I left out the part where our travel office was trying to make flight changes since late Tuesday and they said that there was no worry my flight was going as scheduled and all the other flights had been oversold (this was an Army conference and most people attending were out of the Pentagon). I took on the duties myself when I was awoken at 5AM on Thursday and told to evacuate my hotel.
Also was told that airports do not close until winds reach 35 miles an hour and cancelations before then are done by the airlines at their discretion. So the airport was not closed it was United's decision to stop flying and I'm sure it was for safety reasons even if it was premature.
All in all, my flight out of MCO wasn't even full and I'm sure people went standby to earlier flights.
Still think that they are gouging. It's not like I paid for the ticket. Actually all of you paid for it as my company will be re-imbursed by the government because I am a direct billed contractor for the Army (BTW, I don't qualify for the Government rates).
Thank you very much for being so cavalier with your tax dollars.
Originally Posted by SEA_Tigger
Since a hurricane is not something that just sneaks up on you, lots of folks have known for days that southern Florida was going to be shut down. Plus the airports announced on Thursday they would be shutting down the following day and not opening again until at least Monday, and possibly later in the week. So all the airlines had to cancel at least a three-day bank of flights on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year at one of the top travel destinations.
With schools starting for most kids on Tuesday, anyone who was in FL who had plans to depart FL for home on Monday probably cancelled those plans and left Thursday. Also, any residents who could leave for other destinations did so.
So I am not surprised every seat on every plane sold, and UA is in a massive oversold/overbooked destination. So any seat that opens up would be a full walk-up maximum Y fare which happens to be $1096.