Originally Posted by Narrow Seat

I had an interesting experience on United Airlines during the winter leaving Mexico. I still think about it and wonder what the average sophisticated traveler would do. Here is the story:

We were in Mexico and read on the news that a gigantic blizzard had hit the East Coast of the United States. We had a flight scheduled from Mexico to Washington Dulles, via Houston Intercontinental. All flights from Houston to East Coast USA Cities, including IAD (Washington Dulles), were canceled for up to three days. We had no interest in flying to Houston Texas (our connection city) and sitting at an airport hotel for days waiting for Washington Dulles to reopen. But the folks at United Airlines insisted we leave Mexico and at least go as far as Houston and wait it out. If we refused they would cancel our airplane tickets.

So we followed their order and took the flight to Houston and were forced to sit in a very expensive airport hotel for four days before we could get a new flight to Washington Dulles. (Dulles has 30 inches of snow)

If money was an issue what would a seasoned Flyertalk person do in this situation?