Nine hours before my flight was due to depart Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac), I received an email from the airline saying my flight was delayed. I was upset because the weather was clear both in Seattle and at my destination, but didn’t think much of it – until I saw on the news that the airport had been subjected to a cyberattack.

Cyberattacks on American airports are not a new phenomenon. Major hubs such as Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta have all fallen victim to cyberattacks in the past, and such incidents are likely to continue to occur, potentially causing significant travel disruption.

The tips I learned from my experience might help you if you are departing from an airport affected by a cyberattack.

There was minimal coverage of what was happening at the airport and the most accurate and up-to-date information I found was on SeaTac’s X account (Twitter).

If you hear about a cyberattack, check the airport and your airline’s official social media accounts to find out what’s happening.

If you’re not at the airport yet and want to see how chaotic it is, searching for hashtags related to the incident will bring up real-time videos and stories from travelers who are already there, so you know what to expect.

Monitor your flight status

About an hour after I was notified of my flight delay, I received another email informing me that my flight would be back on schedule at the originally scheduled time. You should keep a close eye on the status of your flight and plan to be at the airport at the original departure time in case anything changes.

I flew out on the first day of the cyberattack, when 165 flights were delayed and six were canceled. My flight was delayed about an hour, but the delay was never announced again. When computer systems fail, there can be delays until passengers are notified of changes to departure times.

During a cyberattack, computer systems fail and passengers and baggage must be checked in manually. Even TSA screening must be done manually in some cases (in my case, I was able to go through TSA PreCheck as usual), which can take significantly more time.

Check in online for your flight

Luckily, I had already checked in online and saved my boarding pass before the cyberattack occurred. The check-in lines at the airport were extremely long for people who hadn’t checked in online, so avoid this if you can.

Print your ticket at home (or save your mobile boarding pass on your phone) as you cannot print your pass at an airport kiosk.

Do not check in any luggage

Avoid checking a bag at all costs during a cyberattack, as there is a very high chance that your baggage will be delayed or lost. An Alaska Airlines spokesperson told the Seattle Times that staff at Sea-Tac Airport manually sorted over 7,000 checked bags because during the cyberattack, the “majority” of checked bags did not make it onto flights.

Download your airline’s app

Although the departure and arrival screens in the main terminal at SeaTac worked, the screens in the terminal I departed from were completely black.

The TVs above the gates didn’t show which flight was departing from that gate, and there was no departure board to see the flight status or gate. I had to check my airline’s app to find out which gate I was departing from.

Listen to information

My departure gate changed about 30 minutes before boarding and there was only a difficult to understand announcement about the change. Without screens displaying information, this change could have been easily missed and passengers who didn’t hear it might have missed their flight because they were waiting at the wrong gate.

The gate change never showed up on the airline app. The only reason I noticed my gate change was because the flight attendant at my gate got up and went to another gate. Listen for all announcements and confirm with the flight attendant that you are at the correct gate.

Do not swap seats on board

On my flight, boarding had to be done manually – instead of scanning our boarding passes, the gate agent visually checked each one and then radioed to the flight crew which seat was occupied. After everyone was on the plane, the flight attendants came down the aisle to check that the correct passengers were in each seat – anyone who switched seats delayed the process even more.