So since most of the East coast is snowed in right now I figured this would be a good time to talk about what you can do when the weather interrupts your travel plans.
For me the most important thing in any vacation is travel insurance. Travel insurance protects your investment in your vacation. If there is a major storm like today then you have the option of just cancelling your vacation and receiving a refund from the insurance company. Different companies have different policies, some allow you to cancel for any reason others will require you to wait until the airline cancels your flight before they will refund your money.
Don't forget its not just in the winter that weather can disrupt your travel plans, personally my vacation plans have been interrupted more from hurricanes rather than snow
Fortunately when major storms comes we do know ahead of time and to save your vacation it plans to be proactive.
I have a client who cruises every New Year. She takes insurance but wants the vacation so when we book the flight she goes down a day early plus we put a rental car on hold. If a major storm is due she just drives down in the rental car and then flies back afterwards. (Make sure you call the airline,first, if you don't let them know you will not be on the first leg of your flight they will cancel your whole ticket)
For this storm many airlines cancelled their flights for Thursday by Wednesday, be proactive - call the airline, tell them you are willing to leave early, can you fly from another airport? In situations like this the airline will work with you and not charge any change fees
Of course, the best advise I can give is call a travel agent when you book your vacation. Travel agents know what to do in a storm and know the shortcuts. Can you imagine all of those people trying to get through to a major on line travel agencies , who really don't have the staff to answer the phones on a normal day yet alone before a storm?
