Few things are worse than starting a trip with a canceled flight.

It's especially frustrating if the flight is cancelled due to weather, as the airline may shirk their shoulders and negate any responsibility. They'll book you on the next available flight but that may not be for hours, and in some cases days. So, what to do if your next flight is rescheduled for days later? We've got some tried and true tips for you, listed in descending order based on sheer desperation.. Of course, the first thing you'll need to do is call the airline as soon as you see the flight has been delayed. But after that, give these pointers a try to get your trip back on-track;

Avoid the situation by rebooking in advance.

As soon as a travel alert is declared, you can call your airline and ask to rebook the flight. They will do this for free and you get first choice of available flights. Once flights start getting cancelled due to weather,there will be a mad scramble to re-book, so act fast. Some airlines, such as American Airlines, will even let you rebook for the same day through their app.

Ask to be booked on another airline.

Airlines are capable of doing this, but they will almost never offer it. However, if you hop on any travel website and see available tickets through another airline, you can give them the specific flight you want they will book it. Warning, this does not hold for budget airlines like Spirit.

Expand the definition of your airport.

In New York City for example, they'll usually look at options at the 3 major airports. For Example, Laguardia, Newark, and JFK. If they haven't, ask them to, and start asking to try airports you can get to. For example, if you are in New York City trying to get to Louisiana you may not be able to drive there, but you can take the train to Philadelphia, DC, Providence or Boston and they may not be experiencing the same weather issues. Sure, you didn't want to spend 4 hours on a train, but that is often better than not being able to fly out for a few days. Airlines want you to fly, because until you get on their flight, you are their responsibility. So, they will change even your origination airport if you ask nicely.

Once you've got an airline representative on the phone, remember that everyone has most likely been mean to them all day. Often they don't cancel one flight, they have cancelled dozens or hundreds because of severe weather. When major storms hit, everyone calls and many people treat