You might want to double check your flight status before leaving for the airport this weekend as hundreds of flights have been canceled ahead of a major storm coming through the Midwest that knocked out power in the region, according to a Reuters report today (January 12).
While a major weather event alone can wreak havoc on your travel plans, it comes as hundreds of Alaska Airlines and United Airlines flights were already cancelled following a January 5 incident in which the door to a Boeing 737-9 Max plane detached on an Alaska flight. Alaska and United are the two biggest users of this aircraft, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation of the incident is ongoing.
On its website today, Alaska announced that its Max 9 aircraft will remain grounded through at least Sunday, January 14, a day longer than it had previously reported. This will impact between 110-150 flights per day while it awaits documentation from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration to begin inspection of the aircraft.
According to data from flight tracking website FlightAware, as of midday today Southwest Airlines had 401 cancellations, the most of any airline on the same day, followed by regional airline Skywest, with 343.
United had 279 cancellations, and Alaska had 158, according to the data. In total, 2,279 flights have been canceled so far.
Steps you can take
There are several steps you can take if you're wondering how to get a flight refund if a winter storm and cancellations are ruining your travel plans, including checking your airline's website for travel advisories. While you can, of course, call the airline, it will likely take awhile to reach a customer service agent. In the meantime, you can arm yourself with information from the site.
Alaska's site shows that it has a flexible travel cancellation policy in place while the flights are grounded.
On its website, United offers options for passengers whose flights are impacted by both weather conditions and the plane groundings. Max 9 passengers are eligible for a full refund, United's site says. For passengers facing inclement-weather cancellations, the airline said it has “gotten rid of most change fees.”
Passengers scheduled on a Southwest flight that has been canceled may request a refund for an unused ticket/travel itinerary on its website. Those with reservations on January 12 or 13 may rebook their tickets “in the original class of service or travel standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city-pairs and in accordance with our accommodation procedures) without paying additional charges,” according to the airline's site.
In addition, you can check out the Department of Transportation Airline Customer Service Dashboard to compare refund and reimbursement policies of the 10 biggest U.S. airlines.
