Airlines waive change fees; nearly 6,000 flights delayed on Monday

Airlines were waiving change fees Monday as fliers faced another day of weather-related headaches. The flexible rebooking policies covered a number of major airports in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, but travel trouble spots awaited fliers across the nation Monday. Aside from the rainy weather in the East, storms in the South and visibility concerns in the West also were affecting flights. Nationwide, about 430 flights had been canceled and a whopping 6,000 delayed as of 6:50 p.m. ET, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Many of those came in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast, where delays were growing at the airports serving New York City, Washington and Baltimore. But several airports outside the Northeast also were seeing problems, including Houston Bush Intercontinental, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Spawning Monday’s change-fee waivers in the Northeast was a system moving from the Ohio Valley into New England. Forecasts called for heavy rain and poor visibility, including at the delay-prone airports serving Philadelphia and the New York City area. Other parts of the region – including areas near the Washington and Baltimore metro areas – were under a flash flood watch Monday.<br/>