Miami in hurricane season: should you rebook?
Booked Miami between June and November? When to leave the trip alone, when to use an airline's travel waiver, and when to cancel for a refund.
Hurricane season alone is no reason to rebook. The season runs from June 1 to November 30. Its busiest stretch is mid-August to mid-October, and a date in that window is not a forecast. Rebook when a named storm is heading for South Florida and your airline has published a travel waiver for your dates.
Decide by what’s happening, not the calendar
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| Booked in season, no storm forecast | Keep the booking. Check your fare’s change rules so you know your options. |
| A storm appears in the long-range forecast | Watch the National Hurricane Center and your airline’s travel alerts. Nothing has to change yet. |
| Your airline publishes a travel waiver for your dates | This is the moment to decide. Read which airports and dates it covers, the dates you can move to, and whether the fare difference is waived. |
| Your airline cancels your flight | Choose a new flight or take a refund. Federal rules require a full refund, taxes and fees included, when you turn down the rebooking, even on a nonrefundable ticket. |
| The flight still operates, but you don’t want to go | Without a waiver, your fare’s normal change or cancellation rules apply. |
Using a travel waiver
Read the waiver on your airline’s website before you call, so you know the answers to the three questions in the table when you get through. If you’re going to move, move early, while other flights still have seats.
Your hotel, cruise and car are separate decisions
An airline waiver is about your flight. Check each of these on its own:
- Hotel: ask about its storm or cancellation policy before you move the flight. Miami’s tourism board says each hotel sets its own refund policy, and it urges them to refund unused nights once officials order visitors to evacuate.
- Cruise: ask the cruise line whether your sailing changes. Our guide to how early to fly before a Miami cruise explains why a spare day helps in season.
- Rental car or transfer: tell the company the same day you change the flight.
- Airport parking: if you reserved a parking space, change the dates with the flight. MIA lets you modify or cancel a reservation up to 24 hours before its time, but the $2.99 reservation fee is non-refundable.
If you travel anyway
Keep checking your flight with the airline until you leave for the airport, and see which concourse it uses at MIA. An airport can stay open while flights are cancelled. In one county notice, Miami-Dade said MIA remained open and operating although some flights had been cancelled. Don’t plan to wait out a storm in the terminal, either. Miami’s tourism board says that during a tropical storm, visitors are generally not allowed in the terminals. Our guide to hurricane season and Miami flights explains who decides when flights stop.
Sources
- Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau: storm-season FAQ
- Miami-Dade County: post-storm update
- US Department of Transportation refund rule, 14 CFR 260.6
- American Airlines: customer service plan
- National Hurricane Center: tropical cyclone climatology