Hurricane deployment and vacation
 

Hi all,

My daughter and I planned a long weekend to NOLA on the first weekend of November. She has a wonderful professional and humanitarian opportunity to be deployed as a civilian employee of FEMA and go to Puerto Rico to work for 8 weeks. The time they leave is still up in the air and there will only be about 3 days notice for this deployment.

We bought travel insurance for a NOAA declared hurricane, but this is not within the guidelines. We have an Air BnB that has a strict cancellation policy and two RT plane tickets from two different destinations. I'm not sure how easy/responsive the insurance company will be and I'd like to not be out $1400 for air and lodging expenses. I'd like to try the insurance claim last since it may be the biggest pain in the neck.

We may appeal to the Air BnB host to give us a full refund since the NOLA owner may be sympathetic. We may also ask for credit for the airline for a flight at another time. One factor is that I'm not being deployed, she is just my travel companion--not sure I have a case to make.

Daughter's boss for this job says that if the vacation is a deal breaker, don't take the deployment. In another email, he said that he will try to accommodate vacation times. He's not super clear and I'm sure he is super busy. Our idea is to wait at least another week to make a determination to see if more clear information is disseminated and/or hoping that the deployment won't happen until after we get back. However, we don't want to wait super long, hoping that our appeal to the Air BnB host will give her time to re book the space.

Has anyone ever had an experience like this? Any advice you can share? I appreciate any hints or tips.

Even though I proof read this, the vacation we planned and the trip to PR are not related. They are two separate events that may collide.

unless you purchased “cancellation for any reason” trip insurance I doubt your insurance will reimburse you for any expenses if you canceled the trip because your daughter is taking an assignment to assist with hurricane relief in Puerto Rico. When trip insurance covers loss caused by a hurricane that storm must have curtailed travel to/from the “vacation destination” (in your case your home city and/or NOLA) not another destination that was damaged by a hurricane that you or your travel companion elect to visit. If you are unsure about your travel insurance coverage you should call your travel insurance company and ask them if you have any hope of getting a claim.

If you purchased non-refundable airline tickets most airlines will allow you to cancel the Air portion of your trip and issue you a credit that can be used for future travel (usually good for 1 year).

Also, your contact with AirBnB will govern there cancelation/refund policy so best to contact them for clarification.

If you purchased non-refundable airline tickets most airlines will allow you to cancel the Air portion of your trip and issue you a credit that can be used for future travel (usually good for 1 year).


Don't you usually have to pay a change fee?

Yes, you usually pay a change fee, and you usually only have a credit against the current price of the new ticket.

Hypothetical Example: ticket now from CITY X to NOLA: $400 = $400 credit
Ticket in May from CITY X to NOLA: $600
Cost to you: $600-400 + change fee $50= May ticket $250
Total cost $650

That change fee cited is really low.

Most airlines have a change fee of either $75 or $200. Delta, United and American all charge $200.

Southwest is the exception with no change fee.

I would not count on any carrier waiving the fee given your circumstances.

Help me out here: you are talking about NOVEMBER, right? What hurricane are you talking about? No, I do not understand, obviously.

Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Thanks all for your replies. We have decided to wait until after the 11 of October, then go ahead and try to adjust our plans even if we are not sure when the deployment will occur. If we can't to NOLA, we will try to get back as much money/credit as possible. As a mom, needless to say, I'm super proud of my daughter who is willing to take on a job that is helping the people of Puerto Rico.

>>we will try to get back as much money/credit as possible.<<

I'm not sure what you can hope to get back. You are not being prevented from traveling due to a hurricane or weather event. You are being prevented because you daughter decided to accept a job assignment during the time you want to travel.

Now, it may be a laudable job, and good for her. But I suspect that is no reason you should get your money back. It would be the same if she decided to go to work anywhere.

You won't get anything back because YOU decided to travel at a different time.