Gustav and the airlines: Pay heed to warnings

This is the time of the year when monitorig weather forecasts  can make an air traveler very anxious. Just in time for the third anniversary of Katrina, Gustav, a Category One hurricane at the moment, is headed into the Gulf of Mexico and could hit the mainland by early next week somewhere between Florida and Texas. Fortunately, airlines have gotten much better in recent years in issuing public statements well in advance of a major storm, outlining policies for making changes to tickets that usually involve a fee. Some airlines so far have said customers can make changes to tickets without penalty to a specific city or two. US Airways has applied its flexible policy to more than a dozen destinations, as you can see in its

» READ MORE: news release

posted on its Web site yesterday. If you're traveling next week, pay heed to what your airline says about how your destination could be affected. Links to all major carriers at PHL are in the right-hand column of the blog.