Airlines waive fees, cruise ships shift for Tropical Storm Fay

Headed to Florida or the Caribbean? As Tropical Storm Fay rakes the region, you may be able to change your flight without paying penalties. And if you’re cruising, expect port changes and delays. Check often with your airline or cruise line.

Airlines: Below are some policies posted on websites this afternoon. A caveat: Even if change fees are waived, you may still owe fare differences:

American Airlines will let you change your ticket once without fees if you’re scheduled to fly to, from or through Florida, the Bahamas or Grand Cayman through Aug. 24, providing that you bought your ticket by Aug. 16. Your rebooked flight must begin by Aug. 24.

Continental Airlines was waiving change fees for travel involving eight Florida airports through Aug. 20.

Delta Air Lines was waiving change fees for travel to 14 cities in Florida and Georgia through Aug. 21. Your rebooked flight must begin by Aug. 21.

United Airlines was waiving change fees for travel to, from or through Florida through Aug. 21, providing that you bought your ticket by Aug. 16.

Cruise lines:

Carnival Fascination will skip its Tuesday call on Key West, Florida, and will not sail toward Mexico, as planned, according to a posting on Carnival’s website earlier today. (That posting was later replaced with a general one pledging to operate Carnival ships “at a safe distance” from the storm.)

Norwegian Sky left Miami today two hours earlier than scheduled and changed its itinerary to call on Nassau on Tuesday and Grand Bahama Island on Wednesday. Because Port Canaveral, Florida, will be closed to cruise traffic on Tuesday, Norwegian Spirit also altered its plans, according to Norwegian Cruise Line.

Disney Cruise Line was monitoring the situation, but had not made changes as of this afternoon, said spokeswoman Christi Erwin Donnan.

— Jane Engle, assistant Los Angeles Times Travel editor

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 18, 2008 at 5:45 pm by Jane Engle and is filed under Airline travel, Caribbean, Family & Kids, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.