Last week, Peter Greenberg shared his frustration after an online travel agency wouldn’t honor a weather waiver given to him by an airline. This occurred while many flights were grounded due to bad weather in the Northeast. Many of you shared your opinions and concerns about the situation, and here is Peter’s reply.
I want to answer those comments about my Orbitz situation.
I’ve now read all the comments, so let me elaborate.
1. There was no point in continuing a trip to California when no one else in my group could go.
2. I couldn’t fly back to New York because the airport was closed.
3. In a world of connections and hubs, a weather waiver should never just apply to point to point travel.
In a severe weather situation, what happens in New York usually affects the whole country, as it did in this case.
My trip was affected because no one else scheduled to go to Los Angeles could make it—so I was, in essence, stranded.
I either could have been stranded in Dallas, canceled, gotten a refund, and re-booked back to New York later, or I could have gone to Los Angeles and been stranded there. Some choice!
To answer some other questions:
1. If my trip—and the reason for my trip—was interrupted (or canceled) because of weather at another destination, the same weather principle should apply.
2. Yes, I only expected a refund on the DFW-LAX portion of the flight.
By Peter Greenberg for PeterGreenberg.com
