Hi all

I have United Airlines Silver status and I need to modify the return leg of a round trip from EWR to RSW. My current flight has me landing in EWR at 9pm. However, I recently booked another flight out of EWR that same day that I need to catch at 6:30pm.

I would like to know what you think my best options are:

1 - change the flight now. $200 change fee plus change in fare (approx $400 all together)

2 - wait till t-24 hrs and try and do the same day change fee for $75. There is only one other nonstop flight that I can change to. There are also about 5 other flights that would get me to EWR early enough, but they all have connections (is this a problem)?

3 - use miles to get a standard economy 1 way ticket. 25,000 miles (I didn't see any saver awards - not sure if that will become available later on. Flight is in 3 weeks).

4 - purchase a one way ticket out of pocket (maybe $350 or so?) and not show up to my final leg home on my current reservation

5 - get to the airport early enough and try to fly standby. As UA Silver, do you think I would have a good chance at making it onto one of the ~5 flights home? and will they still let me fly standby even though the new route is RSW -> XXX -> EWR (my current itinerary is RSW -> EWR).

Thanks for your help! I really don't want to miss my night time flight!