Question for the group. My partner and I planned to fly to Brazil tomorrow, she needs to be there next week and I was just tagging along for the weekend.

She received her visa but I have yet to receive mine (PSA start more than 2 weeks out as getting an acceptable photo took forever and still may not be cleared). If I don’t get the visa she would prefer to not go down until Sunday/Monday rather than be alone for the long weekend in São Paulo.

She purchased D1 down and PE back flight. I had a PE purchase with a GUC applied on the front end. I’m fine getting refund for mine; but hers is the issue. To change the outbound to Sunday is like $2k-3k up charge.

Is it safe to assume that IF she needs to change the day of departure that doing it prior to the departure is best? Or is there any ‘benefit’ to miss the flight to ATL and then try to reschedule hoping for IRROP or a kind agent. There is plenty of D1 space available on Sunday flights from ATL, MCO and maybe someplace else too.
Thanks in advance for any good advice.