Hurricane Harvey: Airline Waiver Information For Flight Cancelations, Delays

HOUSTON, TX — Flights in the Houston area have been severely affected by Hurricane Harvey, with hundreds of cancelations and delays.

A ground stop at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport was lifted Saturday and aircrafts were beginning to land and depart. Airport officials are advising customers to stay in touch with their airlines to get the latest information on their flight status.

At Bush, flight operations have been reduced for the next few days to allow customers to adjust their travel plans and prevent unnecessary trips to the airport. At Hobby, the runways are unusable and no flights are operating at this time.

For those affected by the cancelations and delays, airlines are offering waivers for customers. Patch has compiled information provided by airlines below:

United Airlines

The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before September 11, 2017, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.

Affected airports:

• Austin, TX (AUS)
• Brownsville, TX (BRO)
• College State, TX (CLL)
• Corpus Christi, TX (CRP)
• Harlingen, TX (HRL)
• Houston, TX (IAH)
• Lake Charles, LA (LCH)
• Laredo, TX (LRD)
• McAllen, TX (MFE)
• San Antonio, TX (SAT)

Travel dates: Aug. 25-29

American Airlines

If you’re traveling to/through/from:

• Austin, Texas (AUS)
• Beaumont / Port Arthur, Texas (BPT)
• Brownsville, Texas (BRO)
• College Station, Texas (CLL)
• Corpus Christi, Texas (CRP)
• Houston, Texas (HOU)
• Houston, Texas (IAH)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana (LCH)
• Laredo, Texas (LRD)
• McAllen / Mission, Texas (MFE)
• San Antonio, Texas (SAT)

The change fee may be waived if you:

• Are traveling on an American Airlines flight
• Bought your ticket by August 23, 2017
• Are scheduled to travel August 25 - 29, 2017
• Can travel August 23 - September 1, 2017
• Don't change your origin or destination city
• Rebook in the same cabin or pay the difference

Delta Airlines

Affected Airports:

• Austin, TX (AUS)
• Houston, TX – Hobby (HOU)
• Houston, TX - Intercontinental (IAH)
• San Antonio, TX (SAT)

Travel dates: August 25 - 28, 2017 (See Delta's website for full details on conditions about the waiver.)

Southwest Airlines

Affected Airports:

• Austin (AUS) - effective from August 24 through September 1
• Corpus Christi (CRP) - effective from August 24 through September 1
• Houston (HOU) - effective from August 24 through September 1
• Harlingen (HRL) - effective from August 24 through August 29
• San Antonio (SAT) - effective from August 24 through September 1

Customers who are holding reservations to, from, or through the cities and dates listed above and want to alter their travel plans, may rebook 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 any additional charge. Additionally, Customers holding reservations for a flight that is cancelled may request a refund for an unused ticket/travel itinerary.

After making landfall on the Texas coast Friday night, Harvey weakened to a category 1 storm and now the main concern is life-threatening rainfall over much of southeastern Texas and storm surges along portions of the Texas coast. The NHC is warning of catastrophic flooding across middle and upper Texas with anywhere between 15-30 inches of rain and isolated amounts of as much as 40 inches of rain.

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