BThumme

Was flying DEN-LAX-ORD leaving at 8:05pm. Called twice, told the same thing immediately (must be same calendar day),and honestly didn't want to deal with the hassle. I'm at the boarding area right now but it's not worth the effort. Thanks though, good to know for future flights.

wanderlust4life

Simple a case of HUCA... Ive been able to pull this off several times for flights +/- midnight. It really just depends on how much its worth it to you to get the change processed. Ive gone through a dozen NOs before I got that one YES.

ThreeJulietTango

Same-Day Flight Change will not be offered to or from Cuba for paid economy bookings, but remains an option for business class and AAdvantage awards.

gary_nj

I have a proposal for something I would like to do - I think that I would be able to do it, but wanted to ask here if anyone saw anything that might go badly.

Three pax together on a single PNR. I am EXP, and the other two have no status. We are confirmed on a domestic, single-segment itinerary, marketed and operated by AA, with a departure time of 6am.

My friends may want to go later in the day, but I need to take the early flight.

Here is what I propose, assuming all flights that day have E availability:

Call and ask that the three of us be given SDC onto an 11am flight. Assuming that there are 3 E seats available, I think that this should be free since we are all on my reservation.

Then, assuming there is E availability on the 6am flight, call a bit later and ask that my itinerary be separated from my friends, and request SDC for me onto the 6am flight. I realize that once I do this, my friends are left with no status (so pay for checked bags, etc.).

I realize this might not be in the spirit of the rule, but does anyone see a reason that it wouldn't be allowed? Thanks!

wanderlust4life

Yes you can most definitely do this and you shouldnt have any trouble getting an agent to process the request. Its all based on whether there are E seats available so no way to know until it gets to 11am 24 hours prior. You can keep checking on EF to get an idea of how its looking etc so its not a shock if you discover there are zero E seats. You can then simply call back and have the record split and you can move yourself back to the 6am pending E availability of course.

I know it sounds like you are trying to find a way around the system but when a process like this is possible, then by all means go for it and dont think twice.

G-CIVC

Can you SDCFC X to X?

Looks like it's not possible if X only pops up right before boarding. But this is a saturday coming up and loads are looking so light, I'm fairly confident that X will pop up at T-100, so I wonder if I could SDCFC X to X at T-24. Can't seem to find anything about that

weirdlyndon

Unfortunately, no.

platbrownguy

Posts at the beginning of the thread seemed to distinguish between changing connecting cities on confirmed SDFC (a total no-go) and changing connecting cities on standby (a maybe depending on the agent?) -- so here's my question.

I'm booked CVG-LGA-DCA on Friday (intent was to meet someone at LGA for a few hours), but now I almost certainly can't leave until much later, so the only remaining connecting options that day would be CVG-ORD-DCA and CVG-CLT-DCA. I won't be able to show up at the airport until well after the initial CVG-LGA flight (and the later CVG-LGA flight, which I probably still can't make, gets me into LGA too late to legally connect to DCA), but I could certainly call.

Should I
(1) call and try to request to standby for the ORD or CLT options? (I've always had agents say "airport only" on this so I'm assuming no)
(2) go to airport and talk to ticket-counter agent?
(3) go to airport, use LGA BP to get to ORD or CLT gate and talk to gate agent?
(4) something else?

Thanks for any insight... I had no idea the rules had changed and gotten this strict until a totally failed SDFC attempt last week.

madguy2

Can I SDFC to a better flight or a flight with less connections on a milesaaver award? I'm an AA EXP if that matters. From what I've been reading, it looks like I can't do anything to my flight details.

I'm on a MileSAAver award (12.5k miles) from

PDX - DTT

(alaska airlines)AS 264 PDX-SFO Departing PDX at 7:15am
AA 591 SFO-DFW
AA 1418 DFW-DTT Arriving DTT 9:57pm

RogerD408

Changing connection points is not in the T&Cs now. BUT, should you get to the airport and find a sympathetic GA willing to make the change. OR, should there be IRROPS going on, they may be willing to make the change to get you out of the airport and not have to deal with you later.

Plan extra time at the airport, be very nice to the GAs when asking for a favor, understand what you have is all they need to do.

no2chem

Since you're an EXP on an award, if award availability opens up, you should be able to change at any time without fee. However, finding availability last minute may be difficult.

Dsnow0819

Plat here.

I have an overnight connection in DFW. If I change to an earlier flight that morning into DFW am I able to change the overnight connection to the night before?

wanderlust4life

Based on being platinum, if you dont have a Y ticket, Choice plus fare, first or business ticket, AirPass, or award ticket, you'll end up paying $75 for a SDC.

I dont think it will be possible to change the overnight connection to the night before unless your flight originally was leaving during that 12am-2am time period and you were changing a few hours earlier to a flight scheduled between 8pm-12am. For example, you can't same day change a flight at 5am to a flight at 10pm the night before. This is supported by ThreeJulietTango's post in this wiki:

Dont give up hope though because even if you take an earlier flight into DFW the day before the connecting flight, there might be disrupts and IRROPS and a nice airport agent could move your connecting flight earlier. Its just something not to expect but never rule out completely. Sometimes agents just want to get you on your way sooner rather than later when experiencing disrupts

dave_SEA

I need to fly 5 people one way from Washington back to Dallas.

I put a hold on a great fare ($129/pp) from IAD-DFW, but it is a 7:15 AM flight which may be difficult to get to.

Ideally, I'd prefer a later flight (like 9, 11, 3, or 6), but those are all $225/pp

I'm EXP but have never done SDFC before. Do you think it's worth a try on this with 5 pax?

Other options are:
1. Buy more expensive fare (almost $615 more total)
2. Redeem award at 20K pp

Hoping for some advice before the hold expires tonight.

wanderlust4life

Is this flight during the holidays? Have a look at how the route is trending in terms of E space and availability on the day of departure by going on ExpertFlyer. Its hard to predict the future though as travel is only gonna get busier as we get closer to holidays.

If you are flexible with any flight that day and can still make the early flight if it comes to that, then you should lean towards booking it. Its just a lot easier when you have booked the last flight of the day instead and you are able to same day change or standby for an earlier flight while you can still rest easy knowing you still have that confirmed flight later on. Doing this with 5 pax can be stressful especially if some can change but others can't and you were all on one ticket and then its not possible to get enough E seats. This is a tough one. A heavy route like IAD-DFW is also something to keep in mind where you could have a lot of standbys on the list if you couldn't same day change.