Don't quit your day job, PB! :D

Sorry cattle, I would've preempted, but you did such a good job yourself :) ^

I was in a similar situation this summer (mid-late Aug) on my trip to the UK (outbound was OK in D, but return had to be W at time of booking becasue no D seats left at the time I did the Aeroplan booking).

At LHR the kids and I got our J seats no problem. All I did at checkin was mention that it was a D reward but that the time of booking there were no seats in D. Checkin agent said no problem, lots of room in J today.

There was one hiccup though, but it was not related to the D/W issue. We arrived at LHR at 1130 for our 1530 flight. I enquired as to whether we could get on the 1300. Checkin agent said there was room (in J) but that we would have to pay a "change fee" of C$75 *per ticket*. I said I thought that same-day standby was permitted. He said, sorry but they've changed the rules. It wasn't worth the C$225 for the 3 of us to arrive 2.5 hours sooner (and besides the ankle-biters were just about to literally do that...) so I checked in for the 1530.

At the MLL I asked the agent at the front desk to confirm that C$75 was the correct change fee. He seemed as surprised as I was, but he phoned down to someone in the office and after a while he told me that there was now a change fee but that the checkin agent should have quoted me C$25 per ticket, not C$75. It was a moot point by this time as our bags had been checked and it was less than an hour to the 1300's departure.

I was a bit miffed as I would most likely have paid C$75 in total (3x25) to get the kids back 2.5 hours earlier. However, the lounge was a great way to keep the kids busy for some time and the service on the 1530 was excellent.

Apologies for the thread drift.

found this on the aeroplan website...

"Changes to the flight date(s) and/or flight number(s) can be made for a fee of CA$25 per ticket, plus applicable taxes, at any time, when there is no change to the itinerary. "

it specifies that the fee exists for changes at ANY TIME. i wonder when this was changed if it ever was. like hogtown, i thought standby travel on reward tickets were permissible.

I think you pay $25 if you want it confirmed anytime before departure...

But, I stand to be corrected...