OTD

Woohoo! There are a lot of times I could take an earlier or later flight but haven't because I didn't want to shell out the extra $75.

pa3lsvt

If AA had put this news out in 2017, I may have mileage runned my way to PP as this is the incremental benefit over PLAT that has the most value to me (even over the UDU benefit of PP).

bse118

Standby and SDC aren't the same thing. Close but the not same.


^
This pretty much sums up my feelings on SDC, except for I'd also add the annoyance of it requiring AA to have a specific fare class open. It's too restricted to be useful. If you want a truly useful same day change policy, look at UA's.

krlcomm

The above links to AAdvantage benefits overall, this links to SDC / SDS options: https://www.aa.com/i18n/plan-travel/...day-travel.jsp

krlcomm

This is the factor that sends me to DL for most of my flights... I can SDC to any routing, through any connecting point, available. They've even let me go from non-stop to connecting flights, just not the other way around.

DaWhirledTraveller

Do you have the elite buy-up offer e-mail? I'm not sure if it's still valid. I checked the link in mine, and get an error saying I'm not eligible (prob because I already re-qualified and can't buy up anyway.)

andersonCooper

Scroll down to

Benefits at the airport

There is a * at the SDC row, move down to see the notes.

AUSINSIGHT

That's my point. I don't know that many people ever actually didn't make a standby flight (at the plat pro level), but SDC is still a VERY nice and useful benefit.

BrianV

Yeah my standby take rate is already very high, but a lot of it is that confirmation, being able to board in your group, use UDU and the peace of mind. Many times I've debated going to the airport early to standby and ultimately decided not to because, particularly if the airport doesn't have a Club, you risk being stuck there all the time. Lately, I've been flying to DTW a lot, AA's terminal is shared with Spirit, there's like two fast food restaurants and two chain restaurants and not frequent enough flights to CLT, ORD, DFW so if you end up not getting standby, you can find yourself quite bored. Now with Same Day Confirmed, you can call ahead and take that risk out. While rare, often what happens is you notice there are lots of flights still for sale with seats, then a flight cancels, weather in ORD re-routes people through CLT, other IRROPS happen and suddenly your a standby passenger with no outs.

This might be the most significant benefit of PPro now, and given same day and use UDU, it makes the entire level, particularly for business travelers a bit more flexible.

pa3lsvt

$1800, which is ridiculous for someone that exceeds EXP-level EQDs to get to 64k EQMs/68 EQSs.

For comparison, I could have gotten there with two PHL-DFW-YVR runs in December for <$700 (based on pricing when I was looking in November). SDC plus UDU for a year would be worth $700 to me but not even close to $1800.

I'll probably hit PP this year, as I had to take 3 months of minimal travel in the middle of 2017.

I use SDSB for flexibility on 'getaway day' on business trips by booking a late flight and standing by if I'm wrapped up early for some reason.

I find standby tough on hub-PHL routes, even as a PLAT - I've been first loser twice in the same day at ORD, and missed clearing on a few different occasions at CLT and ORD in 2017.

Outstation-PHL is usually no problem for clearing standby, however I have been unable to get GAs at outstations process me for an upgrade after I clear standby and there is a seat available in F. The one time it sort-of worked was at CMH, where she just told me to sit in 2F without issuing a BP because she was unsure how to make that happen.

3Cforme

As a detail, for SDC Delta requires the purchased fare class to be available on the new flights. If you're buying bottom-of-the-bucket fares, SDC may not be available. This is a requirement waived for front cabin fares, even discounted.