Free Flight Changes Across 8 States, 36 Airports for Winter Storm

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

Yet another winter storm is streaking across the country, affecting travel across a wide swath of the US. The storm has already dumped 18 inches of snow in parts of Utah and now it's moving eastward. The National Weather Service currently has Blizzard Warnings in place for parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Minnesota.

So far, the cancellations and delays for Sunday are fairly mild, with "just" 254 cancellations reported by FlightAware's live tracker. 182 of those cancellations are at Denver International Airport (DEN).

However, the travel impacts are expected to continue through Sunday and into Monday, and airlines are releasing travel waivers to give flexible travelers the ability to change their flights for free.

Remember, if you can’t rebook your itinerary, airlines aren’t responsible for paying for your meals or hotels in the case of weather-related delays or cancellations. But some top cards have flight delay/cancellation insurance that will 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 11am Sunday, winter storm waivers have been issued for the following airports:

American Airlines

COLORADO and UTAH

• Travel date: January 21-22
• Airports covered: Aspen, Colorado (ASE); Colorado Springs, Colorado (COS); Denver, Colorado (DEN); Durango, Colorado (DRO); Grand Junction, Colorado (GJT); Gunnison / Crested Butte, Colorado (GUC); Montrose / Telluride, Colorado (MTJ); Salt Lake City, Utah (SLC); Steamboat Springs / Hayden, Colorado (HDN); Vail / Eagle, Colorado (EGE)
• Rebook travel between January 19-25
• Must have purchased your ticket by January 19
• You can’t change your origin or destination city, and you must rebook in the same cabin or pay a fare difference.

NORTHERN PLAINS and UPPER MIDWEST

• Travel date: January 22
• Airports covered: Appleton, Wisconsin (ATW); Dubuque, Iowa (DBQ); Grand Island, Nebraska (GRI); Grand Rapids, Michigan (GRR); Green Bay, Wisconsin (GRB); La Crosse, Wisconsin (LSE); Madison, Wisconsin (MSN); Marquette, Michigan (MQT); Milwaukee, Wisconsin (MKE); Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota (MSP); Omaha, Nebraska (OMA); Rapid City, South Dakota (RAP); Rochester, Minnesota (RST); Sioux City, Iowa (SUX); Sioux Falls, South Dakota (FSD); Traverse City, Michigan (TVC); Waterloo, Iowa (ALO); Wausau, Wisconsin (CWA)
• Rebook travel between January 21-25
• Must have purchased your ticket by January 20
• You can’t change your origin or destination city, and you must rebook in the same cabin or pay a fare difference.

Delta

COLORADO

• Travel dates: January 21-22
• Airports covered: Aspen, CO (ASE); Colorado Springs, CO (COS); Denver, CO (DEN); Grand Junction, CO (GJT); Montrose/Telluride, CO (MTJ); Steamboat Springs/Hayden, CO (HDN); Vail/Eagle, CO (EGE)
• Ticket must be reissued on or before: January 25
• Rebooked travel must begin no later than: January 25
• When rescheduled travel occurs beyond January 25, 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. Applicable change fee and fare difference will apply for new travel dates.

UPPER MIDWEST and GREAT LAKES

• Travel dates: January 22
• Airports covered: Brainerd, MN (BRD); Duluth, MN (DLH); Escanaba, MI (ESC); Iron Mountain, MI (IMT); La Crosse, WI (LSE); Marquette, MI (MQT); Minneapolis/St Paul, MN (MSP); Rhinelander, WI (RHI); Rochester, MN (RST); Sault Ste. Marie, MI (CIU); Sioux Falls, SD (FSD); Wausau, WI (CWA)
• Ticket must be reissued on or before: January 25
• Rebooked travel must begin no later than: January 25
• When rescheduled travel occurs beyond January 25, 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. Applicable change fee and fare difference will apply for new travel dates.

Frontier

MIDWEST

• Travel dates: January 21-23
• Airports covered: Cedar Rapids, IA (CID); Des Moines, IA (DSM); Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN (MSP); Omaha, NE (OMA)
• Customers who purchased tickets on or before Saturday, January 20, 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, February 5.
• Origin and destination cities may be changed.

COLORADO

• Travel dates: January 20-21
• Airports covered: Denver, CO (DEN) and Colorado Springs, CO (COS)
• Customers who purchased tickets on or before Friday, January 19, 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, February 5.
• Origin and destination cities may be changed.

Spirit

• Travel date: January 21-22
• Airports covered: Denver, CO (DEN)
• Modification Charge/Fare Difference waived through: January 25
• After this date, the modification charge is waived, but a fare difference may apply.
• Customers can make changes to their reservations affected by this event by going to Spirit’s Manage Travel page, or by calling the Spirit Reservations Center at 801-401-2222 to make their flight changes. To make changes to Spirit Vacation packages contact Spirit Vacations at 954-698-0125.

Southwest

• Travel date: January 21
• Airports covered: Denver (DEN) and Salt Lake City (SLC)
• Travel date: January 22
• Airports covered: Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP)
• Customers who are holding reservations at the times indicated above, and want to alter their travel plans may rebook in the original class of service or travel standby (within 14 days of their original date of travel between the original city-pairs and in accordance with Southwest’s accommodation procedures) without paying any additional charge.

United

• Travel dates: January 21-22
• Airports covered: Aspen, CO (ASE); Colorado Springs, CO (COS); Denver, CO (DEN)​; Grand Junction, CO (GJT); Gunnison, CO (GUC); Hayden, CO (HDN); Montrose/Telluride, CO (MTJ); Salt Lake City, UT (SLC); Vail/Eagle, CO (EGE)
• The change fee and any difference in fare will be waived for new United flights departing on or before January 25, as long as travel is rescheduled in the originally ticketed cabin (any fare class) and between the same cities as originally ticketed.