Originally Posted by
Pavane
So, my sister is taking her first big points trip tomorrow in biz from Houston to Sydney on Flight 101. United just sent an email saying the flight might not go due to the tropical storm. It leaves at 7:30 PM. It's her 30th anniversary and they fly out of BWI tomorrow arriving at 5:30 PM. She wants to know if 1) Houston folks think there is a problem 2) What proactive changes to her schedule can she make? The whole trip is with United and she has excellent travel insurance plus. she has CSR, but the flights are on points. She doesn't mind flying to another city or anything she has to do except give up her flat seats!
They've issued a travel waiver, meaning that she can change flights for free. Unfortunately, the only other flights operating to SYD tomorrow are via SFO, which has issues of its own due to runway construction.
Unfortunately, the only earlier nonstop flight from BWI to IAH tomorrow is a 6:15 AM departure. So, her choices are:
(a) travel through SFO, with the BWI-SFO flight in Economy
(b) add an extra stop somewhere
(c) move up her departure by 8 hours
(d) keep her flights as-is and cross her fingers.
If it becomes apparent that her flight will be affected, they'd be willing to move her to a DCA or IAD departure if she prefers; that'd give her more options to get to IAH. They generally won't do that in advance, though.