Photo: yahya/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The snowstorm this past weekend that canceled thousands of flights and stranded thousands of airline passengers--just before the peak Christmas travel period--serves as a reminder that U.S. travelers have few rights when their flights are delayed or canceled. An airline's only obligation is to get you to your destination eventually; it doesn't owe you compensation for damages. Which is no comfort to travelers like Susan Karpa, who wrote in with this sad story:

"My husband and I were booked on a Uniworld holiday market cruise on the Rhine. We were scheduled to depart Chicago O'Hare yesterday and arrive in Basel, Switzerland, today. The heavy storms on the East Coast cancelled our USAirways flights. After an agent at the airport service counter spent 2.5 hours trying to get us to our destination, it became apparent that this was not going to happen. The only possible flight is for arrival on December 24, when the ship will be in another location. Uniworld is unwilling to give us a voucher for later travel, as we did not buy the travel insurance. We are out almost $3,500."

Yikes. Unfortunately, I can't help Susan with her predicament (she should have bought the insurance), but I can tell you that if you're hitting an airport this holiday season, you should follow these steps to minimize the damage that flight delays and cancellations can do to your travel plans:

In my hand is the record of a Continental Airlines captain's efforts to help me find my lost iPhone last week.

The moment I boarded my Continental flight from Newark to Houston on Thursday, panic set in: I couldn't find my iPhone.

I had spent the past hour working on my laptop at the gate--and unpacking, using, and repacking various accessories, cords, battery chargers, and other gadgets--so I assumed the iPhone had somehow slipped out of my bag of gear and been left behind. Immediately after arriving at seat 16D and stowing my wheelie in the overhead bin, I begged the flight attendants to let me off the plane so I could go back to the gate area and search for the phone. They did but, alas, the phone was nowhere to be found.

Seeing the look of dismay on my face when I reboarded, the flight attendants could not have been more sympathetic. One spent about ten minutes suggesting Continental employees I could speak to at the Houston airport who might be able to help. Another suggested I write down my name, contact info, and the details of where I thought I'd left the phone, saying she'd take my note to the captain. Pictured above is the note that the captain sent back to me, showing that he'd made three calls to Newark, asking them to be on the lookout for the lost phone.

Click the map above to see a full size version

by Wendy Perrin

When we at Conde Nast Traveler force a blogger to fly tens of thousands of miles within the space of one month -- remember last year's Airport Layover Contest? -- our goal is to get him out of the airport as much as possible during the down time between flights.  Not so over at Wired.com. The stunt-loving sadists at Wired's Autopia blog won't let their guinea pig -- nicknamed "Terminal Man" -- leave the airport even once!

Remember those $599 JetBlue unlimited travel passes that were on sale last month? Our friends at Autopia bought one for 28-year-old blogger Brendan Ross, a.k.a. Terminal Man. He now gets to fly every day for the next month, endure as many as 68 flights in total, and never leave the airport unless it's on a plane. This is one journey I can't wait to follow. Brendan will soon begin blogging about his adventures, and he's already tweeting up a storm on Twitter. 

Autopia has invited readers to suggest where Brendan should fly and what he should do during his layovers, so if you've got recommendations, share them here. (We've provided a handy-dandy JetBlue route map to help you out.)

If, on the other hand, you're someone who prefers to spend layovers escaping the airport, check out the 180-or-so seriously creative layover suggestions, most of them international but many domestic, recommended by Perrin Post readers in our Airport Layover Contest. For easy scanning, we've copied and pasted the layover recommendations into this blog entry, after the jump:

Another way to enjoy Singapore on the cheap? Sample the array of tasty, inexpensive street food.

by Julia Bainbridge on Travel Deals

Asia-bound this summer? If you're flying Singapore Airlines, you can stop over for a night in Singapore for $1 per person, based on double occupancy.

Sure, summer in the Lion City can be brutally steamy, but if you're flying through this major hub anyway, why not spend a night if it means free activities, super-cheap hotel stays, and fabulous food? (And even without this special rate, Singapore is a great-value vacation.)

Package includes: Free ground transport to and from Changi Airport, free admission to attractions like the National Orchid Garden and the Singapore River Bumboat Tour, 50% off meals at certain restaurants, and a free SingTel prepaid mobile card, among other perks. Visit singaporeair.com/ssh to learn more.

Note: Participating hotels are broken into price categories. Category A hotels cost $1 for one night. Category B, C, and D hotels range from $20 to $40 for the first night--still good discounts off the normal rates of $62 to $94. Category E and F hotels require more of a splurge. Click here to find out more about the categories (and scroll down to the bottom of the page for a list of the properties in each category).

Bonus: This deal applies to both departure and arrival stopovers, so you can take advantage of the $1 rate twice if you want to. Another bonus? If you book online, you get a 15% discount (both off the $1 rate and off rates for additional nights).

Book by: May 15, 2009

For travel from: April 15-September 30, 2009

Condé Nast Traveler approved: Our readers have consistently voted Singapore Airlines the best airline in the world, and two of the F-category hotels, the Ritz-Carlton Millenia Singapore and the Shangri-la Hotel Singapore, have both made the Gold List. 

Conde Nast Traveler contributor and Daily Beast consulting editor Lee Aitken recently ran into trouble booking Caribbean airline tickets for an assignment for the magazine. I thought you all should hear her story:

"Here's a scam to watch out for when you book local flights within the Caribbean. Big sites like Expedia don't deal with puddle jumpers like Dutch Antilles Express, so I used CheapOair to book short hops between Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. They were even offering $10 off each ticket. (Always looking out for the magazine's money!) CheapOair took my money, confirmed my reservation, then emailed me that they couldn't book the flights I'd chosen for a "technical reason" unspecified. They proposed different flights at times that didn't suit our plans. So I got on the phone to Bangalore and said, "If you can't book the flight, I want you to refund my money." The poor operator there said they would be holding on to a $48 booking fee for each ticket. I raised hell about that, demanded a supervisor, and after a long time on hold was finally told they would refund ALL the money to my credit card (although we'll see if they do). Then I rebooked the flights directly with Dutch Antilles Express and discovered that its round-trip fare for Aruba to Bonaire is $75 lower than CheapOair's! How dare they call themselves CheapO? (Answer: Because people like me fall for it.)"

A Corsair 747 from Paris (Orly) landing at Sint Maarten's Princess Juliana International Airport, as viewed from the Sunset Bar & Grill, Feb. 15, 2009.

by Wendy Perrin

The idea came from airplane junkie Benet Wilson over at Business Aviation Now:  Her tip for Sint Maarten was to hang out at the Sunset Bar & Grill--a super-casual barefoot beach bar that sits on Maho Beach right at the end of the airport's runway--and watch the planes come in.

But I wouldn't have been there at just the right moment if it weren't for Perrin Post reader TheGlobalTraveller (a.k.a. Kiwi Flyer of FlyerTalk's blog The Gate): When I asked on Twitter how to deduce what day/hour to hit Maho Beach so as to see both a 747 and an A340 (the biggest inbound planes) land within the shortest possible time frame, he pointed me to this cool FlightStats.com tool: Punch in the airport, and it will tell you which planes land when. It told me that, on Sunday the 15th, a Corsair 747 was due to land at 1:55 and an Air France A340 at 2:30. Bingo!

That's the Air France A340 that flew in from Paris (Charles de Gaulle) on Feb. 15, 2009.

Now, if you're on the beach when one of these giant planes comes in for a landing, you'll get sandblasted--or, as Benet aptly describes it, "exfoliated."  If you're standing behind a huge plane that's powering up its engines for take-off, you can get blown right into the surf.

Maho Beach sits just across the road from this.

To see more planes--and sandblasted spectators--click to the next page:

by Wendy Perrin

Just a quick note to let you know that the U.K. Telegraph has published a passenger complaint letter written to Virgin Atlantic's Sir Richard Branson that is described as possibly "the world's funniest passenger complaint letter." Don't miss it.

by Wendy Perrin

Conde Nast Traveler aviation correspondent Barbara Peterson learned how to ditch an aircraft as part of a flight attendant training course she underwent a few years ago. She shares her take on yesterday's incredible events--a USAirways flight landing in the Hudson River, with all 155 passengers and crew surviving!--on our sister site The Daily Traveler. Check it out here.

Premium economy class on Open Skies offers business-class-sized seats on the cheap.

by Wendy Perrin

No sooner did I write that I'd need a few more days before I could rev up and post daily deals again than into my In-box popped a deal so astounding I felt I had to drop everything and let you know:

Remember last fall I told you about Open Skies' PREM+ class, one of the best values in the skies? Through January 26 the airline is selling round-trip fares between New York and Amsterdam starting at only $1,000 (including all taxes and fees), for travel through May 31.

One glance at the Premium Economy chart at SeatGuru.com will show you that the legroom you get--52 inches of seat pitch--is extraordinary compared to what you get in other airlines' premium economy cabins. Conde Nast Traveler aviation correspondent Barbara Peterson tested PREM+ herself recently and tells me that the cabin is equivalent to business class on many airlines and that $1,000 is an "amazing" price for what you get. And business travel expert Joe Brancatelli raved about it back in October.

So, if you're headed to Europe this spring and can rationalize a splurge, consider flying Open Skies to Amsterdam (AMS is a great airport for connecting) and booking a flight on a low-fare airline to your final destination.

by Wendy Perrin

A reader who bought tickets last April to fly to Puerto Vallarta for the holidays has written in with an urgent plea for help.

"I have been on the telephone for over an hour. Four of us are supposed to return from Puerto Vallarta on January 2, 2009. If I had not called to check on my reservation, I would never have known that my flight that departs from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara and then Guadalajara to Chicago was canceled. They never contacted us!!! My whole family is flying in from all over the United States. They told me that I could leave on January 1, but that is not acceptable, since we have plans for January 1. I would even be fine if they offered to arrange ground transportation from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara, as long as it's on January 2. We saved for a long time to purchase these tickets and to rent the condo, and now our dream for one stress-free week is turning into a nightmare. Please help us!"  --Angela Harris

Yikes!  It's not too late to run to the newsstand and pick up Conde Nast Traveler's December issue, in which aviation correspondent Barbara Peterson advises how to handle just such a situation, as well as other increasingly common air-travel nightmares.

by Wendy Perrin

I'm hoping some of you might have a trick up your sleeve that reader Mamaro could put to use at the airport tomorrow:

"Five of us are flying from Hartford to Detroit on Wednesday," writes Mamaro. "Monday and Tuesday of this week, the flight was canceled due to aircraft maintenance. Any ideas? Should I still print our boarding passes today? Will it make things better or worse tomorrow if our flight is canceled? Suggestions welcome."

Me and the kids at EWR right after passing through security, Feb 14, 2008.

by Wendy Perrin

The next few days--specifically, tomorrow and Sunday--are among the most hated of the year for those of us navigating airports.  The good news, though, is that we'll see less congestion than we've seen the past few Thanksgivings. Compared to last year there's a 10 percent drop in passengers and flights--3,000 fewer domestic flights per day, in fact.

Thanks to those family lanes the T.S.A. has set up at every security checkpoint in the country, security lines should be easier too. At least, easier for those passengers without kids who can use the regular lanes. Personally, I'm dreading having to use the presumably much slower family lane when I take the kids to Barcelona on Friday.  Now that the boys and I have the security checkpoint thing down to a precision military drill, we'll be stuck in the line for all the inexperienced fliers struggling with strollers and bottles and toddlers in lace-up shoes, not to mention the passengers carrying medically necessary liquids, aerosols, and gels in excess of 3 ounces. Yikes.

My biggest tips for flying this weekend are the same as for any other weekend:

by Wendy Perrin

Continental Airlines announced yesterday that it is waiving baggage fees for Continental Chase credit card and debit card holders for the first piece of luggage they check. This means a savings of $15 each way. Since passengers who are traveling with--and listed in the same reservation as--the primary cardmember also get their fees waived, this apparently means I've just saved $120 off my next trip: Since my family of four is flying, and each is checking a suitcase, I'll save $60 each way, for a total of $120. That's more than the annual fee ($85) for the card!

Watch out for other airline-affiliated credit cards to come out with similar perks for their cardmembers. And if I run into any hidden snag at the airport check-in counter, I'll be sure to let you know!

by Wendy Perrin

Funny, just hours after warning earlier today that "many European low-fare airlines charge a lot of extra fees you can't always predict, including fees for luggage," I get this email from reader Kate Reeves:

"My husband and I just had the experience of flying Ryanair from Knock (in west Ireland) to Bristol in England.  The tickets were listed as about 15 Euros.  Then there were a great number of add-on fees, such as departure fees, airport taxes, and such, to the extent the tickets actually cost approximately $180 apiece.

To add insult to injury, my husband had to pay $160 for his suitcase because it was 'overweight' by Ryanair standards.  It weighed 48 pounds--under the weight mandated by international carriers--however Ryanair does not allow checked baggage over 33 pounds (15 kilograms). And they only allow ONE carry-on, which means if a woman has a purse, that's her one carry-on.

Ryanair was definitely NOT a cheap airline.  We would have been really put out except we had been warned about this by English friends, so we had no one to blame but ourselves."

by Wendy Perrin

An excellent question has come in from Reader Descloud. I'm hoping that some of you international road warriors can weigh in on this one:

"We are traveling to Rome, Vilnius, and Prague in March 2009. We have our transatlantic airline tickets but not our air travel from Rome to Vilnius to Prague. Two questions: (1) Booked through Continental, our transatlantic journey includes four carriers (Virgin, Alitalia, KLM, Continental). Do paper tickets still exist, and should we have one for this multi-carrier trip? (2) I am finding the best rates for the FCO-VNO-PRG legs on carriers unknown to us: AirBaltic, SkyEurope, etc. Are these carriers safe and reliable, or should we spend more to book with a carrier such as Lufthansa? Thanks."

First, I see no need for a paper ticket, as long as you carry your record locator number for each flight. (Never leave home without a printed itinerary containing every record locator.) But I'd love to hear from anyone who disagrees.

Second, your decision whether or not to trust AirBaltic (the Latvian national airline), SkyEurope (a low-cost carrier based in Bratislava, Slovakia), and the like should depend on several factors: