delayed flights of 24 hours within 2 to 3 hours.

What to Do at the Airport While Waiting for Your Flights

While waiting for their rescheduled flights, passengers can explore various amenities provided at the airport, which will make their time there more enjoyable. These include shopping at stores, eating in restaurants, using airport Wi-Fi, and staying connected to the internet, which will help them track their rescheduled flight on the airline’s official website or app.

Conclusion

Generally, flights do come on time, but in some cases, they might get delayed for various reasons like bad weather conditions, technical faults, air traffic, strikes, and many more, for which airlines provide compensation to their passengers for their inconvenience depending upon the terms and conditions of airlines. However, when facing problems in the journey, passengers can claim basic passenger rights and avail themselves of the services that are meant to be provided by the airlines. So, by reading the information given above, you can learn about what to do if your flight gets delayed or canceled.

FAQ’s