This is a warning to anyone with expensive charters booked. It’s going to be a brutal spring and summer for airline travel. The difference this summer is it’s not going to be the usual suspects melting down. Everyone will be having issues. JetBlue just took the highly unusual step of announcing a 10% pull down of their summer schedule. They have had a very high cancelation rate. Only Spirit is keeping them out of the bottom position. Their decision to take down the schedule is however the right thing to do and hopefully will lead to fewer issues. Other airlines have not followed suit because they just can’t seem to let go of the revenue. Demand is through the roof. Pricing is ugly for the consumer.
This means regardless of who you are booked with, including United and Delta who have been running the best operations this winter which is basically prettiest pup in a ugly litter, give yourself some extra time. I highly highly recommend going down a day ahead of time and gettin a hotel. This also means the established guidelines for when to book tickets are out the window. I would lock in sooner rather than later. It may well be the ugliest summer travel season ever in the US. I also recommend not starting a booking on a regional airline to connect if there is any reasonable option to drive to a hub. Regionals will be even harder hit.
G