Same Day Flight Changes
 

Ok... Where the heck does it say in here that you are required to pay the fare difference when you are requesting a change within the 24 hour period?

I'm PLAT, travelling tomorrow - and not getting anywhere without a demand for $300 additional fare?

Shoot me if I'm wrong - but this PLAT is not very happy at the moment, and Houston Customer service is crapping on me.



Same-Day Flight ChangesOngoing Offer
Posted Thu., Apr. 6, 2006

Revised Tue., Jun. 17, 2008
Continental offers a special program for same-day flight changes, specifically those made within 24 hours of your scheduled departure.

If you are on an unrestricted ticket, meaning your fare has no penalties for making changes, you are welcome to make changes free of charge so long as there are seats available.

If you are on a restricted ticket, meaning your fare allows changes for a penalty, you will be able to make flight changes within this 24-hour window for $50, or $25 for OnePass Platinum and Gold Elite members. This discounted change fee will apply to all itineraries wholly operated by Continental, including Continental Express*, Continental Connection* and Continental Micronesia. Even if there are no seats available for a confirmed reservation, you can still stand by. In these cases, the fee will still apply, but you will not be charged unless you actually get a seat on your alternate flight.

The same-day flight change option will be available within 24 hours before your original scheduled flight. Inside of this timeframe, you can try to take an alternate flight so long as it departs no more than 12 hours from when you are making the request.

Same-day flight change may be confirmed when checking in online, at any airport kiosk, by calling your local Continental Airlines reservations office or with a Continental airport representative.

* Continental Express flights operated by ExpressJet Airlines, Inc. and Chautauqua Airlines, Inc.; Continental Connection flights operated by Cape Air, Colgan Air, CommutAir and Continental Connection bus service.

FAQs

Oh yeah... seats are all available on the flights I want to change to.

Sorry if this a dumb question, but is the flight you desire within 12 hours of your ticketed flight?

What kind of change are you doing? I've done same day intl changes a couple of months ago at the airport, and wasn't even charged the $25.

Scheduled tomorrow from IAH - EWR - ACK at 1430, want to change to the 1030 flight, same routing.

They insist that we have to pay the fare difference.

Same Fare Basis
 

I believe that they require the seats to available in the same bucket

otherwise there would be a fare differential aside from the change fee

Yes it's clear on
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...t-changes.html
Nothing about booking class, just says you can do it if there are seats and standby if no seats.

Says you can make the change at online check in, did you try that?

Where does it say that??

I only see verbage to that affect if you change the routing, which I agree.

What I Was Told
 

I get dizzy trying to read through all those pages

so I generally accept what the Elite desk says

If you feel that strongly check with your attorney

You should not have to pay the fare difference.


When you check in for the 1430 flight, there should be a link for Flight Options. The $25 change should be reflected on the subsequent screen.

I think that is techincally true, but I remember reading somewhere that at T-24h all fare buckets are opened up, so any available seat should fall into whatever fare bucket you booked.


Sounds like the s-word to me!:p

Where is sbm12 when you need him?

Sheesh...I go do real work for a few minutes and this place falls apart. :p

You have to wait until 10:30pm tonight to make the request. And even that is sortof pushing it.

You must be within 12 hours of the NEW flight time. That is where the 10:30pm tonight comes into play. You also must be within 24 hours of the original flight time, which means that nothing this morning would work; you'd have to wait until at least 14:30.

And the reason I put the "sortof" in the line above is that it also depends on seats being available on the EWR-ACK flight. Technically they don't open up those buckets until 12 hours prior to that flight. So you could call at 10:30pm tonight and that flight could still be zeroed out. In theory you're supposed to be able to request that they simply place you on standby for those flights so as to confirm the 10:30 IAH-EWR seats but I don't know how well the agents know the process and if they'll get that part right. If you have to wait until 12 hours prior to the earlier flight (I'm assuming CO 8810 is the desired one) then you are looking at making the call at 5am EDT/4am local for you in Houston. That's no fun.

Other than the above describe scenarios you should, in fact, be charged the fare difference for any changes requested.

You remember incorrectly. The buckets open at T-12h, not T-24h.

Only if the new flight is within 12 hours. So at 1430 the OP might see options for the later flights tonight IAH-EWR but not tomorrow morning's flights.

And it's not a guarantee that all buckets will open up. If the flight is overbooked and prior to the 12 hour window only showing Y1 or Y2 the lower buckets probably will not open up to show 1s or 2s across all fare classes.

It looks like you were trying to switch too early.