Originally Posted by
CApreppie
SDC: Appears I cannot create an illegal layover of over 4 hours before my trip starts which only gives me a 5:30PM flight to choose from, but depends on the rules of the ticket which I cannot access.
You’re not quite looking at that properly, though. You don’t (can’t, really) change one leg at a time. SDC is going to change from one SFO-LAX-BOS to another SFO-XXX-BOS itinerary. So in order to try to get a stopover at LAX, you’d first change to an SFO-LAX-BOS itinerary, and then,
after flying SFO-LAX, you’d change to a later LAX-BOS flight, potentially including the one you’re currently on, which you would have had to change.
There’s no need to read your fare rules — for flights within the continental US, UA doesn’t allow any stopovers on discount tickets — pretty much anything below a Y fare — and a stopover is always created if the transfer time is more than 4 hours. Thee used to be an exception — more than 4 hours or the next available flight — but that hasn’t been the case in a long time. You can still try asking for it, though — try switching to a 10 PM flight departing SFO to LAX, connecting to a 6 AM flight to BOS the next morning — but be prepared to be told no.
Originally Posted by
CApreppie
Standby: This appears more flexible as there are not illegal layover rules. The issue appears leaving the calendar day before flight even though 24 hours in advance should cover it.
Agreed, you can standby, but getting onto the list and through security the previous calendar day is often a challenge.
How much does it cost to book two separate tickets — SFO-LAX and LAX-BOS? Especially if you’re not traveling for a while, it may be easier just to book what you’d actually like to fly.