Airlines Allowing Free Flight Changes for New York-Area Travel

Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.

It seems like airlines will issue a change fee waiver for just about any form of inclement weather. Delta Air Lines and United Airlines have offered change fee waivers for travel either today or tomorrow (or both, in the case of United).

Many affected locations are in the New York area. Here are the airports that are included in at least one of the waivers so far:

In addition to its waiver for several New York airports, United has also issued a change fee waiver for Chicago (ORD) for travel today.

If you're flying to/from the affected airports, you can utilize these change fee waivers to rebook yourself on a different date. Remember, if you can’t delay your itinerary, airlines aren’t going to be responsible for paying for your meals or hotels in the case of weather-related delays/cancellations. But some top cards have flight delay/cancellation insurance that can reimburse you for weather issues, including the Citi Prestige ($500 per passenger for 3+ hour delay), the Chase Sapphire Reserve ($500 per ticket for 6+ hour or overnight delay) and Chase Sapphire Preferred ($500 per ticket for 12+ hour or overnight delay).

As of this writing, here are the available travel waivers for today and tomorrow:

Delta Air Lines

• Travel date: July 13
• Airports covered: New York-Kennedy (JFK); New York-LaGuardia (LGA); Newark (EWR); Newburgh (SWF); White Plains (HPN)
• Ticket must be reissued by July 18
• Rebooked travel must begin no later than July 18
• When rescheduled travel occurs beyond July 18, the change fee will be waived. However, a difference in fare may apply.
• Final travel must be completed by end of ticket validity, one year from date of original issue. If travel is not able to be rescheduled within these guidelines, customers may cancel their reservation and apply any unused value of the ticket toward the purchase of a new ticket for a period of one year from the original ticket issuance.

United Airlines

New York Waiver:

• Travel date: July 12-13
• Airports covered: Newark (EWR); New York-Kennedy (JFK); New York-LaGuardia (LGA); Philadelphia (PHL); White Plains (HPN)
• The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before July 17, 2017, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.​​

Chicago Waiver:

• Travel date: July 12
• Airport covered: Chicago-O-Hare (ORD)
• The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before July 17, 2017, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.​​​

As the time of publication, American, Virgin America, Alaska, Spirit, JetBlue, Southwest and Frontier have not issued change fee waivers.