I agree...What you would have been likely to get if you asked at the airport is perhaps a meal and/or hotel voucher. Also sometimes, depending on the agent, they might upgrade you without any certificate for a flight in your itinerary. Also agree that delays and canceled flights are very very routine. Really...you need to check the weather before you go somewhere (not just you...but anyone), and if it is bad, or forecast to be bad, you should probably leave early if you absolutely must get to a specific place...because in weather like today all airlines are going to have massive cancellations. If you are in a future situation where bad weather is forecast, your best bet would be to go to the airport say a day early, and they might let you travel waiving the change fee, etc. Often, the telephone reservations agents will only waive it if the given airline has some sort of organized effort to get people out early...but the airport will have more latitude to waive it if you are trying to get out ahead of weather.