Originally Posted by
sukn
Agents are now discouraged from contacting RM analysts directly unless the flight is within 24-hrs -- which means they are contacting the Day of Departure desk, a 24-hr offshoot of RM.
When a request is made to the automated system (as was your case), the answer comes back, yes, no, or maybe -- and as you correctly described, the automated decision can take a couple of minutes. Yes and no answers are self explanatory. If it is a maybe, it is sent off for manual review and you have to wait for a response. If the answer is no, you can certainly try the next day since no human was involved in the decision.
While no human is involved in the decision, the request and each one of them, is in your PNR. At least that was our case back in January.
And there is/was an appeal option, operated differently from the request.
I agree that one has the best chance at T-24 if there are still plenty of F seats for sale. Therefore it is no point to request earlier and have your PNR notated with futile requests which could only hinder your chance if you got a bad agent who would flat out refuse to even try as the 3rd agent I got in my example.