When your Aspen flight is diverted

Aspen flights move when the weather tells them to. A plane that was supposed to land at Aspen/Pitkin County Airport sometimes ends the day in Denver or Grand Junction instead. The passengers are fine. The ground plan is not, unless someone on the ground already knows the rule.

Aspen Alpenglow Limousine handles flight diversions to Denver or Grand Junction with 2 hours' notice and no Aspen cancellation penalty. That sentence is the whole policy. It is worth reading slowly, because people mix it up with the ordinary cancellation rule, and the two clocks are different.

What "no Aspen cancellation penalty" means

If you were booked into Aspen and the airline diverts the flight to Denver or Grand Junction, you can move the pickup. Give 2 hours' notice. The company does not treat that change as a late cancel of the Aspen reservation. You are not being billed as if you simply failed to show up in Aspen.

The new ride is a ride from the airport where you actually landed. Denver is $1,375 each way. Grand Junction is $950 each way. Those are the published one-way rates. Holiday pricing may change seasonally. If your original quote was an Aspen airport transfer, the diversion does not silently keep the Aspen price on a Denver-length drive. You are paying the rate for the airport you are now at. The penalty that is waived is the Aspen cancellation penalty, not the difference in distance.

Call as soon as the airline says the word divert. Two hours is the published notice, and earlier is easier. The phone is 970-456-3666. Contact reaches the same desk if you are on the ground and typing is faster than talking.

What the 2-hour rule is not

General cancellations need 24 hours' notice. A dinner that got moved, a ski day you no longer want, or a guest who decided to stay an extra night is an ordinary cancellation. It needs 24 hours. It does not qualify for the diversion rule just because someone uses the word "change."

The diversion rule names two airports: Denver and Grand Junction. It does not say Eagle. It does not say Rifle. If you chose Eagle or Rifle on purpose, book that transfer at its own rate, which is $720 each way for each of those airports. If a plan changes to Eagle or Rifle and it is not a Denver or Grand Junction diversion, ask when you call which clock applies. Do not assume the 2-hour waiver covers every airport in Colorado.

The FAQ page is the short version of the company's published rules, and the pricing page is the rate card. Read both before a holiday week, when schedules are tighter and holiday pricing may change seasonally.

If the flight is late but still coming to Aspen

A delay is not a diversion. Airport pickups include flight tracking, so the driver is following the inbound flight. Airport pickups also include thirty minutes of complimentary wait time after arrival. You do not need to cancel an Aspen pickup because the flight left two hours late, as long as it is still landing in Aspen. Text or call if the airline rebooks you onto a different flight number. Tracking follows the flight you tell the company about.

If the airline cancels and sends you out the next morning into Aspen, that is a schedule change on the original route. Call and move the Aspen pickup. If they put you on a flight that lands in Denver or Grand Junction instead, you are in the diversion rule: 2 hours' notice, no Aspen cancellation penalty, and a ride priced from the airport where you landed.

What to have in your hand when you call

Have the new airport, the new flight number, the number of people, and the address in Aspen or the Roaring Fork Valley where the day should end. Say if children are in the group. Child car seats and boosters are free. Say if you have skis. The vehicles have ski racks and roof cargo space. Say if the group is large. SUVs seat 7. The Ford Transit Ford Transit Passenger Van seats 13. No shared rides are offered, so a group of ten needs the van or more than one SUV, not a seat in someone else's car.

If you are continuing on a private airplane rather than an airline, private FBO airport service includes Eagle, Rifle, Grand Junction, Buena Vista, Montrose, and Gunnison. Name the field. An FBO pickup is not the same door as airline baggage claim.

The airport transfers page is the right starting point when you rebuild the day. Starlink is on the vehicles if people need to rebook hotels on the drive. Eight full-time local drivers, with 15 or more years of mountain driving experience, are the people doing the winter miles. A diversion does not put you in a shared shuttle.

Keep the confirmation from the new booking. A confirmed reservation is honored at the quoted rate. Holiday pricing may change seasonally, so the quote you accept on the phone is the number that matters, not a guess from a different week.