Question about Same Day Change
 

I need some help from the experts about the same day change program/feature to know if I understand how it works. The search function and Alex really wasn't that clear.

I am booked on CO1415 Friday SJO-IAH at 11:50 am (Fare Class L). This would leave me with a 2:53 Layover in IAH before continuing on CO426 to BWI. CO1415 has 0/16 seats available in their first class with little chance of a upgrade, although the three in our party have recieved our EUAs for CO426 at 5, 5 &3 days.

The same day, 1 hour later, CO1490 leaves from SJO-IAH at 12:50 pm and is showing 12/20 first class seats still available with the emergency exit rows empty of elites. This would leave me with 1:52 layover in IAH which I feel comfortable with to pass immagrations, customs and security.

My questions are:

Am I able to request a same day change for a flight that leaves one hour latter than my original? Would I be waitlisted?

At what time would I be able to request the same day change? < 24 hours before my original flight, or < 24 hours from the time I would now like to fly?, and what would be the best time to request?

Having already snagged the bulkhead seats for the 3 of us (traveling with minor), should I check in for CO1415 at T-23:59, or wait to see if I can change my flight first?

Will the same day change affect my EUA on the connecting flight?

For 2 Plats and 1 Gold, would the cost for SDC be $25 total?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Yes. You would only be waitlisted if there weren't enough seats to confirm you immediately.

I believe it will show up as an option online 24 hours before the new flight you want to take. It will only show up as an option, though if they've opened up all of the fare classes, which they're pretty good about doing.

I'm not sure that it matters. You can certainly change flights if you're already checked in, so you might as well check in at 23:59.


It shouldn't, but I don't have experience with that.


Yes. I'm assuming, since some in your party have received EUAs, that you're on separate PNR's. If you were on the same PNR, you could do all three for free.

Thank you for your prompt answers!

Yes we are on seperate PNR's, but then again the entire idea of doing the SDC is to try to snag one or more upgrades on SJO-IAH, so the $25 entry fee to the game seems more than fair to me.

Thanks to the good folks here on FlyerTalk we are over 80% on upgrades.

You are able to SDC to flight leaving later than your scheduled itinerary.

You can request SDC as early as 24 hours before you scheduled departure time but must be within 12 hours of the desired flight's scheduled departure time (regardless of whether this is before or after your original flight).

No - within 24 hours of the desired flight's scheduled departure time. This changed some time ago.

That is news to me, but I am of course happy to hear of this change. I will definitely take advantage of this. As recently as April 2010, elite desk told me SDC only within 12 hours of desired flight. Thank you for sharing.

Following-Up
 

I decided to wait until after the T-24 EUA sweep for the flight I wanted so that we wouldn't inconvenience any Elites in que before checking FC availability for tomorrrows CO1490.

There was still 10/20 left in FC so at about T-23:45 I called the local reservation office to see if I could request the SDC from CO1415 to CO1490 without upsetting our already upgraded connection on CO426 IAH-BWI. She said there was availability for one Plat for free, one Plat for $346 + $0, and the Gold for $346 +$25. That was more than I wanted to pay for a (very good) chance to upgrade on one 3 hour flight for the 3 of us, so I declined and went and had lunch.

Upon return, I checked our reservations and dummied the SDC, and for each it showed $0 (+$25 for Gold), but to do it on-line the SDC was for the trip and not for the segment. Also, I did not know if there was availability for all three of us at the same time, as I checked each PNR seperately. This time I called the Elite line and after one "5-10 minute wait", the rep took my reservation number and told me she would have to transfer me to Int'l. After the second "5-10 minute wait" the next rep processed the three SDC for the SJO-IAH segments only, and charged my $25 for the Gold.

My reservations on line now reflected our new departure flight and I debated doing OLCI or waiting to see if we were upgraded on a EUA sweep. I picked exit row seats and decided to wait till this evening to check in, as there were still 10/20 open in FC and nobody standing by on the list. About 20 minutes later I got one of those great emails letting me know I had been upgraded, so I checked, and sure enough all three of us were now in FC.

Thanks again guys and gals for your help!

No need to wait. The way the system runs within 24 hours you may as well just check in. You'll still get picked up in any EUA sweeps that happen during that window.

Congrats on getting the upgrades!

Thanks, good to know, I thought that once you were on the Upgrade Standby List that the EUA skipped you over. Makes more sense what you are telling me.

Now, any pointers on SDC's or E+ upgrades for my code share flights Monday BWI-ORD?

Just went through both today. If it's a codeshare you can't take advantage of United's SDC. The only option is standby. I had two segments today. The first was wide open and the GA cleared me right at T-1 and gave me an E+ seat without asking. The second segment was much tighter and I didn't clear until T- a few minutes. I was given a choice of a middle in the exit row or an aisle with no one in the middle. Took the aisle. They did ding me $50 for the standby. If your flight has H2+ you can do the confirmed option at T-3hrs, but that will cost $75. Good luck!

So, if I want to change to an earlier flight from 6pm to 2pm flight, can I do this 24 hours before or only 12 hours before my new desired flight? Glad to know that I will be automatically be placed on the EUA list when I change to the new list (and that Ill be able to see the list online right away).

CO-Insider has posted about this in the master thread. Good info and easy to understand.

You can do it at 6pm the day before - inside the OLCI window and within 24 hours of the new flight. From co.com:
You will not be on the EUA list until you are confirmed in Y on the new flight. If you are on a waitlist for the new flight you'll see yourself on the list for Y but not the upgrade list online.

For some reason, when I go to my reservation and click change flights, it keeps trying to charge me a difference in fare. Is there a separate button/tab for Same Day Confirm that Im not seeing?

Try going through the OLCI process. If the fare class is available it should offer the alternate flight then. If the fare class isn't available you'd be charged the fare difference which sounds like what it is doing. If you share the flight and fare class someone can check it for you, or you can check yourself here: http://tools.wanderingaramean.com/To...Inventory.aspx.

I thought that the requested SDC flight can be in any fare class? Not just the original booking class? I booked it in E (and there are no more E seats left), shouldnt I be able to take any U,V,K,W, etc seats within 24 hours of departure?

No. It must be the exact fare class to SDC. You can standby but not confirm if the specific fare bucket isn't available. The good news is that they generally open them all up ~3 hours prior to the flight so if it is Y9 now and they don't sell the seats you'll get to be E9 eventually and then you can confirm.

Another Update
 

I was able to call in to the Elite line for an SDC for my United codeshare BWI-ORD yesterday. The agent offered my either another United direct flight or a CO flight through either CLE or EWR. I chose CO6469 and am glad I did, even though it left an hour late, my orginal CO6765 was first delayed for an hour and then cancelled at 10:00pm! I arrived in ORD at a nice 7 pM!

United's check-in kiosk and Counter agent were not as user friendly. First they tried to charge us for all 2nd piece of luggage, and the agent said she would take care of it through her. When two peices came in at 53# and 61# she wanted and extra $100 per overweight bag. I told her I thought that as (3)*G's on CO tickets originating on CO metal we were entitled to 3-70# bags apeice. She told me that no, as we are now flying on united for this leg, we are only allowed 1-50# a peice. I re-sorted some items, and got down to only one of the 4 bags being overweight, and was resigned to paying up the $100 and fighting it latter. She looked disapointed when she imput all the needed bits of info in her terminal, and no charge appeared to process.

I asked her if there was any chance of us getting up into E+ as *G's and she said yes, for $29 apeice! As we were already sitting together vertically, (22E, 23E, 24E) I almost bit at the offer, but I thought I would give the GA a chance to make up for a crappy Counter Agent before shelling out the $$$.

When I asked the GA if there was any room in E+ for a CO *G she said she wasn't sure, and that she would have to look up the rules. I explained that the system was not in place yet and that some had reported good luck with nice GA's. She first said that maybe for one pax she could but not for all three, when I pointed out that all three were CO*G's she gave us 7A,B&C!!!^;)

The agent was wrong. As a *G on UA you get 3x70#. Was it a CO or UA agent who gave you the bad info? I'm guessing UA since you'd be checking in with them if flying them.

Your logic is spot on! It was a UA agent.

All you need to remind them of is *G. You should have had the higher baggage allowance.

I'm surprised this was the case. I read on CO's website that SDC was only available for CO metal flights. Last week I flew SFO-PHL on a CO codeshare (UA metal) and fortunately the UA ticket agent let me SDC without the UA $50 fee.

There seems to be a bug in the CO implementation where it is permissible on any CO-coded flights, not just CO-code AND metal flights. Or maybe they did it on purpose, but it seems like it is a bug given what they stated as policy.

So it CAN be done the website just needs to be updated?

I misread your post before; I'm not sure why the UA agent waived the fee.

But, yes, based on empirical evidence shared here on FlyerTalk it seems that a CO-initiated SDC can switch to any CO-coded flights, not just CO-metal.