Same day change and stand-by
 

Yes, same day change will allow you provided the same fare class is avalaible to take a flight as much as 24 hours prior to your scheduled departure, paying only a change fee, only $25.00 if you are Gold status.
I thought the rule allowed standby for a flight if the same fare class was not avaliable. I found out the hard way standby for a flight is only allowed the same DAY. This can be confusing since SDC allows changes when it is not the same DAY.

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The policies for SDC and "standby" are identical in terms of timing. The only difference is whether you clear when you request it or at the gate. You still have to pay for it. There isn't really such a thing as "standby" in the traditional sense anymore, same calendar day or otherwise.

So how do I do this:
let's say I have a ticket for a flight on 3:00 PM on Wednesday.
SDC should allow me to do the change to same flight 3:00 PM on Tuesday (still within 24 hrs).
Do I just go to the airport and hope that they will issue me a new ticket in there?

They probably won't let you do that. The 24 hr rule is hard and fast, you can't change your Wed ticket UNTIL 3:00 Tuesday, and by that time the door will be closed and it will have pushed back. You can take a later flight the night before or earlier flight that morning, but those are the only options for getting where you want earlier.

Let me see if I get this. If I fly into "a" at 8 PM and had an original flight leaving the next day at 5 PM, can I go to the TA when I arrive in the PM and ask for a seat on the 6 AM flight out the next morning or do I have to wait and show at the airport at 5 AM to see if they will accommodate me. As a plat, will they give me a standby for free or will they make me pay? This is still somewhat confusing to me.

Not gonna happen. Same flight the day prior is not covered by the SDC policy. Think of it more like a 23:59 deal. ;)

You can ask that night and it's free as a plat. Or to avoid a trip to the ticket counter, just call the elite desk. There might not be availability at that point though, as some buckets don't open until T-3hrs. If they can't confirm it ask if they'll tell you how many seats are left. That should give you an idea if there will be seats in the morning. You might have to wake up early to call and confirm it, then either head to the airport or go back to bed. Make sense?

You can ask starting at 5pm the day prior to your scheduled departure (within 24 hours of the originally ticketed departure). At any point after that you can ask at a counter, call in or go through the OLCI process to see if the earlier flight is available.

As a platinum you would get the SDC for free.

It may have been outside the policy, but I was able to change to the same flight on the previous day, i.e. exactly 24 hours before my scheduled flight, with the help of a PC agent. The only confusion was she wanted to charge the fee for SDC, but that was quickly cleared up when I reminded her I was a Plat.

CO Rule #1: Always deny a request when possible.

CO Rule #2: Always attempt to charge fee, even if unwarranted.

CO Rule #3: Only waive fee in #2 above if allowed by policy and upon specific request from customer armed with knowledge of such policy. Then play dumb like you weren't aware of said policy.

CO Rule #4: Only when caught by said customer, document record to absolve of any wrong-doing and make the customer liable for our own screw-ups.

Definitely not the experience I was reporting on ... The agent quickly went to work attempting to make the change I requested without any pushback. It did take a few minutes, and a phone call, to make it happen, all while the agent was handling other PC customers.
Personally, I'm happy the agent was focused on making my change, and not my status.
The question of a fee was immediately dismissed when I mentioned my status, with no questions and no "playing dumb"

Somehow I remember reading that same-day flight change/standby is FREE if you are taking an earlier connection than the one you're booked. But if you request SDC at starting point then the fee does apply.

I think there was a footnote before on the SDC rules, but I don't see it anymore.

Anyway, my friend (CO Silver) has a long layover at IAH tomorrow and would like to take an earlier flight to SFO, but I guess she'll have to pay the $50 fee.

I just found a thread dated April 29, 09 where there is discussion on CO implementing FREE changes for earlier connection:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...g-sdc-s-2.html

Post # 27


But somehow that's not reflected on the CO website --and the elite line don't know about it and want to charge my friend $50 for the earlier connection at IAH.

Well said.
I experienced all of the above more than once.
#2 - all the time.