Originally Posted by
vanillabean
In order to arrive at MVPG75K in November rather than December, my plan to earn the needed ~100 miles is to request a same-day change for my next flight coming up soon.
It is my understanding that when your reservation is for a nonstop flight and there is no other nonstop flight that same day for the route, you can call at checkin the day before and request a conventional one stop route with the same origin and destination.
Since I am on the phone with AS anyway about the reservation, couldn’t CS put me on the upgrade list right then and there, or even better, at that time put me in U space if available?
AS has become more strict with respect to exercising SDC.You'd need to look at the fare rules for your specific ticket to see if you're eligible now. I am guessing there's a line that says it must be a non-stop flight. I ran into this issue in the last couple of months when I would frequently SDC at check-in from a direct flight between A and C to A to B to C. AS was adamant that they must follow their fare rules and SDC rules that maintain it as a direct flight and routing. Prior to this experience, I had exercised a SDC in this manner dozens of time without AS blinking an eye. After some discussion with a higher up, I learned that AS indeed update their policy with respect to SDC's, or at least to adhering to the fare rules. My best guess is that the action by so many elites was impacting AS' financially.
For example, if you were trying to do SAN - SFO and there was 1x daily, but you wanted to move onto SAN - PDX - SFO I believe AS will deny your request, citing that the lack of other direct flights doesn't entitle the pax to override the direct flight clause or routing rules.
If you can get AS to confirm you on your new itinerary, they can also add you on the waitlist at that time. This was a non-issue on reservation call recently for me.
Good luck and let us know how it goes!