Hurricane Sandy is set to come ashore in the Northeastern United States and have already wrecked havoc to many of your travel schedules. The Hurricane has been around for a bit as it passed through the Caribbean creating damage as it made its way northward.
I won’t recreate the wheel with a list of resources, but just point to you my friend Johnny Jet’s Web site and his Hurricane Sandy Resources. He’s created a great page with links to the transportation areas and their policies for making changes to your affected flights. The key is to check your airline’s Web site for the latest news and check your e-mail/phones to se if they sent you messages. Remember you can get a refund if your flight was cancelled.
You should have already downloaded the apps for each airline as well as follow them on twitter and facebook so you keep updated during your travels. If not, now is a good time to start.
I’ve added a few more Web site links below for select international carriers serving the New York area as they have similar policies:
Air Canada | Air France | Air India | Alitalia | All Nippon Airways (ANA) | British Airways | Cathay Pacific | Caribbean Airlines | Emirates | Japan Airlines | Jet Airways | KLM | Lufthansa | Qantas | Qatar | SAS | Turkish Airlines | Virgin Atlantic
Plus two for Megabus and Greyhound.
Just to manage your expectations, wait times will be long on the phone, so if your airline allows changes online use that resource. Don’t yell at the agents as they have a ton of calls to process and you are but one of them. The good thing is that this occurred during the non-peak travel season, but you will still be hard pressed to get to where you want to be when you want to, so be patient. Note that the airlines want to get things up and running as soon as possible, but there may be infrastructure damage to some airports/roadways so that will hinder progress. The airports may be open, but the agents can’t get there as the ground transportation systems are not up and running. Be patient.
If you have travel insurance, check your policy as since this is a natural disaster things may not be covered. But since the airlines are waving fees and allowing you to make changes without a penalty you may be O.K. You may be covered with Interruption and Delay Insurance, but again check your policy. Also, you may have travel insurance and not know it if your credit you sued to purchase the ticket covered, so check your statement/terms and conditions to see what you have.
Good luck and be safe.
