As Winter Storm Cato closes in on the northeast United States, a plethora of airlines have announced that they will waive change fees for passengers scheduled to fly to airports in the regions expected to be hit hardest.
USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh provided a list of the airlines that had issued waivers as of 2 p.m. EST Tuesday afternoon, included in the list were major carriers like American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, among others.
Many of the waivers are consistent in that they cover the major cities and airports in the storm's projected path and also cover fliers on Wednesday, the day the storm is expected to wreak the most havoc on the region.
In most cases, passengers must take advantage of the waivers by Friday in order to avoid a penalty.
The Weather Channel provides a closer look at the latest forecast:
With inclement weather expected to hammer the I-95 corridor beginning as early as Tuesday night, Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. are among those cities covered by the waivers.
Weather.com's Nick Wiltgen reports that "snowfall will expand its areal footprint dramatically Wednesday over the Northeast" and that "the rain/snow line will likely hover somewhere close to the Interstate 95 corridor."
But Wiltgen adds that the "forecast is complicated by the fact that the cold side of this storm system isn't particularly cold. While it certainly looks cold enough for snow over a swath of the interior -- say, from West Virginia through central Pennsylvania, the Catskills of New York and into interior New England -- areas closer to Interstate 95 may have ground-level air temperatures a few degrees above freezing."
According to FlightAware.com, nearly 90 flights nationwide had been cancelled as of 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday. But with forecasts looking gloomy, that number should be expected to rise significantly on Wednesday.
With airport officials and travelers across the Northeast preparing for the worst, it appears these announcements couldn't have come at a better time.
While they won't ensure a smooth journey for passengers, the change fees are one less thing to worry about on one of the busiest travel days of the year.
Click here to view a detailed breakdown of the issued waivers courtesy of USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh.
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