Flight Diversions Advice: What Happens When My Flight Is Diverted?

For some reason, 2025 has sent my family on three unexpected flight diversions in the same summer - all weather related. Maybe the weather patterns are getting increasingly worse, but for whatever reason in 2025 above all the other 38.5 years of my life, I have experienced a diverted flight. Go figure!

Here I'll break down for you some actionable tips and advice so you don't panic when your flight lands somewhere unplanned, and what to expect when your flight is diverted.

Let's dive in.

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Flight Diversion Compensation (Pt. 1)

You may be tempted to jump straight to "how do I get paid for this" thoughts. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, understand what a flight diversion is.

I promise we'll get back to this.

What Does it Mean to Be on a Diverted Flight?

Flight diversions, as I pointed out, are becoming increasingly more common - especially in southern regions of the United States with bad summer weather.

Flight diversions can also be caused by airplane malfunctions (very rare) or health emergencies on board. More often than not though, it is simply a safety issue from weather.

In this case, a flight diversion occurs in the last 10-15 minutes of a flight as your flight is approaching its final destination. Upon approach, the pilot may circle the airport a few times waiting for instructions to land, waiting out a storm.

In many of these cases, if the storm creates a ground stop for the airport, the airline is forced to divert to another airport. I.e. - fly somewhere close by for a pause.

What Happens When Your Flight is Diverted?

A few things might happen when your flight is diverted:

• You may refuel and get back up in the air (everyone stays on board)

• You might have to deplane. This is no bueno for your schedule, but don't panic.

• If you have to deplane, you might be waiting for one of a number of things:

  • Refueling

  • Waiting out the storm/getting the go ahead to fly

  • Finding a new cabin crew or pilot due to "time out"

  • Flight cancellation

During this pause at the new airport, the airplane will likely need to refuel. If your pilot comes on saying they don't have enough fuel to fly in circles around your airport, don't panic. This happened for the first time to me on Viva Airlines, and I thought for sure this was some kind of joke - not enough fuel, really?

In reality, this is a very safe move by the airline, because storms are unpredictable. But refueling is just one of the problems you may encounter during a diversion.

Another problem with a diversion is that when you eventually land at the new destination, your crew may "time out".

Boarding Viva Airlines

What Does It Mean When a Flight Crew "Times Out"?

This is when a diverted flight becomes a long delay. Pilots and the cabin crew are allocated to work a certain number of hours - no more - for safety reasons. As delays swell, their time on the ground in the airport counts as time on the clock.

In my most recent flight diversion, our pilots timed out first, upon arrival at the new airport. We all deplaned and had to wait for new pilots to arrive on inbound flights to that airport.

By the time we got our pilots, they started to board us all back on the plane and literally as I was walking by the flight attendant, he got a call from the big boss - the flight crew timed out.

We all deplaned again.

Luckily, I had spent many of these delayed hours and on board the flight chatting up an off-duty flight attendant in the seat beside me. He assured me, every airport typically has a stand by flight crew available for these types of situations. Bingo!

So within about 20 minutes, we had a new flight crew. Excellent. We boarded and were back on our way some four hours after we initially diverted.

What Options Do You Have When Your Flight Is Diverted?

Here's the fun part - you have choices when you land at your diversion airport. In my case both times I experienced diversions this summer, we were diverted to Miami from Orlando. Instantly my brain goes into triage mode:

• I could find a connecting flight to Orlando from Miami and fly standby

• I could wait out the delay with my current diverted flight

• I could leave the airport and get a hotel

• I could leave the airport and get a train/bus/rental car and get home

I'm not recommending that you do this, but should you feel the absolute need to leave the airport, here are three tools to use (and keep in your pocket) for last minute booking:

• A hotel app: I recommend Booking.com. Find airport hotels with shuttles and restaurants on site for the easiest convenience.

• A transportation lookup app: I recommend Omio.com. This app will look up trains and buses.

• An app for everything: Expedia.com has rental cars, new flight searches, and hotels to browse.

I like to start my research while I'm sitting on a diverted flight, just to have something up my sleeve.

Busy day at Gatwick

It has saved my hide before to be on the apps early - I booked one of the last hotel rooms once in a chaotic travel day, right there from the plane when I knew that I'd be missing my connection to Spain. When I got into the airport that day, people were stranded and sleeping in the airport because there were no more hotel rooms.

Lesson learned: always have a plan B prepared, but don't always execute it.

But why?

In my experience, you don't want to do any of that unless your flight is CANCELLED.

Let me explain:

Flight Diversion Compensation (Pt. 2)

The airline is responsible for getting you home. The second you make your own plans, you are waiving their responsibility.

If you choose to go standby on another flight, that is typically free of charge - good luck with that (everyone will be thinking of that plan).

If you wait it out, you may be at the airport forever, but the airline has to help you get home.

If you leave the airport and get a hotel, train, bus, whatever - the cost is on you.

Airport hotel stay in Montreal

They only compensate for incidentals in the event of a CANCELLATION. Of course this is not a hard line - there are always exceptions, like when Air Canada's delays made me miss my connection to Spain. They had to pay for my hotel, food and cover all the contents in my lost bag. That was fun.

But typically speaking, (and my point here), you should stick with the airplane. They want to get you home as much as you want to get home. Think of it this way - it's easier to ferry 200 passengers home late than it is to find them new tickets on oversold flights the next day.

My advice: stick it out, and STAY CLOSE to the gate. People kept wandering off for drinks at Chili's and sit down food - don't be that guy. Grab a quick grab-and-go bite if you must, but wait by the gate for announcements.

For other actionable compensation requests, consider checking your reimbursement benefits on your credit card (mine is only for delays of 12+ hours), or consider a program like AirHelp or Compensair who can maybe get you something back in your pocket.

They've created this easy compensation form to determine if you are eligible for anything. You can try it below, but note both of these programs typically work with European airlines, not necessarily domestic US ones. Worth a quick 2 minute look, I guess.

What If I Have Bags on a Diverted Flight But Want to Leave the Airport?

Your bags will find you. That's why you always keep the bag tag at check-in. This is your receipt for hunting down your bags when they get lost in transit.

For example, I made it to Spain on that Air Canada flight I mentioned, but a good 36 hours later. My bags, on the other hand, found me almost a week later, in a completely different city than where I landed. Someone literally drove it to my front door.

Superb bag handling at MCO

Your bags will find you. You just need to be sure to fill out the appropriate missing bag forms, etc, which is a real pain in the butt.

Best advice again - stick with the airplane, stick with your bags. You will more than likely make it to your destination the same-day if your flight is diverted, just after a long delay.

Overall Advice on Flight Diversions

If your flight is diverted, don't panic. Don't start booking bus tickets, don't curse the world for your luck, and don't be mean to the staff. I've spent a lot of time focusing on this in another article about flight delays and cancellations, and you have to understand that everyone is doing their best and trying to keep you safe.

Weather is weather. If it's a flight repair needed, or a diversion because of a health emergency on board, that may be a different situation, but in any case it's important to stick close to the airplane, listen to the guidance of the flight crew, and stay calm.

Find patience, notify your family of your whereabouts, and wait. It will not be a fun time, but at least you will get where you are going safely, remember that! And as my dad has always said, "You can't have an adventure without doing something adventurous". Where do you think I get all my travel stories from? A lot of gone-wrong experiences, for starters!

Hang in there - flight diversions happen.