Anyone have any experience with NW letting you rebook in the case of a hurricane? If so, how far in advance do they begin the process and what are the typical rules?

Gary

It seems NWA is being fairly rigid on its hurricane policy right now. I had an award ticket booked from DTW to GGT (Great Exuma, Bahamas) for tomorrow 9/1. The hotel I had booked (4 Seasons Exuma) has a cancellation policy of 2 days charged if within 30 days -- however they gladly waived this in light of the impending hurricane Frances.

However, when I tried to get NWA to waive the redeposit fee for the miles (was using my wife's miles and she's silver) they said the flight would have to be cancelled for them to do it. Our flight is tomororow at 4pm from FLL (Continental flight 9204, Gulfstream operated) and it's hard to say whether it will be cancelled or not since the hurricane probably won't hit GGT until Thursday. They said that the *Wednesday* flight had to be cancelled, not later flights which I think is a bit strict since if Thurs-Sat flights are cancelled into GGT, what does that tell you about the trip in general? Btw, Continental is already offering reacommodations without penalty for flights to GGT among other locations (see http://www.continental.com/company/n...eradvisory.asp).

If the Thursday flight 9204 is cancelled, would it be unreasonable to write a letter requesting the $100 redeposit fees be refunded?

And the lesson from above is, don't book award travel to the Caribbean in hurricane season unless it's from a Platinum acct...

dennis

Well, I hope I have better luck. My flight is friday morning returning monday to PBI. I called the silver line this morning and the guy said (quite politely) that they have not made any arrangements "YET" but I should look for more info tomorrow afternoon or Thurs. Considering the trip is only for 1 hour of work and great seats at the Cubs/Marlins game I really hope either the hurricane makes a U Turn or NW makes some good accomodations.

Gary

NW has gone both ways in the past, sometimes they cancel everything way in advance and sometimes they wait for the storm to hit. GENERALLY, with hurricanes the Airport Authorities for the jurisdictions predicted to be hit will decide to close the airport, therefore the affected flights are cancelled and equipment moved out of harms way. Generally you have anywhere from a day to two days notice. They generally then give you options to re-book through a certain date with out penalty. If I remeber correctly if you can not be reaccomodated in the window than you are elligible for a refund.

My question to you would be, Is the $100 re-deposit fee worth the risk of being on an island if a hurricane goes over it? If you have already canceled your accomodations than there really is no need in going. I think I would wait till about 30 minutes before the flight and then redeposit the miles and take it up with NWA after the storm hits. If you think it will hit where you are going. If you think it won't hit there, you might get some really cheap accomodations if everyone bails and leaves a high vacancy rate.

Personally, I would loose the $100 rather than go and be in a hurricanes path. If it was mainland, I might go, but I am not to fond of islands in hurricanes.

I agree with the last poster. I'd bail from your plans to go, but wait until the very last minute to cancel the trip with NW.

I'm looking at the news here in Asia and seeing a Typhoon that's looking to be right in our path between SIN and NRT on Saturday...and wondering if that's going to change anything.

Steve

Yes, I was going to open up a post on this but figured Id continue here. CNN reports at least 7 deaths so far with the typhoon thunderstorms over south of Japan, which is supposed to be heading North. It has been reported that all domestic flights have been cancelled ( i dont know about the international and intra asia routes). Another typhoon is supposed to be heading to Japan also.

Im booked on an award ticket from Hong Kong-NRT-LAX-DTW this coming Sunday...its is expected that the typhoon will remain all this week. I tried calling NW this morning but noyone picked up.

I wonder if NW will re-route its passengers although it seems unlikely with having so many passengers to re-route. Once though, NW called me 2 days before my flight and requested to put me on United flying direct from HKG-ORD-DTW on business class. The reason behind that however was an overbooked flight.
Anyone with updates, please post... especially our Japan-based flyers.

Well, for us, the concern is that they might not be able to fly around it; hence, if they cancel NW11 the night before, we obviously wouldn't have a ride back to NRT.

From SIN, it would be be easy enough to fly SIN-AMS-SFO to get home as an alternate. I just spoke with reservations and they are not currently planning on any disruption in service.

Hopefully they are not being overly optimistic.

Steve

ps -- a volcano now? holy moly (although it doesn't appear to be an issue)

I agree with wldtrvlr...and speaking as one who lives in the "cone of possibility", even if Frances doesn't hit, the weather is going to be lousy...

Emergency officials in S FL are planning to err on the side of caution, because you never know when a storm will make a last minute turn. The local news indicates they will likely order evacuation of everything east of US1 tomorrow. Since FLL airport is on the west side of US1, chances are pretty good that the airlines will stop bringing equipment into S. FL

Hi all,

An update on the award travel re-deposit fee:

Woke up this morning and the FLL-GGT flight was indeed cancelled (note that i had already called last night to cancel the award tickets and re-deposit with the agent and supervisor's assurance that if the flight were to be subsequently cancelled then i could get reimbursed the $100 fee retroactively). So i call the elite line and the woman, after putting me on hold for 15-20 mins, says that the current supervisor says that since i redeposited *before* the flight was cancelled i'm not eligible to get the $100 back. But she said that the supervisor from last night is not currently there and that i should call back after 3:30 today to talk to him since he apparently felt otherwise.

I can see this policy if i had redeposited 2 weeks ago wth no knowledge of the hurricane possible. But I canceled 12 hours ago for the same reason I would have cancelled today...

I'll post again when this resolves - i was originally wary of trying to cancel an award ticket AFTER the flight pattern had already started. Apparently this might have been easier than trying to get the fee waived retroactively.

dennis

look here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=351476

The final word:

After talking to another elite line CSR, they did agree to retroactively waive the $100 redeposit fees. Seems like there is some inconsistency among supervisors in this case, maybe that is typical in unique scenarios like this.

I hope everyone is able to make reasonable changes to their Florida/Caribbean travel plans.

They are being very inconsistent. One agent told me I can not change my return to be on Sat through MIA (originally PBI) but another said I can choose any airport within 300 miles of PBI to leave from.

I wish there was some way to always get the same agent that you like ;-)

Gary

Hurricane Frances Affects Travel in Florida

Updated 9/1/04 - 10:30 a.m. CDT

Due to Hurricane Frances, Northwest Airlines has issued a weather waiver. Effective immediately, passengers with confirmed tickets for travel on Northwest Airlines September 1 through September 5, 2004 to, from or through Daytona Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami or West Palm Beach may reschedule their trip and begin outbound or return travel through Wednesday, September 8, 2004 without penalty or fees subject to availability.

For changes outside the guidelines listed above, passengers are subject to the standard reissue rules for their fare type including any additional collection or admin fees that may apply.

Northwest encourages all passengers to check flight and gate status prior to leaving for the airport. If you need to adjust your travel plans, please visit the View/Change Reservations section on nwa.com.

For assistance beyond what is available at nwa.com, contact Northwest Reservations at 1-800-225-2525.