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Hurricane traveler warning

August 30, 2006

First, the good news: Ernesto is losing steam as it makes landfall, and it looks as if this won’t be the Big One, despite early indications that it might be.

Now the bad news: Hurricane season lasts another three months.

Even though some airlines loosened their change policies as Ernesto approached — notably US Airways — you shouldn’t rely on the generousity of any travel company to save your vacation or business trip from a storm.

Remember, even if your airline or hotel allows you to cancel and reschedule, you’ll probably still get caught in some kind of red tape. Take US Airways’ new rules, for example. If one of its flights is cancelled because of bad weather, travelers will be able to reschedule their trips for up to seven days at no extra cost.

But it only applies to flights through today to or from Montego Bay, Kingston or Grand Cayman and Fort Lauderdale, Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers and Key West, Fla.

If you’re leaving or returning one day later or earlier, you’re out of luck. Same thing goes if you were flying into another Florida airport, like Orlando, and planning to drive south into the storm-affected areas.

A lot of policies allow you to reschedule your trip for up to a year. However, that doesn’t always help. Remember the devastation caused by Hurricane Wilma last year in Mexico? A lot of travelers couldn’t reschedule their trips because they were unsure about the status of their resorts.

What’s the solution? Don’t plan a vacation to a hurricane-affected area during storm season. And if you do, buy trip cancellation insurance.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

1 comment

  • Tom McCallum

    Here at The Reef Resort in Cayman we are (naturally) most concerned with Hurricanes and both customer service and setting guest expectations.

    We have always had a Hurricane Guarantee policy and a detailed website page on travel insurance options (although due to the highly regulated nature of insurance in Cayman we can’t actually offer insurance ourselves!).

    This year, we have gone one further and eased up our cancellation policy so that we now have a “No Problem” Hurricane Guarantee.

    The idea is that people don’t have to wait until they see clear weather on the satellite map before booking their summer/fall Caribbean vacation, they can book whenever they want, knowing that if they want to cancel FOR ANY REASON (and up to 48 hours prior to scheduled arrival), our policy is “no problem”, they can either rebook at no charge, or cancel with only a nominal one night penalty.

    Most Hurricane policies are, as you know, limited,,, eg Wilma last year closed Miami airport, but hotels and resorts in the Caribbean (except Cancun!) were still open for business, so normal Hurricane guarantees did not “kick in”… now, for The Reef at least, that is one less thing to worry about, people can cancel even if they just “sniff” the potential for a Hurricane !

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