All frequent senior travelers have experienced cancelled flights, as well as those delayed long enough to make us miss our next connection. Unfortunately, we’ve often taken out out our alley cat frustration on the wrong people.

So, if anger isn’t the answer, what is? First, don’t get spitting angry at airline employees at the check-in desks. They have no control of weather and schedule glitches, nor whatever else happens to strand you in the airport. Always understand that in almost every case, even if you’re unpleasant, they’ll do everything possible to help you. But sometimes they become overwhelmed.

It happend to a furiously frustrated travel4seniors editor recently, and all he succeeded in doing was make a fool of himself. He and his spouse missed a connecting leg because the first flight was delayed, so they ran over to the airline desk. Ignoring the long line there of others who had also missed their flights, he began ranting, and when the agent told him to go to the back of the line, he griped even more.

Meanwhile, his spouse calmly called the airline troubleshooting number, and politely explained their problem. By phone, she was told to go directly to another gate, where they could immediately board another airline’s soon-to-depart flight to their destination.

One possible solution of missing flights or being stranded is to always have with you the phone number of the airline troubleshooter service. When you have problems with your flight, rather than spit and snarl at airline employees like an angry cat, call it immediately.

The moral of the story may be found in the Bible: A kind answer turneth away wrath. In other words, the editor’s wrathful rant got him "turnethed" away. Meanwhile the spouse’s calm kindness got them seats on another flight.