Four Airlines Allowing Free Flight Changes for New York-Area Flights

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

Usually when we have airline travel waivers, it’s for a natural disaster like a hurricane (or typhoon), earthquakes or wildfires. However, in the crowded air space around New York City, even bad thunderstorms can cause a ripple effect that can wreck airline schedules. And, that’s what’s in the forecast for Tuesday.

So far, four airlines have issued travel waivers for NYC for Tuesday. These waivers allowing travelers free changes and sometimes free cancellations. If you’re flying in or out of NYC, you can rebook yourself on a different date. If you’re flying through NYC, you can reroute yourself through a different connecting airport and/or change the dates of travel.

Here are the airports that are included in at least one of the waivers so far:

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 Card ($500 per ticket for 12+ hour or overnight delay).

As of this writing, here are the available travel waivers for Tuesday:

American Airlines

• Travel dates: October 24
• Airports affected: Allentown, Pennsylvania (ABE); Hartford, Connecticut (BDL); Islip, New York (ISP); New Haven, Connecticut (HVN); New York Kennedy, New York (JFK); New York LaGuardia, New York (LGA); Newark, New Jersey (EWR); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (PHL); Stewart Newburgh, New York (SWF); White Plains / Westchester County, New York (HPN)
• Must have purchased your ticket by October 23
• Rebook travel anytime between October 23-27
• You can’t change your origin or destination city without being assessed a fare difference. Must rebook in same cabin or pay the difference.

Delta

• Travel date: October 24
• Airports covered: New York, NY – Kennedy (JFK); New York, NY – LaGuardia (LGA); Newark, NJ (EWR); Newburgh, NY (SWF); White Plains, NY (HPN)
• Ticket must be reissued by October 27
• Rebooked travel must begin no later than October 27
• When rescheduled travel occurs beyond October 27, 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.

Frontier

• Travel dates: October 24
• Airports covered: New York LaGuardia, NY (LGA); New York Islip, NY (ISP); Philadelphia, PA (PHL); Trenton, NJ (TTN)
• Ticket must have been purchased by October 23
• Affected travelers may make one itinerary change – rules/restrictions regarding standard change fees, advance purchase, day or time applications, blackouts, and minimum or maximum stay requirements will be waived.
• Travel must be completed no later than Monday, October 30.
• Origin and destination cities may be changed.

United Airlines

• Travel date: October 24
• Airports covered: New York/Newark, NJ (EWR)​; New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK)​; New York-LaGuardia, NY (LGA)​; White Plains, NY (HPN)​
• The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before October 27, 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, Alaska, JetBlue, Southwest, Spirit and Virgin America have not issued change fee waivers.

Featured image by Gahsoon Gahsoon/EyeEm via Getty Images.