8-11 Feb. Winter Storm Nemo Travel Waiver for N.E. and Impact on UA's Operations
 

Boston is expecting a pretty heavy snowstorm — http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013...xnO/story.html .

I'm a bit surprised that UA hasn't issued a travel waiver yet. I seem to remember that earlier in the winter they put out travel waivers well in advance of a couple of predicted big storms in the Midwest, even when those storms fizzled.

I've noticed that UA is rarely the leader in proactively offering waivers. They wait for other airlines to put waivers in place before they match.

Case in point - I was in DEN when Hurricane Sandy hit. Every other airline BUT UA offered a waiver when it was confirmed it was going to be a big event. Hours after others did it, UA finally caved and put a waiver in place.

Slow like usual. If they are going to preemptively cancel sat AM flights I hope its done in advance. I'd hate to waste $60 on a shuttle if i'm not going on my MR this weekend. I cannot reschedule as I'm headed to SIN next week. At least the storm is not coming then

On a side note all my UDU have cleared BOS-IAH-LAS-IAH-EWR-BOS It figures it would happen when I may need to cancel

Always late in the game...

Ironic isn't it? I know, for the first time post 3/3 I received the UDU email exactly at T96 for a Friday evening flight. Granted it's only BOS-EWR and probably will be cancelled but was pleasantly surprised with the email notification and figured would be #2136 on the waitlist with an S fare.

The "other" US-based Star Alliance carrier has a travel waiver up...

http://www.usairways.com/TravelCenter/Advisories.aspx

Interesting, looks like that was posted about three hours ago.

For when UA posts a waiver. I know its not there yet.

I have not used waivers yet. What is the usual option? US has crappy we will tell you when you can fly logic. Is it like the Tokyo waiver that is still listed online where i can use within 1 year of date of purchase? Do i have to decide when i call in or does it stay as a credit and rebook later when i figure out when I want to go again to Vegas? It says fare difference may apply but im guessing that's if my current G fare and routing rules from when I booked are not met with the new tticket?

United is rarely the leader in waivers, and with the predictions still all over the place for this storm, I would assume they are waiting for more weather people to actually agree on what's happening first.

As one forecast says for Boston

The exact track of the storm is still uncertain. 50 miles in either direction will make a significant difference in both the amount of snow and how far inland the snow falls.

Latest forecast is 12-24 inches with snow starting Friday morning after the morning rush and continuing into early Saturday. It's going to be a mess if this actually leaves significant accumulation in town. We haven't had a real snowfall in nearly 2 years now.

With the new NOC they put in last year (and have been promoting lately since the Dreamliner video was pulled), they have ample people and technology to wait, watch and see what other airlines do. Afterall they are the envy of the industry! :D

DEN

Here it is now.

Original Travel Dates:
February 8, 2013 – February 9, 2013

Final Travel must be completed by:
End of Validity of ticket (one year from date of issue)​​

Airports:
Boston, MA (BOS)
Burlington, VT (BTV)
Hartford, CT (BDL)
Manchester, NH (MHT)
New York, NY (JFK)
New York, NY (LGA)
Newark, NJ (EWR)
Portland, ME (PWM)
Providence, RI (PVD)
White Plains, NY (HPN)


Flight Changes:
Fees for same-day flight changes are waived within 24 hours of original departure.
For all other changes, the change fee will be waived, but a difference in fare may apply.
​​

They actually have 24x7 meterologists there and a whole station area dedicated to weather.

so the fare differnece means that i need to same booking class only, right?
first time into weather waiver in UA. the fare that i booked was no longer there - obviously, for a MR.

I have HEL-MUC-EWR-SJO on the 9th with a GPU confirmed for MUC-EWR, how serious is the storm? I have a layover of 5+hours at EWR before going to SJO and actually was thinking of going to Times Square cause needed to buy something.

Within 24 hours, it doesn't matter with respect to fare class. It's easier for agents if the fare class is available, but it's not mandated.

Nobody knows yet, it's being called a nightmare to forecast especially in the New York area. The Wall Street Journal is calling it a

Weather Journal: Snowstorm of Uncertainty Nears

If the snow is not as major as an event as some are saying, getting into Times Square should not be a huge issue, the storm is expected to be over by early Saturday in the New York area.

When do we have to decide what we want to do? I tried using the website but its not finding anything in G. I tried EF as well and there is no G to LAS for any day i checked. I guess i'm out of luck unless flight gets cancelled or "Signifigantly Delayed" Anyone know what length of delay needs to be for refund?

i have no idea... i have been very lucky that bad weather never hit me unil this time. in sandy, i was able to reroute on a different city but on the same day. but it seems that i shoud not fly at all...

This is a pretty unhelpful waiver. For people who might want to travel tomorrow (for example) instead of Saturday, there has to be availability in the same fare class.

My friend called and cancelled her reservation and they said she can pay fare difference at a later date when she rebooks (within 1 year of initial ticketing) How do we know they wont forget later that there was a weather waiver and try to charge $150. I dont mid sitting on a credit as i know i will be booking before the 1 year point of 12/2013


UA wanted to bring me to EWR the day before Sandy after my flight cancelled. I ended up staying in LAX and had them put me on a return flight straight to BOS a few days later.

I called as I am due to travel on Friday morning -- the agent was very helpful (but awkwardly singing to me... I kinda freaked out and laughed "with" her). She booked me into M (up from K) in regards to the travel waiver.

but u travel on the same day?

Sorry couldn't find this answer quickly anywhere... for a flight leaving BOS at 6am on Saturday, any chance to get United / USAirways codeshare to change the origination into JFK/LGA?

I know these cities are not co-terminals at all but I'm just thinking I'll have a better chance of leaving from NYC than BOS on Saturday morning (I'm located in NYC but was leaving with a friend that lives in BOS).

TIA!

I basically didn't want to wait for the "waivers" to happen. I tried calling in earlier this morning and seeing if they would waive the fee, no go.

Called again, changed my RT to a one-way return for Sunday, paid 23.00 but they waived the change fee for that.

Then booked a one way out of Boston for tomorrow.

It was WAY cheaper (by over 200.00) then paying for the change fee and changing the outbound flights. I sometimes think when you change a ticket, you don't always get the "best" fare available. When I tried to do a online change, it was showing "H" for Thursday flight I wanted, but booking it now as a one way, I was able to get a "Q" which is bit cheaper.

Bad thing is though, doing all this, one way last minute, means no TSA Pre for me tomorrow :(

Called in got a good rep that booked me HEL-FRA-IAH-SJO all on a Y fare, so got the upgrade for IAH-SJO, I was originally booked on W fare, no charge whatsoever. Anyone knows if I will get the 150% PQM bonus?

Going to take a look into upgrading FRA-IAH on Lufthansa on the A380 now...

I moved it up from Friday to Thursday evening.

What about Specials?
 

The weekend specials (LINTERNET fares) do not allow SDC.

Has anyone been able to do SDC on those during a weather waiver? As a 1K the fee is waived for me anyways, but the no SDC policy is enforced online. I have been able to standby (confirmed or otherwise) at the airport on these fares, but never online.

Originally I was on the 6am BOS-SFO on Saturday, but had to reschedule to the 10:44am BOS-SFO on Friday. There was a BOS-ORD-SFO flight that departed around 8am, but I didn't take it because I was worried about ORD being backed up from when the storm hits Chicago Thursday night/Friday morning.

Hopefully BOS is still clear at 10:44am and we make it out of the gate. Right now weather forecasts are predicting the snow will start around 9-10am Friday morning.

i wonder how this will affect the rest of the country. i am doing a mini MR on saturday, LAX-PDX-SEA-SFO-LAX and all of a sudden the flights are getting very tight. would LOVE to get a bump.

i have no idea what's going to happen. i just picked up one of those fares this morning before i read about the weather. i'm departing EWR on saturday morning though, so hopefully the majority of the storm will have passed by then...

From what I've read EWR could go either way. It could be a minor 2-4" or it could get 6-8". Really it mostly depends on whether it comes down as snow or ice.

Is the reschedule period new to UA as part of the Irops policy update? Every other carrier only allows a week to use the ticket. This makes UA so much better as weather is the one thing that makes me nervous about booking this time of year. (well other than year round change fee waiver for Gold on AS)

i tried to change my run to April, same city pair.
online, it just uses the flight credit for the new flight.
even when i found same booking class for all segments.

Try calling. The online changing tool doesn't work well at all.

Just made a change by phone from a flight that cost us £499 to a flight that currently prices at £479.

I didn't get a refund (or think to ask for one, even though it says quite clearly that the change fee is waived!), but when my ticket was reissued I got an "INVOL" notation in the additional fare rules section of the ticket.

Where do you find that info?

If I click "view receipt" (or get an e-mailed e-ticket receipt), I can see

That language wasn't there in my original e-ticket receipt, which just said:

http://i.imgur.com/jIyDMqi.png

Do you all think that international arriving flights to EWR on Feb 8 will see much disruption?

Point being, would it be worth giving up a cleared SWU in advance to plan for an alternate flight?

Depends on two things: what time you land, and how far north/south the storm goes. The storm is supposed to be at its peak mid-Friday, getting up to 3"/hour in some spots. However the precise path of the storm is unknown and EWR is right on the edge of the storm. If it veers away from EWR they could see as little as 2-4" which may cause a few delays but nothing major. If it veers towards EWR I could see the airport shutting down for some time.

I actually don't have that on my reroute for this res on Friday. However, my flight last week was late and I missed the connecting flight so this was shown:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/membe...5123-invol.png

When this happened, I could also choose any reroute (for the next day or two) I wanted when I did OLCI again.