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Same-day confirmed and same-day standby options

Old Jun 12, 2015, 7:09 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: audidudi
This wiki covers basic info and common FAQs. For full terms and conditions, see the relevant DL web page: Same Day Travel Changes

Same-Day Confirmed

To request an SDC, you can
  • Use the Same Day Change function on the Today screen in the Delta app (recommended, but with some peculiarities -- may not show all routings, and if changing to an earlier or later flight will only show the option within 24 hours of the target flight)
  • Click the "Change" button during OLCI (after you click "Check in" on the first screen)
  • Call a phone agent (recommended if app does not work)
  • Use Delta's chat functions via the app (hit or miss)

Online SDC does not seem to present all the options available to you, especially when you are SDCing a GAP fare and there is no inventory in your fare bucket. Calling in is best. People have had success with Twitter but that may depend on how "involved" the SDC is.

You can SDC starting 24 hours before your initial departure. You can SDC to any flight leaving the same calendar day. There is a $75 fee for SDC ($50 for tickets issued before March 15th, 2017), waived for GM and higher. This fee, and the waiver, applies for each person, although for GM+ traveling with companion the companion fee is sometimes waived.


Q. Does the same fare class need to be available (main cabin)?

A. Yes (whether revenue or award ticket). Note there is sometimes inventory in a fare bucket even though it may not be offered for sale on the web site. SDC on V or N (low award) fare is not unheard of.

Q. Does the same fare class need to be available (Comfort+)?

If booked into W (not WU) there only needs to be an available seat in Comfort+ regardless of fare class.

Q. Does the same fare class need to be available (First/Business/DeltaOne)?

Q. What about SDC with RUC/GUC/mileage upgrades (that have already cleared)?

As of November 2017:

* If your original ticket is a Delta OneTM ticket, you may move to any other flight with a premium cabin seat available
* If your original ticket is a First Class ticket, you may move only to other flights with a First Class seat available; you may not move to a flight with a Delta One experience, even if seats are available.
It is unclear how this affects SDC if you are confirmed in RY/OY.

Q. I have a premium cabin fare, can I SDC to an itinerary with a single-cabin aircraft?

Written reply received from Delta, Dec. 2015:

f the aircraft does not support a First/Business/Delta One cabin you are still eligible to change to the flight as long we are still selling seats on the flight.


Q. What about Medallion complimentary upgrades?

A. These do *not* count as premium cabin fares even if you already cleared. The main cabin rules for SDC regarding fare inventory will apply, and if it goes through you will SDC into a main cabin seat (but you are eligible to be upgraded again -- make sure you appear on the upgrade list on your new itinerary)

Q. Can I change the routing/connections?

A. You cannot SDC from a connecting itinerary to a non-stop itinerary. In all other cases the answer is unclear. The SDC rules do not explicitly prohibit routing changes. However ticket fare rules usually contain a clause that additions/changes to connections must be permitted by the fare rules. These are apparently in conflict, and practically speaking it depends on the agent/supervisor you speak with. Some refuse, some allow anything reasonable.

Q. Can I change the origin/destination?

A. Technically no, but there is an unwritten rule that DMs can make co-terminal changes. (There are some unintuitive gaps in what DL considers co-terminal, e.g. DAL and DFW do not count.)

Q. How are SDC flights credited?

A. You will earn MQMs for the route you actually fly.

Q. Can I SDC onto a red-eye later the same day, that connects to a flight the following morning?

A. Yes (though the agent may need to process it manually)

Q. I have a red-eye flight or a flight leaving shortly after midnight; can I SDC to a flight the next day/day before?

A. Officially, no. In practice, some people have reported success (with no real pattern to status). Can't hurt to ask.

Q. Can I SDC on an international itinerary?

A. Officially, no. In practice, you can SDC remaining domestic flights after all international flights have been flown; if you have onward checked bags it is best to do this before you re-check them. There are non-zero reports of SDC of domestic flights before connecting to an international flight but this should not be counted on.

Q. Can I SDC an Alaska Airlines codeshare?

Originally Posted by flyerCO
You can SDC from a DL marketed, AS operated flight to a DL operated flight. You can not SDC to another AS operated flight, even if it's DL marketed.
Originally Posted by jrl767
you may be able to SDC from a DL-marketed AS-operated flight to another AS flight under AS SDC rules (request within 6 hrs of desired flight, as long as you make the request before the scheduled departure of your booked flight; $50 fee if you don't have AS status)
Same-Day Standby

"Same-day standby is only offered if same-day confirmed is not available."

"You can use the same-day standby option for travel within the United States, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Delta and Delta Connection flights."

SDS can be requested 24 hours before your initial departure. GM+ can SDS to any flight departing the same calendar day; others can only SDS for an earlier flight. No routing changes are permitted.

SDS costs $75 ($50 for tickets issued before 15 MAR 2017) but only if you clear the standby list (waived for GM+) SDS is now free for all passengers as of August 4th, 2021

Upgrades are not preserved -- if you already cleared the upgrade on your original flight you must still standby for the main cabin.

Q. Is it possible to get upgraded after a standby?

A. Almost always no, whether because it is explicitly forbidden or because the standby list is processed after the UG list and it is rare for any F seats to be leftover after that happens. So, maybe sometimes?

Same-Day Standby Upgrades

"The same-day standby upgrade option allows you to upgrade your flight for a small fee, provided space is available and your ticket is eligible. This option applies to specific flights and routings [...]"

This is not the same as upgrading after successfully standing by for a main cabin seat (see above).

SDSU fee chart (may be out of date):

All flights within and between the Domestic 48 States and Alaska

Code:
Traveling Y/B/M Fares S/H/Q/K/L Fares U/T/X/V Fares

0 to 500 miles $49 $119 $169

501 to 1,000 miles $79 $149 $199

1,001 to 1,500 miles $99 $209 $259

1,501 to 2,000 miles $149 $249 $319

2,001 to 3,000 miles $239 $269 $359

3,001 miles and up $329 $369 $399
All flights to and from Hawaii
Code:
Traveling Y/B/M Fares S/H/Q/K/L Fares U/T/X/V Fares

2,001 to 3,000 miles $239 $269 $359

3,001 miles and up $329 $369 $399
All eligible other flights
Code:
Traveling Y / B / M / H / Q / K Fares

0 to 500 miles $50

501 to 1,000 miles $75

1,001 to 1,500 miles $100

1,501 to 2,000 miles $150

2,001 to 3,000 miles $225

3,001 miles and up $350



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Same-day confirmed and same-day standby options

Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:47 am
  #46  
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Minneapolis
Programs: Delta Diamond, SPG Platinum
Posts: 19
Angry Nice Going Delta....

As a business traveler (Monday - Thursday) this rule is crazy! When I was forced to switch from United to Delta after moving to Minneapolis for flight availability reasons, the idea of having to call 3 hours before a flight I wanted to take and knew had availability to go standby on was ridiculous (at United you have 24 hours) but I sucked it up and played the game so I could get home to my family earlier.

Now, if I read the rule change correctly at delta.com, http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...-changes.html#

the new rule is that as a PM I am no longer going to be able to go SDC for any flight that isn't within 3 hours of the original flight!!!?? For even MSP, most DL flights are spread out over 3 hours apart (excluding hubs). therefore, I now get the pleasure of spending an extra $50 for the confirmed standby??!!! What is the value of being loyal?? I mean, as a PM or DM we basically get the same treatment as a general member!!!

Based on this change and the introduction of UP fares (which I do like for booking more first class tickets instead of trying to upgrade) that as a frequent traveler, I would be better off trying to get status with another airline (even though I will have to connect) and use them for as much flying as flight schedules permit and then buy Delta flights as needed and forget about the status. With the skypesos nearly worthless and with Delta giving away free bags and early boarding with an AMEX card I don't see any reason to stay loyal to Delta.

Thanks again Delta!

Chris
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:48 am
  #47  
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Dwayne,

What are the fare class requirements for SDC on award tickets? Does award inventory at the same level [low/med/high] need to be available?
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:48 am
  #48  
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Originally Posted by DLATL777
ahahahaha

It makes me laugh how hard they tried to make this sound positive. They did the ol' positive news first than all the bad news next. "Hey you can now change to a flight the day before...but actually its 99% of the time going to be impossible".
This. Unless you're on a Y fare. That'll show all the gamers.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:52 am
  #49  
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Originally Posted by javabytes
Dwayne,

What are the fare class requirements for SDC on award tickets? Does award inventory at the same level [low/med/high] need to be available?
It strongly implies here that you will need the same bucket/level.

Our systems will automatically identify the booking class of both purchased and award tickets to offer same-day confirmed options when the same fare class is available on another flight.
Bye-Bye SDC on low (and even a lot of medium) award tickets!
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:53 am
  #50  
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I have mixed feelings about the new rules themselves. From certain standpoints, I can get why DL is implementing the new rules and I'm not completely against them. What is not right, IMO, is the short notice that is being given for these new rules. What is this, a two week heads up for the official announcement (and about a month or so of a heads up if you count the rumors)? People bought tickets on DL with the mindsight of being able to SDC on their day of travel. Whether their reason for buying one flight and planning to take another is right, wrong, or indifferent, that was the expectation they had when they bought the ticket. It's why many people pushed for status (either through extra trips or purchasing MQMs). No reason DL could not have announced this policy sooner or delayed its implementation to minimize immediate impact.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:54 am
  #51  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyDeltaJets87
Many fares have advanced purchase requirements, so they are unavailable for purchase within a certain window of the flight, even though those fares are "there".
Yes, but that has nothing to do with inventory. I frequently see inventory in lower fare buckets that cannot be purchased on the date in question because of advance purchase requirements. (LNK-MSP tomorrow has a flight that's got inventory in all economy buckets, but you can't buy anything lower than B.) Other than a few examples of E being available without some of the higher buckets, I'm yet to see an example of where you have inventory in, say, X but not in H.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:55 am
  #52  
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Originally Posted by mridley2
How many small regional airports have another option besides DL? I travel frequently into CHA, BHM, SAV, etc.

DL is really the only reasonable carrier into those airports. Fortunately i'm not captive to DL based in NYC but it's definitely a lot easier to fly into CHA, BHM, etc rather than renting a car and driving 2hrs w/o traffic.
They all have US (and soon AA) with often similar frequencies to CLT.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:02 am
  #53  
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DL is trying to stop the gamers from beating the system while at the same time punishing business flyers. This seems penny-wise, pound-foolish. Sadly, DL is ok with losing a few biz travelers in the process as long as it comes out in the wash.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:07 am
  #54  
 
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What about the case where you're booked on the domestic leg of an international flight and the fare buckets are different? For example, look at today's BOS-ATL flight 443. For first class, it has fare buckets J/C/D/I/Z as it is marketed as the first half of BOS-ATL-BOG, even though a plane change is required in ATL and the BOS-ATL leg is just standard domestic first. The rest of the BOS-ATL flights have F/P/A/G fare classes for first class as they're just standard domestic flights. So if I booked a Z fare on BOS-ATL flight 443, what fare bucket would have to be open on flight 1801 (BOS-ATL, 1.25 hours before 443) for me to SDC to it?
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:12 am
  #55  
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Originally Posted by mtkeller
Yes, but that has nothing to do with inventory. I frequently see inventory in lower fare buckets that cannot be purchased on the date in question because of advance purchase requirements. (LNK-MSP tomorrow has a flight that's got inventory in all economy buckets, but you can't buy anything lower than B.) Other than a few examples of E being available without some of the higher buckets, I'm yet to see an example of where you have inventory in, say, X but not in H.
We're saying the same thing. I can't recall the specific examples but I have seen it a handful of times where lower fares have a higher inventory than other fares. It just sometimes happens that way.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:14 am
  #56  
 
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And as a suggestion to the mods: perhaps we should break this into two threads. One thread would be for questions and clarifications about the new policy, and the other would be for discussion where we share our opinions about it.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:16 am
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by FlyDeltaJets87
Many fares have advanced purchase requirements, so they are unavailable for purchase within a certain window of the flight, even though those fares are "there".
Yeah but that is fare availability for sale - not fare bucket availability.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:22 am
  #58  
 
Join Date: Sep 2008
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So this move seems to be designed to do the following

-Make people book the flights (times) they actually need, so that Delta can control prices more on the higher demand flights. No more booking Thursday or Friday morning Flights and taking later more expensive ones.

-Encouraging (screwing) people to book more expensive tickets because they will be the only ones able to SDC due to fare class restrictions.

-Encouraging (screwing) people into booking High level awards

So can the traveler fight back? Its going to be a lot harder, but if (highly unlikely) there is space in your fare class with a departure within +/-3 hours as a GM+ you can SDC to it for free. Well does this new flight now become your departure time? So Can you SDC from that with in +/-3 and then keep doing so till you get the flight you actually want without ever having to pay the greedy $50 fee? This would be hard to do as there would need to be space on multiple flights for it to work but just a thought.

As for me im really sad this happened but glad to be unaffected, i wasnt going to be lead to the slaughter, i ditched DL at the end of last year after over a decade of loyalty to NWA/DL including charter DM.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:23 am
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by mtkeller
Other than a few examples of E being available without some of the higher buckets, I'm yet to see an example of where you have inventory in, say, X but not in H.
But I can see this happening more often though with the new rules, if - and that's biiiiiiiig IF - DL manages the same-day buckets in the manner that UA does.

Say for example, LUTXVE are not purchasable due to the fare restrictions, but K is, so DL may decide to put inventory in LUTXVE but not K, so as not to allow anyone to purchase at the K level.

I have no idea how easy this is to accomplish given the system limitations though, so who knows.
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 9:26 am
  #60  
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Originally Posted by DwayneSkyMiles
You’ve heard the buzz about this upcoming change – here are the details.
Nice spin trying to make it sound like a positive change.

Originally Posted by DwayneSkyMiles
And a little background on why you’ve heard things about these changes before we made an official announcement. We don’t like it when the rumor mill is busy at work before we can tell you ourselves, but in order prepare for the first day of our same-day travel changes, we needed to ensure our agents had sufficient time with the information so they could apply it correctly from day one. We’d like to apologize for any uncertainty and/or confusion this caused in the Delta forum prior to today.
Thanks for the drive by posting, and the immediate dash to ignoring any follow up questions.
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