Originally Posted by
IAH-OIL-TRASH
I'm a geologist. The debate between weather and earthquakes indeed continues - in the same vein as the Flat Earth Society continues today. An bigger earthquake can happen today in California, Hawaii, New Zealand, Italy, Alaska, Chile, Japan, etc, etc, etc. Is UA to provide waivers to everywhere because an earthquake might happen? Aftershocks tend to be small and unnoticeable. Aftershocks occur most frequently within the 24 hours of the main quake and diminish in frequency and intensity thereafter.
Delta's waiver is probably not issued due to the potential of aftershocks, but due to the damage caused by the quake.
A doctor's note is the logical route to avoid the stress.
Concur ^^. And I'm a certified meteorologist with 40 years' experience.
Here's a NASA article on the subject. Back on subject to UA, if you can't get a doctor's note, a strategy could be to wait until 24 hours before flight to see if there's a weather wavier at your origin that will allow a change -- that's a lot more likely than a PR-based waiver (unless you're traveling during hurricane season when there could be one for PR).