NerveEnding

I have a question about schedule changes. I have read many times on these boards that with a schedule change, one can change the flights that they are on. My flights did not get cancelled; it just appears that each flight changed its takeoff time by about 5 minutes, but all my flight numbers are the same.

On my return flight, I am changing planes in Denver. I booked one with a 2+ hour layover because it was about $250 cheaper than one with a 80 minute layover, with plans to standby for the earlier flight. With the schedule change, can I now call United and get put on the earlier flight (without them laughing me off the phone)?

Thanks.

John Thacker

You didn't mention the direction of the five minutes or what your full itinerary is, but:

5 minutes? Highly unlikely. Granted, this is the kind of thing that "call back until you get a sympathetic agent" can help, but it's pretty unlikely. Common sense applies here (to any change less than 30 minutes); you need at least some sort of plausible story for why you need to change your flight, not just "because a two hour layover is more annoying than a one hour layover." Consider that it's quite likely that the later flight was $250 cheaper because the later flight had cheaper fare buckets available than the earlier flight.

And I think you agree that it's hard for just 5 minutes to really make for a plausible story to sell to an agent. If you think you're being so transparent that you'd get laughed off the phone, you probably would be. Generally you need to move to a flight in the opposite direction in time of how your schedule shifted. Something like "the departure moved 15 minutes earlier, and I can't get out of work by then so I need a later flight" often works. It really doesn't work to say "this flight moved earlier, which doesn't work for me, so, uh, can you put me on the even earlier flight."

6rugrats

I don't know that the agent would laugh, but they won't change the flight without charging you the change penalty and the difference in ticket price. Your flight must have changed by at least 90 minutes for them to consider a change with no charge to you.

tjl

Not really the original poster's situation, but what if a scheduling change of less than 90 minutes reduces a connection to below the minimum connection time at the connecting airport (or otherwise turns a relatively safe connection into one with a high probability of misconnecting)?

1KChinito

No. You can always try to standby for free as planned or pay a fee for same-day confirmed standby.

1KChinito

If your new connection time falls below legal minimum connection time, then you can change you flights, possibly even routing.

bmvaughn

Perhaps you mean same-day confirmed change? There's no such thing as confirmed standby.

3card

I've had success twice changing on sub-90 minute changes. IIRC, they were both 45-60 minutes and they didn't even question it. Last time was about 6 months ago, are they more aggressive about sticking to the 90 minutes now?

mahasamatman

Yes, but they will usually listen to reason.

1KChinito

Yes, you are correct. Thank you for the correct terminology.