By Dawn Gilbertson

ORLANDO -- I was half asleep when my phone pinged with an alert from Delta Air Lines late Sunday. The alarm for my 6 a.m. flight to Atlanta was just hours from going off, my carry-on packed.

"We sincerely apologize that your flight is canceled."

Thanks, government shutdown. This set off a late-night scramble to find another flight, a quandary hundreds of thousands of travelers have faced since the government required airlines to temporarily shrink their schedules last week.

Yet the rest of my cross-country adventure through four major airports Monday went off with nothing worse than a 45-minute delay. No snaking lines of cranky customers, passengers camped out on cots or travelers carpooling in a rental car to get to their destinations like we've seen during major airline meltdowns.

Which brings me to this: when travelers look back on the six-week shutdown, especially this final week, pockets of chaos is how I think we'll come to remember it. The pain was spread out, mostly planned and didn't come during a major travel period.

No fun, to be sure, especially for frequent fliers or travelers who call Newark, LaGuardia or Atlanta their home airport. But it was far less disruptive and painful than Delta's CrowdStrike meltdown in 2024, Southwest's Christmas meltdown in 2022 or Spirit Airlines' summer meltdown in 2021.

Make no mistake, if the government shutdown wasn't on the verge of ending, things definitely would have gotten worse, especially rolling into the Thanksgiving holiday. And it will take at least a few days more for things to start getting back to normal. But, overall, some travelers dodged shutdown bullets, others were pelted as airlines canceled more than 10,000 flights in the last week alone.

So what can we take away from this? My Monday flights -- Phoenix-Baltimore-Atlanta-Orlando -- provide some guidance.

Stay on top of things

Yes, it's my job to monitor all things travel. But I would have been stranded at the airport at 4 a.m. on Monday if I hadn't checked my phone after I went to bed Sunday night. The Delta and Flighty apps both alerted me to my last-minute cancellation. I didn't have much time to rebook (or sleep) but it's better than wasting a trip to the airport.

That's what happened to my seatmate on a flight from Atlanta to Orlando late Monday. She found out her flight was canceled when she was on the way to the airport. She was automatically booked for later in the day but still had to make two trips to the airport.

Another plus to stalking your flights: You get first pick of the rebooking options.

Be ready to pounce

Don't wait until your flight is messed up to figure out backup plans, especially if it's a trip you have to take. I loaded other flights from Phoenix to Atlanta into my Flighty app, for example.

If you're fortunate enough to have a stockpile of miles and points, judiciously book a backup flight in case your trip goes off the rails. I did this for a trip to Boston earlier in the shutdown because I couldn't miss a flight to Rome. (One reader chided me for recommending this in a previous article, saying it takes valuable seats from travelers who need them.)

Don't overlook alternate airports and car rentals. One reader told me the only way he could get home after back-to-back flight cancellations over the weekend was to fly into a regional airport and rent a car. Size up your options ahead of time.

It helps, too, to check out airport hotel options in advance. The lobby bar at the Hyatt Regency inside Orlando International Airport on Monday night was dotted with stranded travelers.

And don't forget other travel reservations that might need changing. I prebooked airport parking in the Delta terminal for my trip this week. But my new flight was on Southwest, so I quickly canceled it.

Nonstop isn't always the ticket

There's nothing better than a nonstop flight to get you there quickly and without the risk of trouble in the connecting city.

But a connecting flight is what got me to Atlanta on Monday. The other nonstop flights were sold out. It's a good thing I didn't make it onto one of those anyway -- they were canceled. My route did take three extra hours, though.

Choose your connecting city wisely, though. Baltimore, a major hub for Southwest but not a mega hub in the Atlanta or Chicago sense, was humming Monday. Chicago, another Southwest hub, was in the middle of a storm and had heavy cancellations.

A win for airport dads

The shutdown wasn't the time to test those Tik Tok trends touting last-minute airport arrivals. Airport dads who insist on showing up hours before a flight win during times like these.

Travelers in Houston learned this the hard way last week when TSA lines stretched for hours due to staffing shortages. My preferred checkpoint in Phoenix was closed early Monday. In Orlando on Tuesday morning, every security checkpoint was stuffed with passengers.

The worst thing that can happen if you get there early and find few lines: free time. The middle-seat passenger next to me on my flight from Baltimore to Atlanta Monday showed up 30 minutes earlier than usual and ended up with time to shop at Tumi.

Keep things in perspective

A lengthy government shutdown comes with plenty of political posturing. On Sunday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy threatened escalating flight cuts, saying Thanksgiving travel would be reduced to a "trickle" if things continued.

Skittish travelers started saying they plan to avoid airports this holiday season. If the shutdown ends this week, they might regret that.

Yes, traveling during a shutdown brings a risk of longer lines, flight cancellations and delays. But it's a different animal from a sudden disruption like a tech outage. Now, let's hope we don't go through this all over again early next year.

Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 11, 2025 21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.