Sensible (and sneaky) ways to avoid travel delays

Why does the departure screen say that your flight is on time even if there's no plane at the gate? Well, it so happens that an airline's operations side (the folks who keep tabs on where and how the planes are moving) isn't updating the customer service side (the folks who must deal with passengers). That's why gate agents can't always provide you with up-to-date information about when a plane will actually pull in - and for anyone wanting to make a connecting flight, that can be a big deal. What's a passenger to do? Slate's Amy Webb advises a more pro-active approach. She outlines 11 ways that travelers can avoid complications. Some of the tips are no-brainers, such as taking the earliest flight of the day and trying to stand in TSA lines that don't have lots of baby strollers and infrequent fliers. Others might be less well-known.

--Six hours before your flight, go to this website, it is the FAA map of the general takeoff status at airports. It won't tell you if your specific flight is delayed, but if you notice that flights seem to be running 30 plus minutes behind, I recommend you get to the airport ASAP. You can do a secondary check by going to Google or TripIt and entering your specific flight number, but that's only going to tell you if your particular flight is delayed. It's possible that there may be a mechanical issue on your flight in its previous city, or bad weather coming in, but you won't get a delay notice. At this point, you're trying to spot trends. You can go to your airline's page to troll for early indicators, too, but you'll get varying results. United and Delta are sometimes good, Southwest is mostly bad.

Why this matters: If you're seeing more than one delay at your airport that's 30 minutes or more, that means there's some kind of weather delay that will likely impact your flight, too. Even if you don't see bad weather where you are, that doesn't mean you're in the clear. New FAA regulations and airline procedures mean that you'll now see incremental delays--first 10 minutes, then 30, then another 30, etc.--rather than a definitive delay of two hours. Note: Even if you do have a delay, you still need to be at the airport. They may reverse the delay without telling you quickly enough, and you could wind up taking off on time or even a few minutes early.

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--If your flight is delayed, get to a front counter agent as soon as humanly possible and petition to get on an earlier flight or on standby for a plane that's on the ground and ready to go. Find out which airplanes are currently on the ground. Try and get on one of them--change your ticket or get on standby. If you need to get home or make a connection, pay the additional fee. Once again, remember not to check your bag. Do not wait for your airplane to be fixed or wait for an inbound flight to arrive. Just switch. Don't make chit-chat with the agent. Be friendly, but tell him/her that you're not going to make your connecting flight. Empathize with his/her situation as a frustrated counter person, but remember that you're not there to make friends. Express a sense of urgency and sound convincing. You must get on the standby list at the outside counter, before you get to the gate, when it will be too late. If the agent isn't providing you with much help, get to a first-class lounge inside (more on that below).

Why this matters: When there's any delay--weather, mechanical or otherwise--your goal is to get onto whatever plane is currently at the airport and has a crew.