suavemom

Hi, folks! This is my first post - very exciting.

I'm *A gold on US, and am currently in Lima, scheduled to fly tomorrow at 12:30am (so, technically Sunday) to EWR, through IAH on flights 855 and 1177. I think these are UA flights.

I would love to go home earlier, if it's possible to do so without paying an arm and a leg. I've tried to figure out the SDC policies - I'm clear that there are no longer any stand-by options, sadly.

My questions are 1) are there any SDC options that would allow me to change my flight to go home sooner, without paying the insane $250 international change fee? I would pay $50-75, but not more.

2) Since I'm flying at 12:30am, technically the very beginning of the day, is it impossible to make a SDC? Am I just SOL on this one?

Thanks a lot, folks! I have so much to learn about flying more comfortably. Really appreciate what I am learning from all of you on this forum.

aacharya

EWR-IAH is co metal, and I imagine LIM-IAH is also CO metal.

You can SDC to any flight in a radius of 24 hours from your original flight.

However, CO rules require the same fare code/class be open, and CO doesn't reopen all of them until 3 hours before the flight.

In other words, you might at OLCI get an offer to move, but if you don't, you have to try 3 hours before your flight.

Just note you'd need two segments to have space...that might be harder.

suavemom

Got it - thanks! It's only really worth it to me if I can leave much earlier. Like in the morning or early afternoon. So 3 hours before wouldn't help much. I'll keep an eye out for OLCI options, but sounds like it's a longshot.

Let me know if there are any other options I might be missing, partly just to help me learn this process. Thanks so much for your help, aacharya!

RobOnLI

First of all, LIM-IAH is operated by UA. They took over the route months ago from CO. It is operated with a 763.

Second, you can't SDC on this route per the SDC rules. However, you might find an agent willing to help you. CO's SDC policy says you can start SDC'ing at 24 hours before your scheduled flight time (12:50am Sunday). In this case, since LIM-IAH is only served once a day the flight you are trying to get on leaves exactly 24 hours before your scheduled flight. You can't SDC onto a flight that leaves at the second you are trying to SDC because you won't have a valid ticket, reservation or seat assignment for it.

If you call CO and get an agent willing to help you and bend the rules a little bit you might get lucky. The best case is they allow this for free, the likely case is they allow this for the $250 intl change fee and the worst case is you pay the change fee plus any fare difference if your class of service is not available on the earlier flight.

-RM

sbm12

You can if ticketed on CO stock or switching to CO metal.

RobOnLI

Technically you can SDC it but you can't SDC it due to my explanation above. The sentence continues with the rest of the paragraph. Taken by itself, it's an incorrect statement Taken with the rest of my paragraph about the only other LIM-IAH flight being 24 hours beforehand you can't SDC.

-RM

suavemom

This was so helpful you guys. They seemed willing to change, but only for the $250. Wasn't up for that, so had to stay till Sunday. Oh, well. At least I was able to access the fab lounge in Lima!