What To Do When Your Miami To Tampa Flight Gets Canceled

What do you do when you’re booked on a flight from Miami to Tampa International Airport and you get the annoying news that your flight has been cancelled?

We fly quite a bit back and forth from Miami, and believe it or not, we’ve had this happen numerous times. I’m not talking “rescheduled.” I’m talking straight-up cancelled. It’s a topsy-turvy travel world lately. And the storms we get in the summertime don’t help airlines with their scheduled departures.

Let me tell you the craziness that ensued on our most recent Miami to Tampa flight. We were scheduled to leave Miami at about 5:15 P.M. arriving in Tampa after 6 P.M. on American Airlines. We pulled out of the gate on time. I believe they get credit for an “on-time” departure as soon as they do that. But then we ended up sitting on the tarmac for an hour as we waited for weather to pass in Tampa. You can’t do much about Mother Nature. We taxied back to the gate, at which point the pilot said something to the effect of, “Folks, we don’t want you to sit here on a hot plane, so we’re going to deplane you.” As soon as we got off the plane and were gathered around the gate agent, she informed us that the flight was canceled. By this time, it was 8:00 P.M. We had no options for other flights headed to Tampa that night. They instructed everyone to go to a different gate to deal with customer service. The line there would be incredibly long. We had to get back to Tampa that night. So what to do?

Be proactive when you get in these situations. The second time the pilot gave us an “update” on the plane while we were on the ramp, I noticed he sounded just a bit too peppy and cheery. I said to my husband, “He’s getting off work. That’s why he’s so happy.” When crews get close to the end of their shift, they can’t go over hours, and they end up having to bring in another crew. I could tell in the captain’s tone, he was excited to be done with his day, and I wondered what the odds would be that another crew would be available. I told my husband we needed to book a rental car and plan to drive home. As soon as we deplaned, we made our way to the car rental area, which is quite a hike at Miami International (and involves a train ride). We got one of the LAST available rental cars. By the time a lot of the passengers sat in line at American customer service figured out there were no options to get to Tampa on a flight. When those passengers made their way to the rental desks, sadly, there were no more vehicles.

It was a long drive home, but we made it by about 1:30 A.M. The other option would’ve been coming home the next day…who knows what time. And you can’t guarantee that an airline will pay for your overnight stay when it’s weather-related.

I took my first flight on an airplane since October 2019. I was feeling a little nervous so I was like, "Let me make if fun by turning the whole experience into a web post review." I feel like whenever I fly out of Tampa International, I'm rushing...no time to spare. I decided to get there early so I could feel relaxed and just take in all the surrounding and airport amenities. I was flying American so I was out of Airside F. Here's everything you need to know about Airside F.