Am currently a DL GM, and was researching the UA program. From the UA website and the forums here, it's still not clear to me if UA offers a similar program to DL's same-day change program, so hoping someone here can clarify for me. I did see a sticky from 2005 that suggested a similar program is $75 but did not seem to be a FF benefit, just a general program on UA.

On DL, as a GM and above, I can switch to an earlier flight with no fee, either with a confirmed seat if one is open or as a standby if the flight is full. The restriction is that I cannot switch until 3 hours before the departure of the intended flight. Once confirmed on the flight, I would remain upgrade eligible as per the usual DL rules.

Does the UA program work similarly for frequent fliers, and if not, how is it different? At what level does it become available?

Thanks in advance

Th DL program sounds very similiar to UA -- confirmed changes within 3 hours of the new flight. For UA there is a fee that is waived for mid-level elites (1P/OP Gold) and higher (50K EQM or high). Once confirmed you will be place on the upgrade list.
On CO the change window is 24 hours -- unclear what the fully merged UA window will be.

Same-day travel changes

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...e-process.html

Also note that UA's SDC program is for domestic flights only. I don't know if this is the same as DL or not.

There is at least one very big difference between the UA and DL "SDC" programs.

Namely, on UA you must use the same routing including connection city if you make the change anywhere but the airport. And UA does not have any co-terminals available for SDC. While this is true of the DL program, DL secretly allows co-terminal SDC for Diamond members.

-RM

Since the new SDC policy rolled out, I've only dealt with a CO-marketed, UA/CO-operated ticket that I've modified. I worked entirely though the CO elite desk for the change, so I can't chime in with whether I could have used UA as well.

I haven't seen any mention of the UA SDC policy requiring the same inventory bucket, unlike CO's which does. Finding inventory in your original bucket may be tricky <24 hours from departure if you're traveling on the lower fare buckets.

There are several significant differences between UA & CO SDC programs.

Online at UA (or by phone) you can only do SDC within 3 hours of the new flight and only for identical routing. If inventory is available in H class, you can be confirmed regardless of fare class paid (free if 1P or above, otherwise fee is charged.) If no inventory is available you can stand by. At the airport via an agent they seem to offer routing flexibility.

On CO you can SDC +/- 24 hours from the time you are making the request, which can only be done via the check-in application, so that starts 24 hours before your flight. At that time you can switch to anything earlier with inventory in your ticketed fare class. As you get closer to your flight time, you can also change to flights later than your flight if inventory is available in yoru tickted fare class. The routing does NOT need to be identical, but the SDC application seems to only show limited choices, perhaps because of the inventory class restriction. In practice, the CO approach is more useful. However the caveat is that often the cheaper fare categories are not opened until 3 or 4 hours before the flight, which makes it work a lot more like the UA program on any flight that's close to full. Also the CO website doesn't easily let you see fare class inventory, but there are other tools out there which can show it.

It remains to be seen how UA & CO will merge SDC. I certainly hope they will adopt the CO 24-hour window and routing flexbility.

New SDC policies permit changes from a connecting to a direct flight provided such request for change is made at the airport. Any reports of recent experience? Is there any reason why a request would be denied if space (H class ?) is available. Can the request for change be processed at the RCC?

At the airport I have only been denied 1x (ASE) to change from connecting to NS