Same day changes
 

Does CO have a program similar to DL's same-day confirmed changes, where one can change flights on the same day for a nominal fee?

I am not too familiar with DL's confirmed changes. With CO, $25 confirmed standby will get you a guaranteed seat when you call within 3 hours of your desired flight (not within 3 hours of your originally ticketed flight). They cannot do confirmed standby >3 hours prior to departure of your desired flight.

Standby at the airport is free, so if the flight is wide-open (e.g. 753 that's only 70% filled) you can take a chance. Of course, if you must be on the flight, then $25 will cover you.

Good luck.

Thanks for the quick reply. That is very similar to Delta's policy (except that DL doesn't allow free standby to my knowledge and recently increased the fee to $50).

You're doubling the (minor) risk of a mechanical cancellation, for if either the previous flight or your intended flight mechanicals, you're out of luck. Of course, if you're flying early, you still have your original reservation, which would trump these displaced passengers.

IIRC on Delta you can't standby or upgrade on LUT fares either.

NW has similar policies as CO, though I believe the window to rebook is larger.

I assume the answer is no, but can one switch airports within the same city using the same-day confirmed change (e.g. EWR to LGA)?

Delta's rule on SDC is $50 - any fare (even award tickets), any person ($25 if ticketed before 01Aug). This fee is waived for Golds and Platinums. Can only be done 3 hours before departure. Only Golds and Plats can do same-day standby (and then, only when the flight is sold out, as they'd just do the free SDC for them). Sounds very similar to CO's model, just the price difference (and that CO can standby).

I tried this recently and the elite line told me that it had to be in the same class of service. I'm not sure if this is correct as it seemed a bit off to me.

You don't need to worry. At the 3hr mark, those "fare classes" will appear for confirmed change purposes. If there are open seats, they'll take your $25 and allow you to change. If the flight is fully booked, then they won't. That's all.

Is one allowed to standby for a flight that departs at 11:20pm if the original flight departs at 12:55am?

If you mean your flight originally departs Tuesday morning 12:55am, but you want the 11:20pm on Monday night. Then yes.

8. If I am on a flight that departs early the next day, can I change to the prior day for $25?

The only time you can change your itinerary to the day prior is when your original itinerary is scheduled to depart between 12am and 3am.

From co.com. Go to "Onepass News and Offer" and look up the offer "Same-Day Confirmed Travel" under "Airlines".

This is one thing I really like about CO...the standby policy. I have stood by for numerous earlier flights for free and have never not made it. I like that you can do the free standby on the kiosks, too.

EWR and LGA are not co-terminal airports
 

For purposes of standby, EWR and LGA are not co-terminal airports, and you therefore cannot switch. LGA and JFK are considered co-terminal airports. The only time CO considers EWR and LGA co-terminal airports is at their convenience (e.g. MX problem cancels your LGA flight, and they have seats to EWR).

For more elaboration including CO Insiders comments, you can search for a thread I started in July on "stand-by from co-terminal airport"

I have not yet figured out how to embed a link inside my posts!

I'll second that! DL shocked me with their horrible stand-by policy, especially when impending weather threatens to delay my scheduled flight. Even WN once sent me out on an earlier flight without charge as storms rolled in toward MDW.

I hope that CO will maintain the same policy. Usually the different flights don't differ that much in price at time of booking, but I ticket an itinerary that I can make with 100% certainty and standby for the earlier flight if I arrive early. That way I guarantee myself a seat but still have a chance of getting out earlier.

While this may be official policy, it doesn't mean that it can't be done. My co-worker got on the EWR flight yesterday instead of the JFK one (and I know that the fares were very different for EWR/JFK on our route) thanks to some help in the PC. He was the last standby boarded on a flight that initially was oversold, so not too bad overall.