3furballs

I've got a work trip coming up that I have yet to buy the ticket for, long story for the exact reasons but boils down to: dates aren't confirmed yet. I was checking the ticket price and noticed that the price for the most direct route has jumped, ~$600 more than last week for the late flight and the early flight on that route is even worse. The tickets currently being offered are H fare and I'm wondering if I'll have any success SDCing to the earlier flight if I buy the one that gives more MQM (in case I get stuck flying it I might as well get some benefit) or if I should purchase the later ticket on the more direct route so if SDC doesn't work I can SDS.

The direct route involves a stop in MSP, the less direct would be ATL & MSP or ATL & SLC. I can't get from where I am to where I need to be without a minimum of 1 stop on any airline.

kop84

To get better advice we need more info. Days of the week and Origin/Destination mater greatly.

Want to SDC to FAR on a Saturday in February sure not a problem.
Want to SDC to LAS during CES not happening.

MSPeconomist

I'm a bit confused. Are you asking about buying an H fare and trying to SDC to flights for which only B+ inventory is available or the reverse? If it's the latter, why not just buy the cheaper fare for the flight you want? The former situation would seem to preclude SDC and be risky for SDS.

yohanson

The fare being sold has nothing to do with the fare class being open for SDC. I don't do a lot of SDC these days but an H fare is a pretty safe fare to be open for SDC. In fact, depending on the day and route, anything above L is pretty safe. Two weeks ago, I had a Friday morning red eye K fare that I SDC twice on because things were taking longer than usual. I didn't have any issues except the second time the CSA said there was no availability but then said there was when she said she (can't remember the BS thing she said) did something. Not only did I get on the next later flight, I immediately cleared into F. This was LAS-MSP. The same flight the FAs asked everyone if they would be needing anything else as they picked up our dinner trays less than halfway through our flight, but that's a different story.

3furballs

My apologies, that's what I get for posting late at night without any sleep.
Upcoming business trip, dates aren't set so I can't purchase yet (about 10 days out), outbound will be either Monday or Tuesday, and I would be flying the day before I needed to be at the site. I would ordinarily choose to fly XXX-MSP-BZN on an early am flight but that flight is currently priced high enough that it would require special approval from corporate which I won't have time for once the date is confirmed. So looking at other possibilities for that Mon/Tues there are a later XXX-MSP-BZN, a XXX-ATL-MSP-BZN, and a XXX-ATL-SLC-BZN which would not require corporate approval.
All four are currently selling H fares.
My question is should I book the XXX-MSP-BZN and try to SDC to the earlier (and be able to SDS without issue if not able to SDC) or book one of the 2 connection Flights then try to SDC to the flight I want (but not be able to SDS) this way I would get more MQM for getting stuck with the less desirable flight.
I usually know travel dates and book far enough in advance that I am able to get the flights I want/need so I have zero experience with SDC/SDS so I am asking those with more experience what the chances are that there might be H inventory left on the flight I want.

jrl767

as yohanson said, on the date you're actually traveling, just because H isn't available for sale doesn't mean the inventory doesn't exist for SDC purposes

a phone agent **might** turn down your request to switch XXX-ATL-MSP-BZN to XXX-MSP-BZN by citing the SDC rules that prohibit changing from a connection to a nonstop; however I think the counterargument of "it's really turning a two-connection routing into a one-connection routing, and it's a through fare XXX-BZN" would prevail ... changing XXX-ATL-SLC-BZN to XXX-MSP-BZN would probably have much less chance of raising a phone agent's eyebrows

just out of curiosity (not that you could get corporate to approve it), can you justify paying the premium over H for G/A/P out of pocket? that way all you need is a seat in the F cabin on ANY reasonable routing to SDC