Many people are making plans to take off for Thanksgiving with the family or to spend the December holidays with loved ones.

Some are already planning a getaway for one of the school vacation weeks in February or April.

Not everything goes according to a schedule, and airlines realize they can't raise fares.

They have decreased the amount of flights, which means when one flight is behind schedule, it causes a bigger ripple effect says TV5's Travel Expert Peter Ramsay.

"The problem with this is these creeping delays, which you see quite often and especially at the holidays. If you're flying through New York for example. If you're on a flight that gets into New York at 6am that's fine, but at 7am those flights are already starting to get a five minute delays. At 8am, it's another five minutes. Through the day you progressively wind up with five minute delays until the end of the day you're up to an hour, hour and a half delays. It's just because of the volume that happens."

But what happens when those delays are longer or more disruptive?

"If it's Mother Nature causing the problem, airlines have no obligation and that's when you see the pictures of people sleeping in terminals," says Ramsay. "If the airline actually did something wrong, they had a mechanical problem or they didn't have enough crew rest and the flight was cancelled, they'll put you up overnight, so it is their responsibility to do that."

"If there is a weather related delay or missed flight, the airlines are not obligated to provide, for example, hotels or alternate transportation," said Rebecca Hupp the Director at Bangor International Airport. "They are required to rebook you on a flight, but it will be the next flight that has seats available, and as I said, with load factors at an all time high, it could be a difficult situation."

We've all heard the announcement that if anyone is willing to give up their seat on the flight, come to the counter. Should you give up your seat in hopes of future compensation?

"If they tell you the flight is really full and we want to take you off the plane and we will compensate you, ' We're going to give you a free ticket to travel at a later date,' my first question to them is, am I confirmed? Get your boarding passes with your seat assignments and you're set," says Ramsay. "But if they say 'No, we'll compensate you, but you're stand by for the next flight.' If it's Thanksgiving or Christmas, that's not a smart move. You're never going to get out because all the flights are full."

Ramsay has a couple of tips for traveling during the holiday or school vacation seasons. One is to arrive early, so if anything unexpected pops up, you have time to deal with it. And two, bring a sense of humor. The attitude you project to the person handling your changes will be returned to you.

And if you feel that you've been treated poorly or taken advantage of, what recourse do you have?

"If you really believe you've been wronged, then get names and times, write down the times that these things happened," is Ramsays advice. "If you've worked with a travel agent, go back to your agent and tell them what happened in detail and then have them write out a letter to the airline and a lot of times the airlines, if it's a well written letter and they read this and they say this could probably and did happen, they'll compensate you."

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