I received a Google news alert and I clicked on the following info---:

http://www.kfdx.com/news/default.asp...ownews&id=5725

"..On the flipside, there`s some disappointing news for airline passengers. From now on, if bad weather leaves you stranded at the airport, the airlines will no longer pay for your hotel room. It`s because airlines have been struggling financially since 9/11, and are cutting costs. The airlines have normally paid for hotel rooms for their passengers as a courtesy.

But we can tell you, that U.S. Airways, American and Delta Airlines are the ones more likely to offer some type of discount coupon. United, Northwest and Continental will continue to put up passengers affected by delayed or canceled flights..."

I didn't see anythiing else on yahoo or msn today. I am not sure where KFDX Channel 3 is located.

 

Delta has never done Jack for me for weather-related delays - only mechanical ones have resulted in their paying for my room. (Once, they even refused to accommodate me when they had a CRJ which was hit by lightning - and then required repairs... to me, the "repairs" part was mechanical, but of course they disagreed).

US Air once did put me up overnight from a weather-related delay... a weather delayed flight had pushed them past the time window in which their pilot could fly my route so I was rescheduled and given a hotel room).

The article seems to point to more airlines moving in the Delta direction.

 

United, Northwest, and Continental pay for hotel rooms for passengers affected by weather delays? I got stuck in Atlanta last month on Delta and the official line was no hotel rooms, though a few folks on the bus to the hotel I ended up at did have vouchers for free rooms, so it really depends on how much of a fuss you put up I think (I was on business travel anyway so it wasn't worth fussing over at 1 AM for me ...).

 

MilesBuzz?

 

Nothing to do with miles or points..

Off to TravelBuzz...

 

So what's new? CO did that to me in summer, 2002 on a flight out of ORD after the plane had waited on the runway 3 hours and we couldn't take off because the crew had exceeded their permissible work hours. Definitely weather-related. Couldn't re-book by calling the Elite Desk (they said my ticket was "used" so they couldn't help) and had to wait in line with everyone else. They were giving everyone in front of me the same story (find and pay for your own hotel room) so I had the ORD Hilton booked by phone before I even got to the ticket agent.

 

As long as I have been traveling, I have never heard of any airline that would pay for a hotel due to a weather delay.

 

I was stuck overnight in CVG on a dark and stormy night in 2000 and DL actually did put me up in a hotel. By the time I'd gotten off the plane in CVG, too late to make my connection to DFW, they had a table set up with vouchers, shuttle buses to the hotel, and boarding passes for a flight out the next morning. I was flying on a discounted ticket and had no status with DL. Those were the days.

 

I misconnected at IAH due to a weather delay last month, passengers arriving after the last flights out were given letters for $49 a night rooms at area hotels, which I thought was a nice gesture.

The next week I got a letter: "Our records show that you experienced an inconvenience while traveling with us between Newark and Houston on June .........................................."I am sorry if this experience was inconvenient for you"

Fortunately, I "experienced" my "inconvenience" in the BusinessFirst end of a 777.

 

I've been given hotels due to weather delays twice in all my years of travelling.

Once was a really long time ago: USAir (as it was called then) put me in a hotel at PIT when I misconnected due to a major winter storm that closed most of the airports in the northeast. That was in 1984.

More recently, in 2003, Northwest put me in a hotel when I misconnected at DTW. I was coming from Paris and connecting to San Francisco. The plane was several hours late arriving in Paris because of weather back in Detroit. The gate agent in Paris said that if I missed my connection (the last flight of the day to SFO), the airline would not pay for a hotel. But when I got to DTW (where the weather was now fine) they gave rooms to everybody who misconnected, and there were a lot of us.

Ed

 

I've never been given a hotel room because of a weather delay.

I've always thought that since the airlines couldn't control the weather, that it was ultimaetly on the passenger to take care of themselves.

 

JerryFF and Crowse,
It appears you have been unlucky or just gone to the wrong ticket agent, or not ttried at all. The one time I did not get a hotel voucher due to a weather situation where I could not get out the same night, however, I did manage to get 2 confirmed North American one-segment upgrades. First of course they did not offer anything but when I politely persited, offeres of upgrades or miles quickly materialized. One tip is to try to see an agent that is not crazy busy. And try to negotiate away from others. Often they might be able to put up say 5 people in hotels but they have to tell the hundred or so others that basically they are SOL. However, they will put the 5 who ask properly or who they feel it is justified for in a hotel.

 

Mixed results here...even as a top level elite member you don't ALWAYS get FREE hotel room for weather delay.

 

I read on this board that UA announced it does provide hotels for 1K and perhaps 1P? due to weather? Is this an actual announcement they officially made or just a rumor?

 

I know for a fact that United does bupkis for their 1P's as a result of weather delays or job action delays. In fact, during the job actions, they go out of their way to make your life hell. I guess that's the intent of the job action - and in my case, they achieved their result. I haven't flown a paid segment on UA since the job action on December 22, 2000, and I never will again. It sucks connecting at ORD for an MCI-DEN flight, but it's better than giving UA my money.

The AA Platinum Service Center at ORD has given me hotel vouchers for weather delays twice. Another time - at DCA - AA said they didn't give free hotel rooms for weather, but they gave me a letter to get into the Courtyard for $57, and they gave me a voucher to have dinner in the airport. The Courtyard was brand new and quite nice...

Also, it seems that AA is better than most in terms of allowing you to proactively avoid bad weather. For example, if bad weather is forecast at ORD or DFW, they will sometimes allow a free itinerary change to avoid the weather - even if it means moving flights forward/back a day or rerouting through the other hub. I know other airlines do this for hurricanes or massive blizzards, but AA seems to do it more frequently - anytime they think a storm system will hose things up at one of their hubs.