Disruption at Newark Airport is stretching into a second week, with 26 flights delayed and more than 80 canceled so far on Wednesday alone, according to FlightAware. Becky Blaine, "The Points Guy" managing editor, joins Wealth to explain what travelers should know, including rerouting options, airline waivers, and credit cards that offer the best travel protections.
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Chaos at Newark International Airport is entering its second week. Today, 26 flights are delayed and over 80 canceled so far according to Flight Aware. This all started on April 28th when air traffic issues caused dozens of delays and over 100 cancellations. This has caused United Airlines, which has its hub in New York or New York, for New York, to cut 35 flights per day, which is about 10% of its schedule at the airport until further notice. The issues, according to the FAA and transportation secretary Sean Duffy, include aging technology, limited staff, and runway construction. All things that cannot be fixed overnight. So what do travelers need to know? Joining me now, we've got Becky Blaine, who is the managing editor at The Points Guy. Becky, good to have you here with us. If someone is traveling into or out of Newark in the next few weeks, what is the level of concern that they should have and what are some of the options that they also have available?
Yeah, thanks for having me. So the issues that you just had on the screen are all creating this perfect storm of delays and cancellations which could have a ripple effect across the northeast corridor and then eventually across the US. So, you know, here at The Points Guy, we're advising travelers always to look at your flight plan, understand if you're flying through New York, you might want to reconsider that and reroute through a different airport, um, especially as we head into the busy summer travel season. And a lot of the airlines are proactively providing waivers um for travel through Newark and other airports in the affected areas so that way they can reroute um without a huge financial impact. Um, we do want to let people know, you know, with these issues, overall air travel is still incredibly safe. But with these issues come some, you know, things that need to be handled by the FAA, which Secretary Duffy has come out today to say that they are making some immediate fixes, um, but it's still not the long-term solution that's needed for the air traffic control situation across the US.
And so how do you believe some of these delays, and of course we are still navigating through these spring travel season, but how does this play out in consumers' minds, travelers' minds as they're getting ready for the summer travel season?
Yeah, so typically we see summer travel, especially through that northeast corridor as one of the busiest times of the year, and couple that with seasonal summer thunderstorms and now the closure of the runway at Newark and it literally creates the perfect storm for delays and cancellations. And so we just want travelers to be proactive, be aware, reroute if they can. Um, if you have not booked summer travel yet, start looking at it now, looking at what your options are. If you're not picky about a destination, go to Google Flights and look at their Explore map and that will give you prices for airports, um, that you could consider, and then check the routing and the carrier for those flights and you know, maybe pick a carrier that doesn't hub out of some of those places in the northeast, um, and really kind of weigh and vet your options.
What do consumers need to know about those options? The the compensation, perhaps, even that they could receive if their flight is delayed or canceled.
Yeah, so there are certain credit cards that offer travel protections. Also when you purchase a ticket, some people opt into that insurance on the purchase page of the airlines' website, but we do want travelers to know that certain things like weather and um air traffic control delays are not covered by the airline carriers, right? That's not the fault of the carrier, which might deem it not reimbursable for the delays and cancellations clause on some of those travel protection policies on your credit cards.
And so which credit cards are the best when it comes to some of those protections from from what you've seen?
Yeah, so we have um routinely promoting cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. It's one of the great travel rewards cards that come with built-in protections. A lot of those Chase cards have that. American Express cards also too. So just make sure you're looking at what cards you have in your wallet, is it the card that you paid for that ticket with because as long as you purchase a ticket with that card, you're covered by the card's travel protections. But again, the reason for a delay or cancellation is what's going to determine if you do get a reimbursement or not. So we suggest being proactive first, reroute if you can, avoid those delays and cancellations if at all possible, and um, then make sure that you understand your rights as a traveler, look at the Department of Transportation consumer dashboard and look at your protections on your credit card travel policy as well.
