What To Do When Weather Impacts Your Travel

Vacations are important, especially when we spend months saving for them and even longer planning them. We can control a lot of what happens when we travel, but ultimately we can’t control the weather. From freak snow storms to impending hurricanes, here are a few bad weather travel situations and how to deal with them.

1. Flight cancellations

Probably the most common issue travelers encounter, flight cancellations can be frustrating and confounding; especially if you’re connecting to another flight. First make sure you’ve signed up for notifications from your airline; they will either text or email you with changes to flights as they happen. Also be sure to use an app like TripIt to help you manage delays and options for new flights. Flight delays and cancellations are also a major reason why people purchase travel insurance. Policies like the ones offered by RoamRight protect travelers when their trip is cancelled, delayed, or interrupted. Given the investment that we make when we go on vacation, this is an important precaution to take.

2. Cruising during hurricane season

Hurricane season in the Caribbean technically starts June 1 and lasts through November 30, making this time one of the cheapest to take a cruise. Attracted by low rates and beautiful weather, millions roll the travel dice and risk taking a cruise during hurricane season. Unfortunately, hurricanes do happen and can negatively impact your trip. The good news is that if you can make it to the ship, then you should be alright. Cruise ships take great strides to avoid hurricanes and will steer well clear of the danger. If the hurricane impacts either your flight or embarkation on the ship itself, that is when a good insurance policy can help. RoamRight’s cancel for any reason insurance covers all situations, not just flight delays. If you decide to not risk the trip - at least 48 hours prior to departure - this plan will cover most of your losses.

3. The unpredictable

A few years ago I flew from Philadelphia to Madrid and I noticed that most of the flights to Europe had been cancelled. When I landed in Spain I learned that an Icelandic volcano had erupted, halting much of the air travel across Europe. That’s just one example of how the extremely unpredictable can impact our travels. You just never know when the next volcano is going to blow. Weather can impact our trips in less dramatic ways as well, from freak snow storms in the Rockies to dangerous seas in the Maldives. Luckily RoamRight offers a variety of plans to cover not just trip interruptions, but injury and illness that may occur as a result of these freak occurrences. Did you get lost while skiing in a blizzard and hurt your leg? Then RoamRight’s adventure coverage may be for you. Did that recent typhoon pollute some of the drinking water in Asia? That’s when you’ll be happy to have medical coverage to help your stomach recover as quickly as possible. Weather doesn’t just impact our flights, it impacts all aspects of travel and everyone who leaves home to go on vacation should make sure they are covered just in case.

Here are just a few examples of how weather can impact your trips and how to protect yourself. What are some other ways weather impacts our travels?

Note: Available plans and coverages may have changed since this blog was published.