hurricane irene/ our dilemma

[Andrea J.]

Maybe chadd can comment or those much more experienced than i , will comment/give advice.

we are ticketed to leave aruba on AA to miami to tampa late afternoon on Thursday.

the storm is slated to possibly hit MIA at the time we would be landing.

questions? how far out does AA cancel their flights? i was hoping it'd be cancelled by now so i could make a transfer to another flight , another day without huge fees and ticket increase pricing.

i just got back from aruba airport to inquire about switching our flights and leaving tomorrow or wednesday instead.

the agent told us it would be a change fee of $100something each and a 1 way ticket price of almost $1000 each 1st class only available(cheaper seats are showing on AA website, but even those are not affordable and gate agent says not available)

so we wait.

and LaCabana tells us that if we need to stay an extra night or 2, there is no availability. (Venezuela school vacation)

we have trip insurance and i suspect we will have to use it.

the worry of my house in fla, pets, pet sitter having other commitments beginning on saturday ...........argh!

willing to hear suggestions or comments thx

[jdoll]

Here is the current AA alert for Irene and what you can expect to see when the do add FL departure cities. http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInforma...avelAlerts.jsp

[Andrea J.]

THANKS
got it.

[sugar]

Andrea,

The airline will probably issue an advisory and waive the fees for you to change. If you need to change to a later date, you are welcome to stay at my house.

Kathy

[rob o]

In December 2009, we were in Aruba when a blizzard hit Boston on the day of our scheduled return. American cancelled our flight about 20 hours in advance and automatically booked us on the same flight the next day.

Rely on the internet....phone calls had a wait time of 90 minutes.

[boqueesha]

A few years ago I was on the island when Tropical Storm Omar hit. The airline (I think it was Delta) had a list of different islands that they were allowing people to change their flights without the fee. Somehow Bonaire and Curacao were on this list but Aruba wasn't. I had the attendant pull up a map, go get their supervisor and show them the map so they could see how close Aruba was to the others, and they waived my fee and I got to stay an extra day in paradise!

My advice...plan to leave just as you're scheduled but keep a very close eye on the storm your last evening/morning. If it looks nasty call the airline...lots . Eventually you'll get someone who has the info you want/need. I think you have a better shot at not being charged fees by leaving later than originally intended rather than earlier.

As far as a place to stay another night I believe the Holiday Inn up by the Playa Linda does nightly rooms. My parents stayed at Manchebo Beach for two nights back in March. I don't think that's something Manchebo regularly does but it would still be worth giving them a call.

[hatteras]

Two years ago we were scheduled to fly down when a blizzard hit the N.E. We were given the option to change the flight with no fees about 2 days before, but this was with United and we had to find our own flight. The same thing happened when we were scheduled to return, which worked in our favor because we wanted to stay a few extra days in Aruba since we had missed a few on the way down. We didn't have to pay any exchange fees, found a room at Manchebo, and had a wonderful time. However, our travel insurance was no help at all because our connection airport (Dulles) had to completely shut down for 24 hrs. for us to qualify and they managed to get a flight out to somewhere late that day. They also told us that we had to miss at least 50% of our trip and we just missed a few days. They did not reimburse us for anything at all.

[Andrea J.]

ok
we are really working hard to get on track here

i am a worrier..........could you tell???

THANKS

[Andrea J.]

thanks all

kathy see u at 7 tonight b55

[sugar]

Andrea,

Try not to worry too much. See you tonight

Kathy