Why Is It So Hard To Cancel My Flight During A Hurricane?

It's Friday August 30th and Hurricane Dorian is getting ready to mess up airline travel all over Florida. I have a flight booked for Saturday to fly from Tampa to Fort Lauderdale to visit a friend.

I'm on hold with my booking website for over an hour........

I bought the insurance and there is a hurricane coming, so I figure this will be easy to cancel.....

Then I read the fine print...

Wait what?

I get an airline credit but when I go to use it there is a non negotiable fee of $200.00?

So I finally get through to someone and they inform me that I can change dates so I try for Oct 11th, but wait, the airline will still require me to pay the $200 change fee.

How about cancelling my flight and giving me a refund - NOPE!

Then I say, OK, you tell me what to do.

You can put your flight into airline credit and when you go to use it, you'll be charged a change fee. If you were sick and couldn't travel, then you could have gotten a full refund. Of course you would have to file an insurance claim with the airline and prove you were sick.

What?

Oh and by the way, the company starts with an O