What to do if your flight is diverted: Tips from one passenger’s 10-hour travel ordeal

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – I’ve always wanted to visit San Antonio. But not like this.

I was stuck on the airfield of Texas’ second-largest city earlier this month, on a flight diverted from Dallas due to severe storms.

Overall, it was a pretty miserable experience – trapped inside a long metal tube with a couple hundred strangers, with scarce food and scarcer answers.

There were a few highlights, however, including an American Airlines crew that did its best to keep a pack of impatient passengers (myself included) from losing our cool, and fresh pizza delivered at 30,000 feet.

The U.S. Department of Transportation reports that there were more than 12,000 diversions in 2024 – that’s more than 30 every day.

Most are due to unpredictable weather, although on-board medical emergencies and mechanical problems also cause planes to divert. And during the recent federal government shutdown, we saw an uptick in diversions due to understaffed air traffic control facilities.

On the day of my trip, I knew the weather looked dicey in Dallas, where my cousin’s daughter was getting married the next day. But we took off on time from Cleveland and I hoped for the best.

My husband was on the flight with me, as was my younger daughter. Meanwhile, my older daughter was flying from Detroit and my sister from Cincinnati, all with arrival times within 15 minutes of each other at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

We got our first indication of trouble about a half hour before we were supposed to land, when the captain informed us that bad weather in the area had temporarily closed the airfield.

The good news, he said: We had plenty of fuel to circle for a while and wait for conditions to improve.

And circle we did, for nearly 90 minutes.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the flights with my older daughter and my sister were circling too. Their pilots, however, both managed to somehow slip through a short weather window and land, while we continued to do laps in the sky above them.

About an hour and a half after our scheduled arrival time, and with fuel getting low, the captain informed our group that we were headed for Austin, about 200 miles south of Dallas. Moments later, he was on the speaker again, telling us that Austin was overcrowded with diverted flights and we were going instead to San Antonio, another 100 miles south.

This is when things got frustrating.

On the ground in San Antonio – already more than two hours past our promised Dallas arrival time — we were told we would be there for at least another three hours, due to all the diverted flights that were queued up hoping to make their way back to DFW.

We were looking at a 4:47 p.m. departure from SAT, with an arrival in Dallas well past 6 p.m. (This is why, I told myself, we booked our flight a day ahead of the wedding.)

A spokesman for American Airlines said numerous factors are taken into consideration when a decision is made to divert a flight, including the fuel on board, aircraft type, location of bad weather and air traffic demand at a given point in time.

“When conditions do not permit a flight to land safely at its intended destination, our team works with air traffic control to select a suitable diversion airport, with the aim to quickly operate back to the intended airport when it is safe to do so,” he said.

Meanwhile, I was now able to communicate with my sister and daughter, on the ground in Dallas.

“Why did you get to land and we didn’t?” I wanted to know, aware that they couldn’t possibly know the answer.

I wasn’t the only one impatient for information. Fellow passengers on my flight – frustrated because American couldn’t tell us with any certainty when we would arrive in Dallas — started contemplating getting off the plane.

Often with a diverted flight, passengers are permitted to exit the aircraft and wait inside the terminal until the flight is cleared to take off. That wasn’t possible for us, given that we were parked in the cargo area.

Eventually, passengers were permitted to leave – there was a shuttle that took them to the main terminal – but they were told repeatedly that if they got off, they would not be allowed back on.

Complicating matters: Travelers who checked a bag wouldn’t be able to retrieve their luggage. (Reason No. 67 to never check a bag.)

My daughter, husband and I were traveling with carry-on bags, so in theory we could leave. I quickly checked rental car rates and drive time from San Antonio to our destination, north of Dallas ($156 for three days, 5 hours 21 minutes).

By my estimation, at least a quarter of my fellow passengers got off the plane – some to drive, some to catch new connections and some who said they simply wanted to go back to Cleveland.

My husband and daughter were adamantly opposed to getting off and driving, but I hated the uncertainty of it all. I had visions of our flight being canceled entirely and us rolling up to the wedding venue minutes before the ceremony started the next day.

Among my worries: that the crew would eventually “time out” – that is, exceed their allowable working hours – and we’d have a plane but no one to fly it.

Fortunately, as I stewed, the captain came on again and made us all very happy – we were unexpectedly cleared to take off as soon as possible, a full 90 minutes earlier than he had initially communicated.

In the meantime, the flight attendants had performed some airfield magic of their own – arranging for dozens of Domino’s pizzas to be delivered straight to our aircraft.

Shortly after take-off, the attendants came through the aisle offering passengers their choice of cheese or pepperoni.

We landed in Dallas at about 5 p.m. – nearly 10 hours after we had departed from Cleveland.

“For that much time on the plane, we should be exiting in Tokyo,” I groused to my daughter as we made our way through DFW.

Maybe so. But Dallas – finally — was good enough.

What to do if you’re diverted

Policies for diversions vary by airline, but American Airlines’ customer service plan calls for the carrier to provide hotel accommodations if you’re not on a plane to your final destination by 11:59 p.m. Transportation to and from the hotel is also included. Meal vouchers are required if you’re delayed in the diversion city for more than three hours.

Experts recommend that travelers start researching alternatives as soon as they know they’re being diverted, especially if it’s unclear how long the diversion will last. While you may decide to wait it out, it can’t hurt to have options – including other flights, Amtrak, bus or car rental possibilities. Remember, though, if you strike out on your own, you’re likely on the hook for any additional expenses.

Travel insurance can help with costs incurred due to diverted and delayed flights. Some credit cards, too, offer trip delay coverage and will cover the cost of extra meals, transportation and lodging.