Hurricane Rita is Now a Category 4

September 21, 2005

Hurricane Rita is Now a Category 4
September 21, 2005 – Tropical storm Rita is now a Category 4 hurricane. The hurricane center predicts that Rita will gather strength before the eye makes landfall near Galveston, Texas, late Friday or early Saturday. That would place Rita about midway between New Orleans and Brownsville, Texas.

The Florida Keys was spared a direct hit from Hurricane Rita; however, the area is closed to visitors. Officials are asking potential travelers to postpone their trip to the Keys until protective orders are discontinued and the region’s infrastructure is assessed. The Keys Web site (http://www.fla-keys.com/) will post infrastructure updates as soon as possible after the storm has passed.

United Airlines has revised ticket policies for those with travel plans to and from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers, Fla/, who were affected by the approach of Rita. All United customers ticketed on or before Sept. 18 for travel between Sept. 19 and Sept. 20, 2005, to or from south Florida on any United, United Express, Ted or United code-share flight were permitted to change their flights without fees or other penalties, if they did so prior to Sept. 20. Standard Saturday night stay requirements were waived. Customers with unused tickets for travel may reschedule their travel between the same origin and destination without a change fee, but rescheduled travel for the same itinerary must meet the same rule and booking code restrictions in order to guarantee the original fare. Rescheduled travel on flights and/or dates that do not meet the original restrictions may be subject to higher fares. These temporary policies also apply to any Mileage Plus tickets that meet these same date and itinerary guidelines. Visit http://www.united.com/ for more information.