Flight delays and cancellations are always potential risks when traveling, yet you always assume it won’t happen to you.

I arrived at JFK airport this past Friday at 5:30 a.m. for an 8:00 a.m. flight to Bermuda (BDA). I was blissfully prepared for my brief, two-hour flight that would bring me to my tropical destination when I received a text alert that my JetBlue flight was cancelled.

After staring at my phone in disbelief for a minute, my friends and I booked it to the long customer service line to figure out our options. The options weren’t great. We initially booked our flight at an amazing $49 fare price, but we couldn’t rebook a flight at that rate until Sunday. This wasn’t an option, considering it was only Friday, and our trip was only scheduled through Wednesday. The only other option we had was booking a last-minute flight later that evening on another airline at $250 per person — a significant jump in price from our original $49 fare.

This would have been a lot more disappointing had we not purchased travel insurance. Admittedly, I often forego travel insurance. Call it optimism or call it foolishness; it’s simply something I tend to neglect. We did purchase insurance for this particular trip; and because we did, the price of our rebooked flight on American Airlines was refunded.

Between the travel insurance and JetBlue’s helpful customer service, we were able to get our money back for our cancelled flight quickly and easily and could enjoy the rest of our vacation.

The takeaways from this experience:

— Always be kind to airline customer service staff. It’s not their fault flights get cancelled, and they have to help a lot of angry customers. Sometimes there’s not a lot an airline can do, but if you’re patient and understanding, they’ll help you get where you need to go.

— When it comes to air travel, nothing is guaranteed. There are a lot of factors that contribute to delayed or cancelled flights. If it happens, take a deep breath and weigh all options.

— Purchase travel insurance. You can find a very cheap policy that will at least cover most of your flight should it be cancelled.

— Don’t let unexpected delays, cancellations or other issues get you down. Again, these things happen. Keep your spirits up, knowing you’ll eventually arrive at your destination on way or another.

Wishing you luck on all future travels!

— Nicole Quasté, assistant editor