Ed Perkins on Travel: Holiday Travel: Do Your Murphy’s Law Check

It’s not something you typically want to think about about but having a plan B for the unexpected may save you a lot of stress and money.

Be prepared for the worst when traveling over the holidays. Dreamstime/TNS

This time of year, as you contemplate upcoming holiday travel, include a Murphy’s Law check on your arrangements. That means considering what might go wrong with Plan A and what sort of Plan B you need. Ideally, you can find a reasonable-cost Plan B, but some on-the-spot problems can be resolved only by throwing money at them.

Airport access or parking is full. If you’re driving to your departure airport, you need to get to the terminal. Check up on your departure airport, and if either access or parking is perennially congested, you have to get there some other way. Finding out when you’re already on the way is too late for a fix. Fortunately, you have easy Plan B options:

• If access roads typically clog up on heavy-travel days, take a train to the airport if one is available.
• If airport-lot parking is likely to fill up, arrange in advance for a space: Some airport lots offer reservations, or you can arrange off-airport parking at Airport Parking Reservations (airportparkingreservations.com/) and maybe even cut the cost compared with the airport’s lot.

Your flight is canceled. When any airline cancels your flight for any reason, it owes you either a refund or a seat on its own next available flight—often only that and nothing more. And that “next flight” might be two days later. There are no easy Plan B outs.