diff --git a/apis/s3/src/main/java/org/jclouds/s3/handlers/S3RedirectionRetryHandler.java b/apis/s3/src/main/java/org/jclouds/s3/handlers/S3RedirectionRetryHandler.java
index bfbef0ca61..638538da91 100644
--- a/apis/s3/src/main/java/org/jclouds/s3/handlers/S3RedirectionRetryHandler.java
+++ b/apis/s3/src/main/java/org/jclouds/s3/handlers/S3RedirectionRetryHandler.java
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ public boolean shouldRetryRequest(HttpCommand command, HttpResponse response) {
          command.incrementRedirectCount();
          closeClientButKeepContentStream(response);
          AWSError error = utils.parseAWSErrorFromContent(command.getCurrentRequest(), response);
-         String host = error.getDetails().get("Endpoint");
+         String host = error == null ? null : error.getDetails().get("Endpoint");
          if (host != null) {
             if (host.equals(command.getCurrentRequest().getEndpoint().getHost())) {
                // must be an amazon error related to