4 Ways To Deal With A Cancelled Holiday

So you have been working hard all year and finally holiday time comes round. You are all set to go away, everything is packed. The kids are in the car, the suitcases in the boot, and you are on the way to the airport. But there’s a problem. The airport is closed. All the flights are cancelled. Familiar story? You’ve seen it on TV a hundred times. Now it’s happening to you.

The question is what do you do? You are angry, you are frustrated, you are disappointed. The kids even more so. There is no point in hanging around the airport; it’s clear you are not going to get away.

You have three choices. You can do one, two or all of them.

1. You can have a go at the airline, vent your rage and let off steam. It won’t change anything but you might feel a bit better afterwards. Except of course the people you yelled at didn’t cause the problem. They just work there. In another life you might have worked there. You could have been the person you yelled at.


2. You can quickly make new plans. Find a new location to go to, or a new way of getting to where you had planned. It’s not easy to do, it may not even be possible. But it might be worth a try.


3. You can cancel your plans, go back home and make the best of a bad job.

What you actually do will depend on the sort of person and family you are. But there is a fourth option. It’s not always an easy one and it doesn’t always work. But you could try going back to your employer, explaining what has happened and re-arranging your holiday dates. After all, you should get some compensation for your ruined holiday, to pay for a new one.

Whether or not your employer will agree to give you new dates depends on many things. Not least of which is the quality of your relationship with your employer, and your value to the company. In the end, like so many things it all comes down to the way you manage your career. But that’s another story.