I don’t fly much at all. Fiance and I planned a long awaited trip for tomorrow (!) and our flight was cancelled. For those of you who fly a lot, what is your strategy? Monitor the weather and rebook as soon as flight is likely to be cancelled? Book on another airline? Use trip insurance? If so, the one offered by the site you book through or are there other better sites? Appreciate everyone’s info.
Depends, what is the airline that you’re booked on saying? Usually they give you the options of when you can rebook for free, or maybe they’ve already rebooked you?
If you haven’t been given that information yet, I would look at the airlines website.
Sorry about your delay!!
I would call or otherwise speak to someone at the original airline. Do you want to still travel? Maybe postpone the trip but take the same itinerary and ask for the same price you paid. You shouldn’t be penalized for the weather by paying a higher price for a change close to flight time.
Are you close to an airport? Sometimes gate agents can do more for you than someone over the phone. Especially if the person over the phone is outsourced overseas (cough, United, cough).
I fly Delta all the time. When a flight is cancelled or delayed, I log on to my account on their site, and just choose the new flight I want to go on, for no extra cost. They give me a list of available flights, and I don’t have to talk to anyone.
I fly southwest most of the time. I rebook immediately for the next flight they will allow me to go on. The last time I flew during bad weather, I ended up rebooking five times…because my rebooked flights kept getting cancelled.
I would rebook asap.
I do what Thumper does (also fly SW.) The airlines send a notice if your flight might be effected by weather and allow you to rebook for no fee. I usually rebook. Two weeks ago our flight was one that came under weather change rule but we decided to take a chance as it was first thing in morning flight and we were only getting a few inches. Our flight was never cancelled but we overslept and woke up only an hour before flight was scheduled to depart. I immediately rebooked for no fee to flight later that day.
If I know there is bad weather, I would usually rebook before my flight is cancelled. Most airlines would post flights in/out of certain airports are eligible for change without penalty. If you wait until your flight is cancelled then you may have a long wait to get on another flight.
I was supposed to fly out AFTER Superstorm Sandy but the airlines were allowing us to rebook our flights at no fee, so I booked to fly out just before the storm and was able to fly out and avoid the storm. I check the web to see when free changes are allowed on the airlines I booked the original flight on. I told S about a storm that was coming and when the airline said he could rebook with no penalty, so he left a bit sooner than he had planned at no extra cost! I always check the airline website of the airline I my tickets are booked on.
I don’t fly much, either, but when I’ve had flights cancelled, I contacted the airline and booked a seat on the next available flight.
However, this implies that I still wanted to make the trip.
Perhaps, if the problem is weather, you don’t still want to make the trip. For example, going to Boston today, even if possible, doesn’t seem like a particularly good idea if you have a choice.
Experienced travelers: What happens if your flight is cancelled, and because of the circumstances (such as weather) you no longer want to make the trip. Can you get your money back? Or are you obligated to rebook?
I think they only give you credit, not actual money back.
Thanks all. It was JetBlue. Logged on and could not find an easy way to rebook at no cost like busdriver and others have said. I finally got a JB agent on the phone. She said if their next available flight “didn’t work for you” then I could get a full refund of the price paid. Credited back to my credit card. Which was good because I was afraid she’d said I could only get half back (for the leg affected by weather). In the meantime I booked a new round trip on another carrier because I was worried the JB option would not work for our hotel and schedule.
Thanks everyone for all the tips! I appreciate it.
Some airlines will issue a voucher. Those are particularly nice because theyncan be used with other travelers.
Ah that’s interesting. So what I’m hearing is it’s really airline specific but the idea is to act quickly to see if the airline you booked through can rebook you. I was confused about the whole “no cancellation charge” thing if it applied to both legs of the trip (or just the outgoing one affected by weather). But JB said it applied to the whole trip.
@oldfort – you said “If I know there is bad weather, I would usually rebook before my flight is cancelled”. I didn’t know this was an option (without incurring change fees and the cost differential for the new flight). I guess it doesn’t hurt to call the airline and ask what the options are.
Very often the airlines will post their weather alerts/policies on their websites. We are scheduled to fly tomorrow and I’ve been checking JetBlue since yesterday. If you booked before the forecast (in this case 2/7) and are scheduled to fly today or tomorrow, you could change without fees. Given the storm is supposed to clear by this afternoon, I’ve opted to take my chances for tomorrow morning.
“Ah that’s interesting. So what I’m hearing is it’s really airline specific but the idea is to act quickly to see if the airline you booked through can rebook you. I was confused about the whole “no cancellation charge” thing if it applied to both legs of the trip (or just the outgoing one affected by weather). But JB said it applied to the whole trip.”
Several years ago my flight on Jet Blue was eligible to be rebooked due to weather (It was Jet Blue out of White Plains and the storm was Juno.) They allowed under the rule for me to rebook return flight for a later date - so my trip to Florida ended up being as long as original trip.
Iirc, i couid the get a flight out for two days post storm.
Thanks runnersmom – yes I saw the JB travel alert on their website – I wasn’t sure if the change without fees applied to both legs of my trip. I think you should be ok to fly out tomorrow.
If I know there is an impending storm that could/might result in cancellation, I check the website. Most airlines issue a “weather-incident” notice on their pages well before any email is sent out, sometimes two days before your flight. A friend and her family had a BOS-MCO flight scheduled for this morning but she was pro-active and rebooked yesterday at 9 am for a 5 pm flight last night. They arrived without incident and without it costing them additional $$. Of course, there’s that extra hotel night but her flight was cancelled this morning and it is likely they would not have gotten on another flight until at least tomorrow or even Saturday, which woudln’t have worked for a weekend trip to Disney.
Thanks – that’s what I should have done – I was just hoping our original flight would still take off. State of Denial ha ha. What I’m hearing from all you nice people who have posted is: be proactive. Don’t wait. If you think your flight might be canceled, act.
Some airlines, and many other types of businesses, now rely heavily on social media to address customer service. Last year I had to open a Twitter account to help my daughter re-book a KLM flight that was diverted and delayed. Both Twitter and Facebook reps were able to re-book flights and issue refunds and other compensation. Not sure why the airlines want to have all their dirty laundry out there in public but in the end we were successful.