I rarely ever think to buy travel insurance. When I purchase a flight, I fully intend on boarding that flight and taking that trip.

But if you live in Houston, and you book a trip any where between June 1 and November 30, you almost have to take hurricane season into consideration. Its a real thing.

Specifically September. The peak of hurricane season. And this year, hurricane season, and the month of September, has been particularly active. Like…ridiculously active. Stahp!

So, because of all these past storms (specifically Harvey over Labor Day in 2017), when I bought tickets for a trip over Labor Day this year through JetBlue, I elected to purchase insurance with Allianz to cover any change fees, trip cancellations or delays.

Thank goodness I did. Over Labor Day this year, Hurricane Dorian barreled through the Atlantic, passed over the islands we planned to visit, destroyed Abaco Island in the Bahamas, and was projected to go to Florida (we were flying from Texas to Fort Lauderdale and then to Sint Maarten; cheapest route). As a result, we had to change our plans because aint nobody got time for that.

While JetBlue did offer a change fee waiver, it was very limited and because we changed our flights a day before the waiver was issued and outside of the dates they set for rescheduling (which was only about a week later) I was charged $144.00. JetBlue refused to refund the fee.

I also had to change Spirit flights. Spirit is notoriously difficult and expensive. However, I was only charged $40.00 to change those flights. These fees are for two tickets.

I submitted a claim to Allianz, including JetBlue’s fee waiver and documentation about Hurricane Dorian. Within days, the claim was paid and I was made whole. It was a rather simple process. Overall, I was only out about $40.00. So, Allianz has a customer for life.

Well, we changed the plans to this weekend (I’m sure you know where this is headed). First, we noted disturbance in the Atlantic, whose projected path was right over the Leeward Islands….exactly where we’re headed on the exact dates we planned to be there. That storm was to be named Imelda. Instead, a storm quickly developed in the Gulf and now that’s Imelda and she is wreaking havoc all over the Houston area and surrounding cities. It’s been raining since yesterday and to put it in prospective, there are some parts that are getting it worse than Harvey. Now, the storm we were concerned about in the Atlantic has been named Jerry.

So there’s Imelda and Jerry, at home and over our destination. Needless to say, I’m not going anywhere this weekend.

But, because it’s still hurricane season, I bought the insurance that covers the whole trip…to be safe (smart). Yesterday, we made the execute decision to reschedule the entire trip to November. lol…towards the end of the season because….my goodness. This is nuts.

The change fees for Spirit was about $175.00 total for two tickets. For JetBlue, $280.00. Since neither airline has issued waivers, we’re stuck with the fees even though all the weather issues are beyond out control. My flight to FLL was scheduled to leave Houston at 1:20pm. The news just showed lines of cars at a standstill, stuck on both of the major roads to the airport because they are impassable due to flood water. The big airport issued a ground stop. I wasn’t going anywhere today if I wanted to.

I say all this to say, I will be submitting a claim to the insurance carrier today. This is the best avenue I have and the only alternative to losing nearly $500.00 because of all this severe weather.

The members of my travel group have been through Katrina, Harvey and one is pregnant. None of us were interested in taking chances on a small island during a tropical storm. If Imelda is doing all this to Houston, I can only imagine what Jerry will do.

As an aside: Airbnb has been amazing in helping me cancel reservations and issuing refunds. If i didn’t love them before, I really love them now. Y’all be safe out there.