Travel Waiver: Gulf Coast Tropical Weather (25 Aug - 12 Sept, 2017) - Affects IAH
 

Looks like United just issued a weather waiver for folks traveling to/from/through IAH/AUS/SAT and a few others this weekend and early next week. https://www.united.com/CMS/en-US/tra...eptionPolicies

Are change and fees and fare differences supposed to be automatically waived when trying to rebook online via "Change flight" under "My Trips"? They all show fare difference and a change fee of $200 when I do the flight search. Might be because it's an N fare but I have an itinerary arriving at IAH on 8/25 and leaving 8/27 that I'd really like to change/cancel.

The waiver doesn't currently allow for cancellation, but rather rebooking before 8/30. Are your new travel dates still before 8/30? And are you still using the same origin and destination cities? (In order to get a refund, you'd need to wait until they amend the terms or until / unless your flight is cancelled or greatly delayed).

I'm actually surprised to see that the $200 change fee is, in fact, listed in BE fares, since they can't be changed. I can't imagine any scenario in which that would come up.

Having said that, the online tool is notoriously defective when it comes to making changes, especially prior to the day of travel. If it's not working, you should call and ask for assistance, citing the waiver. Also, if you get a chance, please report back afterwards on the Basic Economy thread as to whether or not you were able to get the change made to your satisfaction.

Good luck!

Great....
 

Of course the first time I gamble I end up losing.

I live in SAT and am currently in Budapest - leaving Saturday morning. When booking my tickets if I booked out of SAT thru IAH round trip it was $2k more in business. However if I booked IAH-BUD r/t and then separately SAT-IAH r/t it was $2k less. So I did that on two different confirmation numbers.

So now I likely can't get a reroute through IAD or EWR direct to SAT bypassing the IAH disaster. Granted SAT may be underwater as well - but IAH will likely be 100x worse.

Flying into IAH on 8/28. Not worried yet since who knows where the storm is going to be or go however if it should stall out over Texas I could be in for a wet ride and always like to think ahead. I'm connecting at IAH to the one and only flight of the day to PVR. Since I'm technically not going to IAH but rather going thru IAH will I still qualify for the free change if the weather warrants it ?

If they extend the weather waiver to 8/28, you will be eligible for a change due to transiting through an affected city. And, once your flight is actually impacted by weather, you can generally make changes regardless of a waiver. The weather waivers just allow people to be proactive.

SAT is a reasonable alternate airport for IAH. You may actually gamble and win; while you probably can't proactively make changes, if weather issues actually affect your flight to IAH, you can probably get an agent to route you to SAT on your original ticket. Then, if weather issues also affect your second ticket, you can ask for a refund. ^ Of course, that's a lot of ifs... and there's no guarantee they'll be business class space on your alternative flights :(

I think if you call and give them both confirmation # they will acmodate you and reroute thru another airport.

Well I just checked and United only operates ONE other flight into PVR on MON and it's from SFO. I would have to be on a 550am out of IAD to SFO to make it happen. Unless any other suggestions? My ticket is in J.

Cross your fingers and hope the storm misses? :(

SFO-PVR is full in J. If your flight has issues, your best bet may be to ask to be re-accommodated on another carrier. They won't want to do this for weather, but the Star Alliance rebooking guidelines instruct them to do so for First / Business class passengers as well as *G. (They may still refuse your request, even faced with the alliance rule that says that they're supposed to do it, but it's worth a shot).

They definitely won't proactively put you on another carrier before the storm hits. However, if your flight gets cancelled, I'd look for a flight with available business class space and then see if you can be put onto it. If UA cancels your flight ahead of time, you'll have plenty of options. If not... I don't see much beyond a two-stop itinerary on Delta and Aeromexico that leaves out of Dulles at 9:45 AM.

Good luck!

Thanks for the insight! One other possible idea I came up with was asking for a refund (it's a multi-city trip IAD-IAH-PVR; CUN-ORD-IAD) on the going to Mexico part which is about $1,000 for 2 of us and using that to book AeroMexico IAD-MEX-PVR (which is $302 for 2 in Coach) which leaves at 1:35am (7 hours prior to my UA flight) and then using the remaining $$ to upgrade. Can't imagine the upgrade being more than $300 per person (since AM uses a bidding system internally and also honors optiontown and from what I read optiontown sells J for $100 a head).

The question is due to IRRPOS would UA give a partial refund (since I would still like to use the CUN-ORD-IAD piece)....

This of course is all in theory. 99% chance all goes smooth. :D Just like to prepare for the worst.

agree. I also think you could just call right now and cancel the IAH-SAT flight for a full refund. Then be reaccomodated to SAT on the other ticket. This actually works out better for you. Gigem!

My two $0 options are via ... IAH. The flight before and the flight after mine. The rest incur a fare/change fee...and those are two-stoppers through IAH, too. :rolleyes:

Voice of Reason
 

https://spacecityweather.com/likely-...-a-wary-texas/

Good summary from a respected Houston area blog.

Harvey just got predicted to be upgraded to a Cat 3, targeting Corpus Christi - when would United begin to remove planes from IAH?

Cat 3 Now expected
 

Per 11AM advisory CAT 3 potentially.