Something Has Happened to the Travel Industry. I'm the One Dealing With It.

This is part of Airplane Mode, a series on the business--and pleasure--of travel right now. I'm a travel agent, and when I sat down to write this article, there were 1,154 flight cancellations. Days like this used to be a once-a-year occurrence. A snowpocalypse would smother the entire East Coast or an airline's computer system would go down or a strike would happen. A week of misery would follow while the whole industry dug out.