When one airline raises a fee, other carriers tend to follow.

US Airways has matched United's change fee hike for non-refundable domestic tickets, increasing the cost of modifying your reservation to $200 — up $50 from $150, the company said Wednesday. While United also increased change fees for international flights to $300 from $250, US Airways at this point has only matched the domestic ticket hike.

(Read more: United Raises Most Change Fees by $50, Will Others Follow?)

Other airlines have yet to match the increase, but have hinted at the need to stay competitive.

The Obama administration on Wednesday backed a plan that would temporarily eliminate spending cuts disrupting U.S. air travel, while lawmakers in Washington scrambled to avoid blame as the impact of the reductions began being felt across the country.

Airlines pushed for the government to act as flight delays increased and planes stacked up at airports, with one chief executive saying, "We can't do this for long."

With Republicans and conservative commentators blaming President Barack Obama for using the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration to score political points, the White House said it supported Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's proposal to replace the reductions by claiming savings from the drawdown of war spending.

"We support this effort to allow both sides to find a longer-term solution that replaces the sequester permanently in a balanced way so we can stop these harmful cuts that are hurting our economy and middle-class families across the country," White House spokesman Jay Carney told a briefing.

If you've ever wanted to flirt with passengers across the aisle and send them a cocktail — without corralling the help of a flight attendant — Virgin America has the answer.

The carrier on Monday introduced a cheeky new seat-to-seat ordering system. Without the assistance of an attendant, you can discreetly order a drink, snack or meal delivered to a fellow passenger onboard your flight.

(Read more: Road Warrior Tested: Virgin America First Class)

And to promote the new feature, airline founder Sir Richard Branson posted a video on Virgin America's Facebook page explaining how to "get lucky at 35,000 feet."

Changing your United Airlines flight just got a little more expensive for many fliers.

Last Thursday, United quietly increased the change fee on most non-refundable airfares by $50. For domestic itineraries, the fee jumped to $200 from $150. And for international flights, the fee is now $300, up from $250.

United's frequent fliers discovered the change last week. Members of the popular forum Flyertalk.com first posted their findings on Thursday. On Friday, United confirmed the increase. Tickets issued on or after April 18 carry the higher fee.

Less-restrictive coach fares with higher prices and refundable tickets typically don't carry a change fee, and remain unchanged.

It was a tough start to the week for many air travelers as federal budget cuts led to cascading delays along the East Coast Monday morning.

Some flights out of New York and Washington were delayed by more than two hours as the Federal Aviation Administration kept planes on the ground. The federal agency has said furloughs of air traffic controllers could lead to delays if there weren't enough people to monitor busy air corridors.

For instance, the 8 a.m. US Airways shuttle pushed back from the gate at Reagan National Airport six minutes early but didn't take off until 9:58 a.m. The plane landed at 10:48 a.m.—more than two and a half hours later than its scheduled time.

If travelers instead took Amtrak's 8 a.m. Acela Express train from Washington, they arrived in New York at 10:42 a.m.—4 minutes early.

Government budget cuts that kicked in last month are forcing the FAA and other agencies to cut their spending. FAA officials have said they have no choice but to furlough all 47,000 agency employees, including nearly 15,000 controllers. Each employee will lose one day of work every other week. The FAA has said that planes will have to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

Transportation to and from the Boston area was nearly shut down Friday — with the exception of air travel — amid the marathon bombing manhunt.

Amtrak service, meanwhile, between New York and Boston was suspended indefinitely early Friday afternoon.

Flights were coming in and out of Logan International Airport. "Logan is open and operating under heightened security," Boston Airport tweeted early Friday.

Meanwhile, the FAA has closed low-level airspace over Northwest Boston to provide safety.

New York-Boston Amtrak Service Suspended

While Amtrak service between New York and Boston was suspended indefinitely, Amtrak service was operating normally between Washington, D.C. and both New York and Philadelphia.

Earlier, Amtrak Acela Express and Northeast Regional service was suspended indefinitely between Providence, R.I. and Boston, according to a company statement. Amtrak Downeaster was operating a modified schedule with no service to Boston.

The Springfield Shuttle between New Haven, Conn. and Springfield, Mass. was operating on a normal schedule.

A decision about restoring Boston area service will be made when local authorities inform Amtrak that operations can resume.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, which operates commuter trains into Boston as well as the city's subway — called the T — and the city's buses suspended all operations.

What do Starbucks, Delta Air Lines, Marriott and Avis Car Rental have in common? They're the restaurant, airline, hotel and rental car companies most frequently expensed by North American business travelers.

These are among the results of a report released Thursday by Certify, a provider of expense management and travel booking software. The SpendSmart report figures are for the first quarter.

The findings are based on millions of expenses captured by Certify from Jan. 1 through March, for small businesses to large enterprises.

The next time you're waiting to board your flight at Los Angeles International Airport, don't be surprised to see furry friends roaming the terminal with bright red vests reading, "Pet Me!"

LAX Airport on Monday introduced its Pets Unstressing Passengers (PUP) program, whereby volunteers and their dogs walk through the departure level of each terminal to bring smiles and airport information to weary travelers.

(Read More: Worst Airports for Connections)

The program, a partnership with Therapy Dogs, was introduced in anticipation of National Volunteer Week April 21-27.

American Airlines said it has fixed its reservation system said it would be resuming flights at about 5:00 pm ET, but that delays and cancellations were likely to continue for the rest of the day.

Earlier, the FAA said that all American Airline flights had been grounded at the carrier's request as it tried to fix an outage with its reservation and booking tool.

The airline is offering reservation changes at no fee to customers following the system outage.

FlightAware CEO Daniel Baker told CNBC that the flight delays are potentially affecting more than 100,000 passengers.

"At 1 p.m. they basically stopped dispatching new flights, stopped boarding new flights, stopped allowing people to check in," Baker said. "And they've announced that they are not going to resume new flight operations until 5:00 p.m."

American Airlines, a unit of AMR, operated more than 3,300 flights a day.

All of the major airlines and several hotel chains are waiving some fees and penalties for travelers looking to change their Boston travel plans after Monday's bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Participating airlines include AirTran, American, Delta, JetBlue (Boston's largest carrier), Southwest, United and US Airways. And several major hotel chains, including Hilton, Marriott and Starwood, will allow travelers to cancel reservations or leave early without a penalty, the USA Today reported.

Here's a summary of airline waivers as of early Tuesday.