Airlines issue waivers as Hurricane Maria bears down on Caribbean
Warnings have been issued in several Caribbean islands and others are on ‘hurricane watch’ as tropical storm Maria heads towards the Leeward Islands.
The US National Hurricane Center has warned Maria, currently a category one hurricane, will rapidly strengthen over the next 48 hours and will hit Guadeloupe, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat and Martinique late today local time.
Other islands are now on hurricane watch, including the US and British Virgin Islands, St Martin, St Barts, Saba, St Eustatius and Anguilla.
Maria is following a very similar path as Hurricane Irma, which devastated many islands earlier this month, including Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla, killing at least 37 people, before hitting the US, where 11 people died.
In preparation for Maria, United Airlines has said it will waive change fees on flights.
In like-for-like ticket changes, any fare difference will also be waived.
American Airlines issued travel alerts and waivers for flights to Antigua, Bridgetown, San Juan, Saint Croix Island, Saint Kitts, Saint Lucia, and Saint Thomas Island from today through Wednesday, September 20, while Delta, JetBlue and Southwest Airlines are also offering free flight changes.
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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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