Don't take a flier on airlines

But I can offer several watch-your-back tips for the next several months on the road.

Confirm your flights
If you've booked travel for any time after Labor Day, make sure your flights are still on the schedule. Airlines have dropped routes without notice all summer, but the big tranche of cancellations begins on September 2. Overnight, most carriers will shrink their schedules 5 to 15 percent . Even if your airline will still fly on your route, it may have cut frequencies, so check that it has “protected” you on another flight and remembered to match up your onward connections.

Avoid smaller airports
The airlines are weeding out service to smaller airports, partially because they bring the least traffic into their hubs and also because the routes are flown with inefficient regional jets. If possible, book flights from the closest hub instead.

Expect less help
As they scramble to cut costs, airlines are thinning their already depleted ranks of front-line airport employees. That'll mean longer waits to check in, check bags, and load passengers and luggage onto planes. Carriers are also chopping mechanic jobs, so there will be more delays and cancellations for mechanical reasons. And wherever they had staffed flights above the federally mandated minimums, they are reducing the number of flight attendants. That means even less in-flight service.

Have a Plan B — and a Plan C
Although wags now openly speculate on the survival odds of one carrier or another — Midwest, Frontier (already operating in Chapter 11), US Airways, Sun Country and Spirit seem to be popular picks in death pools — I wouldn't assume any carrier will fold. Or survive. Know your options for every flight you book. And carry your Plan B and Plan C with you in case your carrier folds while you're on the way to the airport. Seriously.

Drain your mileage programs
Finally, stop “banking” frequent-flier miles. If you've got enough miles to claim an award, use them now. The value of miles is depreciating even faster thanks to the route cutbacks and new fees imposed when you redeem an award. Besides, if your airline collapses, there's no guarantee that another carrier will step in and honor unused miles.

The Fine Print ...
Midwest Airlines, the Milwaukee-based boutique carrier, is the latest to slash its operations. It announced on Sunday that it would contract its overall capacity by upward of 40 percent. By September, it will have grounded about a third of its aircraft and cut a dozen cities off its route map.

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