Same Day Changes
 

Hi all,

I had a question about same-day changes (that can be done online): are we supposed to be able to change to any flight that still has seats for sale? I've been told yes by several Air Canada agents before, but now I'm calling in and being told one can only change onto whatever the computer displays online. Basically, I'm flying BOS -- YYZ tomorrow, and I want to change to an earlier flight. The only flight I'm seeing that's available to change onto online is the 06.30 am flight. All other flights that day have seats for sale, so my understanding is that I should be able to change to any of these. I've had this situation before and I called Air Canada -- and after convincing the agent that the other options really weren't showing up, a supervisor manually changed me on to the flight I wanted.

Now I'm in the same situation and I'm calling Air Canada and the agents are being spectacularly unhelpful -- including claiming that no supervisors are working right now. They refuse to change to anything over the phone and say I have to pay the regular $150 change fee + fare difference...what's going on?

Added: As I was writing this, I got a call from from a supervisor at Air Canada who said I should have been able to indeed get on any flight and that he would make the change. I explained that all his agents were being really rude and calling me liars and that there's just no space available and I should go to the airport and he apologized for this and claimed he would file a troubleshooting report. I should point out that this really impressed me -- I've never gotten a call like that from an airline.

I'm really frustrated by all of this -- it should just be a 2 minute process online and instead I have to spend over an hour to give AC $75.

I'm going to be *P next year -- I realize that's nothing, but maybe it'll help me actually talk to people who can solve problems.

Sorry for the rant...

First of all, I admit I didn't read your entire post before I hit the reply button.... so hopefully my reply will help you.

My experience is that the "online" Same-Day-Change will only show the next "2" flights. What I normally do is online-check-in about 3hr to 4hr before the flight that I want and the same-day-change will show the flight that I want.

Please also keep in mind that it is a Same Day Airport change... that can be done via the online check-in tool, or by the agent at the airport.

If you call in to make a change (unless you are calling a concierge), they'll ask for the change fee + fare difference.

The problem is most likely that the flight is for tomorrow and you are trying to do a same say change. I have seen this before that during OLCI same day change is not offered because the flight is for tomorrow. When you check in the same day as your flight, then this is offered as an option both OLCI and at the airport. The agents can only offer the $150 + fare again as the flight is for tomorrow.

This was not the issue -- I know you have to wait until midnight day of. It was 12.30 am this morning when I was trying to move onto the 8.45 am flight.

No, you can not move to any flight that still has seats for sale. You can't change to an overbooked flight even though that flight still may have seats available for sale.

Given it's Friday before a long weekend, I suspect the flights are pretty full. Looking at the remaining BOS-YYZ flights, I suspect all of them are oversold - two are zeroed out, and one is only showing Y3.

Exactly the way the Same-day change for fee program is explained online. It is a check-in process not offered via the call centre nor online, save the options offered via web check-in. That the OP was able to bully his way, calling the Agents rude because they correctly said no, is unfortunate.

First of all, I did not bully my way into anything and I don't particularly appreciate the attack. I was simply going by what I was told by several agents prior to this occurrence: "After midnight on day of departure, any seats available for sale are eligible for same-day change. You can do this at OLCI. If you have already OLCI'd, you must do this at the airport."

Secondly, in both this case and previous cases, I eventually was told that my desired flight should have been available, but was not, and that there was likely a problem with the system. This is the third time this has happened, so clearly there is a pattern here. Previously, an agent had told me that "sometimes only two flights appear in the same-day change window."

Finally, if indeed one can't change to flights that don't show up in the online window, how does it work? On Tango Plus fares, same-day standby is not allowed, to the best of my knowledge. In this case, does that mean that even at the airport, one won't be able to change to a flight that has an open seat if this flight was not displayed as a change-to option in the OLCI window?

The agents might have told him "no" in a rude manner... and it turns out the agents were wrong after all based on their supervisor... Though in my experience, you call 5 times and you'll get 3 different answers.

mabramovich, in your OP, you said the following:

You can only do a 'Same-day airport change" on the SAME DAY as your originally booked flight. Not at the 24hr check-in window, and not via the regular reservations line.

The key point in all this is that what you wanted to do is known as a "Same-day airport change". As mentioned by the agents you spoke with, it can be done at OLCI on the day of your flight, or at the airport on the day of your flight. You can't call in to the reservations line to request this change. If you call the reservations line, it is an "Any-time change ", and they will charge you the normal change fee, plus the fare difference.

Yes, you should have been able to change to any flight on the same day as your originally booked flight, during OLCI or at the airport, provided the flight you want is not oversold. Just because a flight still has tickets for sale does not mean it is not oversold. There are reports on FT that if you attempt to do the change at OLCI on the same day, it will only show the next 2 available flights. I have observed this myself as well.

You can request the change at the airport if you do not see the flights you want online. Or if you have Super Elite status, you can give the Concierge a call and see if they can make the change for you.

Jebby, I know this -- I was calling in because in my view the online system was not working. This all occurred at about 12.30 am, and I was trying to get on the 08.45 am flight 8 hours later.


Perhaps we have arrived at the issue: I was only seeing the 06.30 am flight even though I was eventually told by the supervisor who called me back that other flights were available. Maybe this 1-2 flights only thing struck again -- as I said, I've had this before as well and a supervisor was able to manually same-day change me for the $75 over the phone.

Of course, the objective is to avoid going to the airport if one is not going to make the flight (although I suppose if the flight is not oversold, one would get on).

In any case, now you are saying that as long as a flight is not oversold, I should be able to get onto it. Is that sort of the unofficial line? One could find out if a flight were oversold by calling AC Reservations, right?

Which is what was posted already. Same day change is not available for any flight with seats for sale, it's available on any flight that is not oversold. These two situations are not the same.

You we're travelling on a busy day, and it's possible that at the time you requested the change, flights were oversold.

AC Res should have access to this information - whether they tell you or not is another story.

Ah, okay. So you were trying to do the change on the same day.

Unfortunately, that is how Air Canada structured this "same-day airport change" option. You have to make the change with what's available during OLCI, or at the airport.

Consider yourself lucky that Air Canada Reservations has been making those "same-day airport changes" on the phone for you for $75. Even as a Super Elite, if I were to call the Super Elite desk, they will charge me the normal change fee ($150) plus fare difference. Only the Concierge, in my experience, has been able to make the same day airport change on the phone since they are using the same system as the agents at the airport.

did a last minute same day switch a roo from YYZ -YUL few weeks ago after my meeting went long and I would have missed the flight anyways. Was orig YTZ to YUL.
Agent was cool found me a flight 45 min later. Says there were 3 open seats and put me in one. On the receipt, I noticed they put me in a U bucket seat. My original res was in S. Paid the change fee of 75 and said thanks.

Might have even been able to win aero-lotto on a U fare, but then where would the pilots and flight attendants in J have sat. :-)

I wish Air Canada would improve the OLCI same day airport change tool, As many people has mentioned, only a couple of flights are usually displayed. I was very impressed recently with United where you can do same day changes for free (for *G) at T-24 hours before departure. In general, Air Canada needs more investment in software development as many areas in their website seem a little bit obsolete.