Originally Posted by MoofuJJ

Posted in the newbie thread about this, but i figured this is a good spot as well.

Exec. Plat, flight from LAX to DFW today at 3:50pm, plans changed and wanted to get one one of the multiple earlier flights. Previously (at least a few months ago) it was no problem getting confirmed seats on an earlier flight. I checked to make sure, and there were at least 7 other flights before, each LAX to DFW, each with almost half the seats open. Checked on ExpertFlyer and saw that all of the flights had "at least 7 E fare seats open."

Called in to request a same day flight change and was told there were no confirmed seats available, only standby. I didnt really understand why, since there were clearly hundreds of open seats, so I asked the AAdvantage person I called, who informed me that "it is not based on seat availability." I asked if she could tell me what it is based on, so in the future I could book what I needed to in order to get confirmed same day flight changes. Was told "there is no set list of criteria, the system tells us if there are seats available and if there is, you get one. There are hundreds and hundreds of criteria and factors." When I asked further if i could get the list of criteria or factors they said "there is no list, it is all handled by our Revenue Management department and they do not talk to passengers and do not share any information with other departments."

So in the end it seems like there is no way to actually contact someone or find out what exactly are the rules for a confirmed sdfc?