What to do when a vacation goes south because of a storm

THIS season’s hurricanes have shattered countless travel plans, raising questions about what happens to the consumer who gets caught in the storm.

When flights, cruises and trains, and hotel and rental car reservations are canceled or shifted en masse, customers get their money back -- or not. They are happy with their re-accommodation -- or not.

The outcomes are dictated, of course, by each travel supplier’s policy. But they also depend on the pluck, patience and creativity of their customers. And that means there are lessons here.

Briefly, they are these: Nonrefundable tickets really are that (mostly), persistence pays, go to the top, get on the Internet, watch the wording and use great care in booking airfares to cruise ports.

For illustrations, I turn to the tales of Chris Johnstone, a film editor from Venice, Calif., who canceled train, flight and rental car reservations during Hurricane Katrina, and to a group of wannabe Caribbean cruisers whose ship sailed without them.

As Katrina headed for the Gulf Coast, Amtrak called and offered Johnstone a choice of rebooking his Sunset Limited trip from Los Angeles, due to arrive Aug. 30 in New Orleans, or a refund of his fare. Johnstone shifted his trip to a day later, then canceled on Aug. 30 after New Orleans’ levees broke.

“They were great,” he said of Amtrak.

But getting a refund for his Sept. 3 flight from New Orleans to Norfolk, Va., wasn’t easy, Johnstone said. Continental employees at first declined his request, saying his fare was nonrefundable and that his flight hadn’t yet been canceled.

Johnstone was dismayed to learn that if he wanted to rebook without a change fee, he would need to do so by Sept. 10.

Finally, he asked for a supervisor. “I got a guy who said the two other people were crazy,” Johnstone said. “He said, ‘It’s a national emergency.’ ”

Johnstone got his refund.

Continental spokesman David Messing said that in Johnstone’s situation, the airline’s policy would allow rebooking, but it would deny a refund unless the flight was canceled -- which it may not have been at that point.

“Apparently, the supervisor made an exception,” Messing said.

Johnstone said Hotwire, an Internet site where he had booked a prepaid car rental in Virginia, also balked at a refund, citing the absence of a canceled flight, but a supervisor finally relented.

Hotwire spokeswoman Emily Collins agreed that a refund would depend on the flight’s being canceled, but she disputed Johnstone’s account, saying nonsupervisory personnel quickly handled the request.

Like Johnstone, Alan Schiller, group coordinator at Carlson Wagonlit Travel in Lynnwood, Wash., saw travel plans washed away by Katrina. But he ran aground on a different problem.

Carnival Cruise Lines, which canceled or shifted cruises affecting more than 100,000 passengers after it chartered three ships to hurricane relief efforts, agreed to rebook 240 of Schiller’s clients from the Elation to the Conquest for a weeklong Caribbean cruise out of Galveston, Texas.

But, he said, the cruise line wanted each passenger to pay about $300 more.

Jennifer de la Cruz, Carnival spokeswoman, said the higher fare was warranted on the Conquest because it is newer, bigger and has more cabins with balconies than the Elation. Elation customers, she noted, could also get refunds or take a shorter cruise. One problem with those alternatives, the travel agency said, was that clients who booked their own nonrefundable airfare to Houston might face change fees.

Irked, Schiller contacted a Carnival competitor, Norwegian Cruise Line, which accepted his group at the original rate and on the same December date out of Galveston. “We were rescued,” Schiller said.

A closer look at some lessons:

“Nonrefundable” means just that -- mostly. You’re at the mercy of the company that sold you such a ticket or other service. If you cancel or switch travel dates, you may owe a change fee of $100 and up, pay more for your new flight or hotel room or even lose the full amount you paid.

In an emergency, an airline or Internet travel seller may make exceptions to its nonrefundable policy, but it will do so on its own terms. Refundable airfares, of course, are typically more expensive. But they can be worth it.

If you don’t like the answer, call again. And again. The next service representative who answers the phone may be more generous or better informed than the last one you spoke with. With the airlines, especially, readers tell me different employees make different offers on rebookings and refunds.

Ask for a supervisor. Talking to a supervisor is “always a valid option,” Continental’s Messing said, if you’re trying to get an airline to waive a policy for you. Managers may have the authority to bend the rules.

Check the websites. In a fast-moving crisis, many travel companies update their policies daily and post them on their Internet sites. As the extent of recent storm damage to New Orleans became known, for example, airlines extended dates for waiving rebooking penalties. Yesterday’s policy may not be today’s.

Watch the wording. What does it mean when an airline says you can rebook your flight without penalty by a certain date? Do you need to travel by that date or make a new reservation by then? It’s not always clear.

At Continental, Messing said, the “rebook” or “reschedule” cutoff date typically refers to making the reservation; you usually get a year to travel on the rebooked ticket. “Without penalty” refers only to waiving the change fee. But you still may have to pay the difference between the original and the rebooked fare.

“Different seats on different dates have different values,” he said.

Under a practice known as yield management, airlines, hotels and cruise lines may raise prices as seats, rooms and berths become scarce.

Take special precautions for flights to a port. Cruise passengers, especially those sailing in hurricane season, should consider booking their flights to and from the port through the cruise line or buying a refundable airplane ticket.

That’s because when cruise lines cancel or reroute sailings, they often arrange penalty-free changes to air tickets they booked for their customers. But passengers who booked their own flights may not get this help.

Lacking the cruise lines’ clout, they can get dinged for change fees.

Jane Engle welcomes comments but can’t respond individually to letters and calls. Write to Travel Insider, L.A. Times, 202 W. 1st St., L.A., CA 90012, or e-mail jane.engle@latimes.com.