Had trouble with flights during hurricane season?

[kshattuck]

I feel as though I am being ridiculous about possibly choosing a 10-hour road trip to WDW vs a 90 minute non-stop flight.

Does anyone have experience with a cancellation or significant delay to WDW and what happened to your trip? Did you lose the night's lodging, tickets, ADRs, etc for that specific day?

If so, were you able/willing to change the back-end of your trip? Such as adding an additional day to your stay?

TIA!

 

[NotUrsula]

I can tell you that we've been going to Florida in August or September every single year for the past 9, and we've never had more than a 2-hour delay (in Tampa, on the way home.)

Hurricanes give several days' warning. If one is predicted to close your destination airport, you can usually watch closely and call the airline to try to get on an earlier flight at no extra charge once they start waiving cancellation fees. They prefer to move people ahead of the storm if at all possible, as anything that reduces the number of passengers who need to be accomodated AFTER the storm is a plus for them.

Also, realize that in the path of a hurricane, an interstate highway is the absolute LAST place that you want to be. Storm evacuations create traffic jams that are sometimes a hundred miles long, and gasoline becomes VERY scarce along evacuation routes. I would ALWAYS choose to fly over drive in a hurricane avoidance situation.

 

[Kimberle]

Yes, we sure did. It was a few years ago (2004 ??) when FL was having a hurricane like every other week. Towards the end of our stay, a hurricane was coming in. We called our airline (don't remember which one) and they wouldn't let us change w/out a fee. Said "NO PROBLEMS" w/ the weather. The next day, (Fri) we knew it was going to be bad. By then, our original airline had no seats available on any plane out of Orlando.

DH & I got on our cells and called every airline looking for seats anywhere out of Orlando. Finally, after a couple of hours, Air Tran had seats to NY (home), with only 1 stop. (Like I said, we'd have taken any seat out. We knew we could transfer at another airport.) 3 seats cost around $800. When we got to the airport, we were marked for the "extensive search" cause we bought seats less than 24 hours out. Even our 4yo was searched.

Sitting in the airport was so eery. The sky so dark. Our flight left around 2pm Sat and was one of the last flights out of Orlando. The airport didn't open for over 4 days.

I'm sure WDW would have let us stay. We had to get back to work. Plus, we were staying on the 14th Fl of the CR. I wouldn't have liked to be that high during a hurricane. That particular storm caused damage to the Bay lake side of the CR and water leaked in many of the rooms. (We were on that side.)

Do I still go during hurricane season? yes. I keep an eye on the weather.

 

[kshattuck]

Thanks so much. We have been living in NC for 12 years now, so I am all-too-familiar with the non-stop "where will it hit?" forecasts.....

Point about interstates and advance notice well-taken. Let me go book that airfare.

Thanks for the detailed info about the steps you tried to take to get home; this is really helpful. I have traveled all over the world and have never really given a second thought to weather delays, but just all of the PLANNING going into this trip, I am dreading a cancellation/major delay on the front end.

More positive attitude coming right up!

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[ParrotBill]

Airlines are really hit or miss about anticipating hurricanes. If you get resistance, ask to talk to a manager and give them the particulars about the hurricane and that you would like to HELP the airline by planning ahead.

Many hotels in hurricane areas have a published policy , others will typically be accommodating especially if it's delayed checkin or a request to stay longer if you can and they have availability.

Of course, the best course of action is to have travel insurance that includes coverage for trip delays and changes due to hurricanes. Read the fine print to be sure!

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

we got "stuck" at WDW during a hurricane. we had two days to go when it hit. I called the airline the day before and of course, they told me that everything was fine (yeah riggggght!) long story short, extended our stay two days, changed our flight (two days was the time before our seats were available) and enjoyed the almost deserted parks.

Trip insurance paid for EVERYTHING! (paid out of pocket for the extra days at the hotel, etc, small fee to re-book flights, and so on, even meals)

got a check from the travel insurance company after I got home and faxed them copies of the receipts, etc.