Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
I remember, in March 2019. I was going to fly LAX-IAD on a red-eye on Sunday on an L fare. However, last minute, Monday morning at 08:00 am, an important event has been scheduled and I needed to attend. So I've changed my flight to the 1:00 PM departure on Sunday and obviously there was no L fare ( discounted Economy ) available.
Whether or not there is a fare available is irrelevant. For free SDC, you need
inventory in the correct fare bucket, but there does not need to be a fare that covers that inventory. (Meaning: you may be able to change an existing ticket to use that flight, but you can't buy a new ticket at that fare).
Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
only "all" flights that had Economy Non-Flex availability were visible on the SDC list.
There is no such thing as "Economy Non-Flex availability." What you saw was a coincidence. If you look at the inventory in ExpertFlyer, as you suggest, you would have seen L availability on those flights, and no L availability on the flights that were not offered.
Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
I would fly United next week ( Friday ) and being relied on to the SDC process, I bought a cheaper option from my origin to my destination in L fare as the flights that I am intending to take had only Q class ( or expensive fare classes ) available at that time. I would check the fare availability at expertflyer once I have changed my flights and report it back here.
^ I hope they will open the inventory you need.
Originally Posted by
ISTFlyer
To answer your core question, that Sunday morning I was able to see Monday 06:00 AM-08:00 AM departures on the SDC list.
However, I would re-answer this core question with screenshots next Thursday or Friday.
This is a good piece of information, as many people have not been able to see next-day departures on the SDC list recently. Were you using the app?