spirobulldog

Yes, I feel cheated . But, we have been able to travel a lot the past couple of years, so I just chaulk this up to a learning experience and trying to have some patience.

I booked airfare last August for this trip with United Airlines. They service a lot of smaller towns, like Kalispell, with Sky West Airlines. The flight was supposed to depart Tulsa @ 5:08pm and arrive in Kalispell at 8:40pm. So, even if I had been there by midnight or even early the next morning, I would have understood.

I knew I was in trouble about 4 hours before our flight when I got an automated message on my phone saying that my flight had been cancelled.

So I get to the airport 3 hours early and was optimistic that I could catch a different flight, maybe they could put me on a different carrier, or as a worse case scenario another flight the next morning.

Apparently there had been a hailstorm the previous day in Denver that had damaged 40 or 5o planes. Denver is a major hub for Skywest and United, so this effected a lot of their planes. So there was no service to Kalispell at all. We looked at flying into Spokane, Calgary, Great Falls, Missoula, Butte, and Helena. None of those places would rent me a car one-way to Kalispell and it would have been very costly to do that anyway. Plus that would have been anywhere from a 5-8 hour drive. I wish that United would have notified me the day before or even earlier in the day when they knew they had a problem. Flying Delta with a connection in Salt Lake wasn't possible because all of those seats had already been take. There was a possibility but not guaranteed that I could fly to Salt Lake, spend the night there and catch a flight late the next night arriving in Kalispell around 11:00pm. 27 hours after I was scheduled. This would involve me paying for a hotel in Salt Lake, and killing a day there. I guess we could have done something there, but I was unprepared and we would have needed to rent a car there. Car rental at the last minute is expensive.

We opted to just get our money back on the flight and come back home.
We did loose our cabin rental $1800. We also lost about $300 of tours that we had booked with Glacier Park Inc.(red bus tour, tea in Waterton, 3 boat tours) They allowed me a refund of $19. I am happy to say that most other vendors/concessionare do allow for a cancellation with a small fee like $5 or none at all). Those major vendors include Delaware North, Aramark, Forever Lodging. Glacier Park Inc is not one of those. Yes, it does say all of that in their policy and I knew that. Just saying.

But, the biggest lesson I learned-- Don't book lodging that you can't cancel or don't have insurance on. I wouldn't have minded loosing 1 nights worth, but 5 nights on a cabin is a lot. This was on VRBO. I fully understand the owners situation as there would be little chance they could rent the cabin to someone else that late in the game.
Yes, I could have still gone(provided I wasn't delayed further), but cutting a 4 day trip down to 2 and not doing it the way I wanted to would not have been good. Plus, they had another huge storm in Denver last night, so who know what all that would have involved. According to the Weather Channel, it is a real mess there still today. Our plane that we could have flown was delayed for 2 hours I noticed as we left the airport. So, not sure what happened to that one either. It is irritating to have lost $2100 on this trip.

Of course, the best option is to just take a longer vacation and drive. This way you aren't relying on air so much. I am self-employed and can't get away for much more than 5 days at a time. So we just take long weekend trips. If we are going anywhere much at all this involves flying to get there due to time contraints.

I am going to Rocky Mountain National Park in August, so that is a good note. My wife and daughter aren't going with me on this one though. I am driving and camping there with a couple of college boys that work for me. I went to Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe earlier this summer with my nephew. My wife and I went to Monterey and then we went as a family to Bryce/Utah this summer, so I have a lot to be thankful for.

I did file for compensation from United. I don't think they owe me anything and don't really expect it. But, it never hurts to ask, maybe I'll get lucky.

kureiff

Oh, that's awful. I'm sorry you missed your trip.

I live in Great Falls and grew up in small towns near Helena and then Butte and Bozeman. It's very frustrating and expensive to fly into or out of MT. Yesterday, I was waiting on a Fed Ex package that had documents I needed to send to the IRS, and the Fed Ex package was held up in Denver due to weather. It's frustrating.

I'm sorry you're out of the money for lodging and vendors. And it's too bad you couldn't make the trip.

maj

Sorry to hear about your experience, but glad you posted it in detail. Lots of good information for others in planning trips and what can happen. Flying is definitely becoming more of a hassle anymore with smaller planes, oversold flights, pretty regular last minute changes in flights, etc. along with weather problems at airports. Still, even though time may not be a constraint, it is hard to drive 2-4 days just to arrive at your destination.

Last year we flew from Jackson Hole to SLC and while walking to our connecting flight it was cancelled. (never did find out why) We were lucky enough to be able to run to another flight, but don't know when the rest of the passengers who were supposed to be on our original flight ever ended up leaving SLC. Enjoy RMNP -- and hope you do get to Glacier at some point.

wtm003

How disappointing! I'm also sorry you missed your trip.

I'm not an United fan, but in this case it probably wasn't possible for them to give you more advance notice of the cancellation if your trip was the very next day. The hailstorm hit DIA between 9 and 10 pm. The hail storm at DIA produced 3/4 inch hail and lasted 15 minutes. I was fortunate to miss hail in my area but it was a constant wave of storms that evening - torrential rain and intense lightning. All the airlines had to inspect the entire skin of their aircraft fleet, so the decision making process to go or no go was likely plane by plane & slow. Yesterday, I heard that a plane was damaged when a kayak that was being unloaded was caught by a wind gust and hit the plane.

Good info about Glacier Park, Inc. as I'll give them a critical eye before booking excursions with them.

Thanks for the insurance reminder. I don't always buy travel insurance, but on a few trips I used Travelguard which I found fairly inexpensive. The total cost was $90 - $120 and since my children were under 18 they were included for free.

cmcfong

thank you so much for the details in your posting. We are considering Montana for our hiking trip (really wonderful place and I love GNP) but this is a good reminder of "worst case scenario". I respect your good attitude and optimism.

spirobulldog

Two people at the ticket counter for United tried just about everything we could think of for at least 45 minutes or so. they were very sympathetic as was the lady we had rented our cabin from.
Not very often are so many planes effected---Usually when it is weather related, it is only for an hour or so. I try to avoid Denver connections when possible(usually more so if I am flying in the winter)due to weather.

I have had a couple of bad experiences. Kicked off a flight on Continental in Alaska. I had a boarding pass but didn't have reciept. This was booked on expedia but resulted in a last minute change from Delta. Expedia made the switch, but it didn't show up on Continentals records. The plane was fully loaded and moments from closing the door. We didn't get it straightened out until the next morning. A few other times, just typical delays that might not have you arriving until the next morning. I can only imagine having one of those situations like 911 or staying in the airport overnight for a couple of nights during a snowstorm. My parents did that one time.

Even the best laid out plans can get fouled up.

I have super positive results renting from vrbo and never thought about the worst case situation. Thanks for your replies.

Judy24

I'm sorry to read about your cancelled trip. You seem to be taking it very well--much better than I would have!

Thank you for posting about it, since I think you're providing a valuable service to others. You raise the issue of trip insurance, which leads me ask a question. Has anyone had any experience with trip insurance where a VRBO or similar lodging situation is involved? Do they cover the loss the same as they would for a hotel? My concern would be that they would treat a private rental as a non-covered item.

Floridafran

Your attitude about this is much better than I fear mine would be. I'm by nature an optimistic and up-beat person, but if we have to cancel our Fall trip to Glacier and other areas out that way, I know I'll be upset. And we're going in our RV, so have few reservations that would cost us like you faced. But regardless of how one gets there, a ton of planning has gone into it.

I've followed your threads about this trip and know how much you were looking forward to it, so I'd like to add my "I'm sorry" to that of the others. I was looking forward to hearing about your trip. Like you, we enjoy our National Parks and I've gotten a lot a great information from many of your posts about them.

Also want to thank you for posting about the policies of the various companies you dealt with. It never hurts to remind us that, as you said, "even the best laid plans" can go awry. I'm sure your financial loss with this gives people food for thought.

Enjoy your trip to RMNP. I'm confident you won't give up on getting to Glacier, and that you will get there. (As a retired self-employed person, I know our natures. ;-) )

spirobulldog

I hope I have enough money and able to travel when I retire. I have never done any rving, but I think I could spend an entire summer doing it.

bellhouse

So sorry, spiro.

Floridafran

We're brand new to RVing - bought our first one this past September. We'll be making our longest trip this Fall - 5 weeks (unless we decide to extend the time). Like you, I think I could spend the entire summer doing it, but my husband isn't so sure, so we're easing into longer trips.

As for traveling - You get in a lot more trips than we did when were still working. I always envied you when I'd see your posts here about where you were headed next. Now we're trying to make up for lost time/opportunities before we get too old to enjoy getting out and exploring our natural wonders.

As far as the money goes - We've both told our children that if they're lucky, our money and our lives will run out at the same time and they'll never have to take care of us. I've told my 2 that I gave them a far better financial start as young adults than my parents were able to give me and have no intention of leaving them much of an inheritance. (I didn't get one at all.) Tom has pretty much told his 2 the same.

Hopefully the economy and our health will co-operate with our plans. If not, then we'll figure that out when the time comes. I hope your future works out the way you want it to.

Fran

irishswampyankee

Sorry about your experience. How frustrating. Have learned the hard way to always buy trip ins if lost $$ would be more than a few hundred. Have had 3 claims over the yrs - 1 cancel and 1 interruption for med reasons and 1 overnt delay. Several thousand dollars reimbursed by ins cos so we are ahead. Never a hassle from the ins cos but we always could provide detailed documentation. As they say - ins is never a good idea until you need it! Enjoy RMNP.

ziggypop

Spiro, sorry for your trip trouble. I have enjoyed your reports in the past(and this one also). You have a much better attitude than I could muster. Eleven months to have tickets and then pffft. While I was being re-routed around Yellowstone in June I kept hearing Will Geers voice saying to Jeramiah Johnson "you can't cheat the mountain pilgrim, the mountains got its own way". I've never been to Denver, but I bet its in the mountains.
Like my friend always says, attitude is everything, ziggypop

lincasanova

I also admire your attitude and am very sorry for your disappointment after so much planning. I think I am going to give trip insurance a better look for my upcoming trip! You've got me thinking.

emalloy

Thanks for reminding us of the pitfalls of air travel. I've only been cancelled once due to weather, and could not get a plane for four days. We just cancelled the whole trip and got in the car and had a nice road trip much closer to home.


Sorry for this time, hope RMNP is a winner trip all around.

Ackislander

I couldn't agree more with emalloy. You do a real service to travelers who assume everything will always go well. Especially when traveling to small cities and remote destinations, there are often no backup planes when things go wrong, and as you point out, spirobulldog, one way caar rentals in a place like Montana are a very different thing than similar rentals between NY and Boston or points in FL.

Hope things work out better next time! You are a champ for taking it that way!