Travel disruptions happen. Whether it’s due to a snowstorm, a hurricane, or even unexpected fog rolling in, weather-related delays can throw even the best-laid plans into question.
For business travelers with tight schedules, weather and other travel-related delays can mean missed meetings, canceled presentations, or hours of lost productivity. Fortunately, airlines offer a lifeline during these times: travel waivers.
If you’re a business traveler or book travel for your team, here’s what you need to know about travel waivers—and how they can help you navigate the season with minimal disruption.
A travel waiver is an exception airlines grant during major weather events (like snowstorms, hurricanes, or freezing rain) and other disruptions like natural disasters, airport closures and security situations that cause flights to be delayed or canceled. Normally, changing a flight at the last minute will cost you, but when an airline issues a waiver, you can adjust your plans without paying fare differences or change fees (though change fees are mostly gone in the United States).
This flexibility is especially valuable for business travelers juggling packed schedules, multiple commitments and tight travel budgets. Whether you need to reschedule a client meeting or catch the next flight to get back home, a waiver can help you stay on track.
For business travelers, time is money, and every delay has ripple effects. Travel waivers take some of the sting out of disrupted travel by offering:
Winter is prime time for weather disruptions, especially in key business travel hubs like New York, Chicago, and Denver. Knowing how to take advantage of waivers can be a game-changer for business travelers and travel managers alike.
Here’s the catch: airlines don’t always make it easy to find or apply waivers. You’ll need to stay vigilant about announcements and act quickly to rebook before flights fill up.
Not all waivers are created equal. The most common type of waiver is the most restrictive, allowing travelers to change their flights with fare difference and any change fees waived, but travelers’ new flights have to depart within a few days and keep the same city pair (if you’re flying LA-New York, the new flights have to be LA-New York too). Waivers can also be a little loser, allowing travelers to depart later or change their city pairs. Then finally the most generous and rare waivers allow travelers to cancel and refund their trips.
All airlines issue waivers, which you can find here:
(Note: some airlines include only waivers on these pages, others include travel advisories that are not waivers and don’t waive fare differences.)
While all airlines issue waivers, some issue more waivers than others. United is notably quick to issue waivers and issues them for cases where other airlines don’t think they’re necessary. For example: United issued weather waivers in November for a forecast two-inch snowfall in Chicago and heavy rain in San Francisco, no other airlines issued waivers for these events.
Also, some airlines allow you to change business trips with waivers on the airline’s website or app, while some airlines insist that you go back to your business travel platform.
Here’s where AmTrav makes life easier for business travel bookers and travelers. We don’t just alert you to travel waivers—we apply them for you automatically on airlines with modern capabilities including American, Southwest and United.
Our system monitors your team’s flights and tracks airline announcements. If a waiver is issued for your travel plans, you can update your plans with the waiver applied yourself online, no phone calls or hold music required.
(It’s harder for travel agencies using older technology. Just for laughs—or cringe—our CEO Jeff once explained the old process below:)
"In the legacy world, to change a ticket with a travel waiver, first you have to figure out if an exception rule even applies by combing through emails or a website and reading a long list of terms and conditions. Then you have to check availability for new flights. Then you cancel the old flights. Then you sell the new flights. Then you force fare to the old price so the change is free. Then you look for the right waiver code to put as the ticket designator, unless there is already a ticket designator in which case you put it in the tour code, unless there is also already a tour code in which case you put it in the endorsement box. Then you find the old ticket number to set up the exchange and then you have to add a form of payment (even though it's free). Then you issue the new ticket.
All of that while the traveler waits."
Oof. Flash forward to the new, much less aggravating and time consuming process. For bookers and travelers, that means less time spent scrambling to rebook and more time focusing on the work that matters.
No matter the season, waivers can help ensure your business travel stays on track, even when Mother Nature throws a curveball. Take those recent United waivers for Chicago and San Francisco. And with AmTrav in your corner, you can trust that your team’s travel plans are in good hands—no matter the forecast.
Got questions about travel waivers or winter business travel? We’re ready to help!