future of same-day change?
 

Apologies if this has been discussed, I couldn't find the answers..

any views on where the same day change policies will end up on the combined airline? As of now, the CO policy is significantly friendlier than the UA one, and god help you if you're on a mixed-operator ticket because then NO ONE can figure out what to do! ;-)

Since CO's systems are what the combined carrier will use going forward one could speculate the SDC will work as CO's does now.

Does CO let you do a same-day confirmed change on a flight that includes international segments? I don't remember. Does UA?

Also, does CO let you do a same-day confirmed change onto flights which have seats left, but where inventory management has not released the identical class of service you booked? I seem to recall that 3.5 hrs out their IM tries to release availability all the way down to G. Yet I don't have to look hard to look for flights where this isn't happening -- compare tonight's CO1074 IAH-CLE (F4 ... Y7 ... G7 N7) versus CO47 IAH-LAX (F6 ... Y7 ... Q7 V0 W0 ... G0 N0).

I don't know how the system officially works, but I have done same day changes on discount fares and switched to flights that were very nearly full, so I suspect that there does NOT need to be availability in the same booking code to make a same day change on PMCO.

The major difference is when you can request the SDC. With PMUA, it was three hours before departure. With PMCO, it was 24 hours.

I'm not 100% sure either, but I am sure someone will fill us in pretty quick. I have also done changes when Y only has a couple of seats left. I think that as long as they are selling seats, then you can do the SDC.

Yes.No.

No, but if it is a flight before your scheduled departure you can list as a standby and will likely clear. If it is a flight after your scheduled one then you can run into issues (I did recently) but the much wider time-frame and flexibility is still worth more to me personally.

Minor correction. PMUA is three hours before departure (not "was" either - that's still the rule). PMCO is 24 hours.

PMUA needs H class (or Y depending on the agent). PMCO needs the identical booking class that you are already booked into to make the change without change fees.

PMCO does allow SDC on international tickets. I believe PMUA does as well.

-RM

I have done the SDC on CO and UA. Definitely like CO much better, especially because there's a chance you can move your flight up to the day before or after you are originally scheduled to fly. Since the same fare class has to be available, then that decreases chances that a flight after originally scheduled to fly will clear, but still like that flexibility.

On the other hand, you CANNOT wait-list the day before or after departure. That is, wait-list only applies on the day you are originally schedule to fly (I recently run into troubles doing the day before departure, had to wait until the fare class opened, which it did), so be careful...

Thanks. I've fixed my OP.

Not officially. See http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6722,51160,00.html:

With CO, you can change to a flight that's within 24 hours of the flight you want and the flight you have, so this gives you the option to fly the day before or the day after (but as you get closer and closer to the original flight, you'll be at the airport on the chance that you can't get the flight changed).

I think I heard that the original booking class has to be available, is that correct?

Yes, you can, but I believe this might only be possible at the airport. Day prior makes it reasonably easy to do; day after, not so much.

To clear at the time of request, yes. You can also ask to list as a standby and clear at the gate, even if the lower buckets never open up.

While I agree that PMCO's published policy is much friendlier, the problem I have is finding agents that actually know the published policy instead of saying, "sorry, you can't do that". Among other things, the CO policy also allows you to reroute, as long as the origin and destination remain the same. I don't think I've ever successfully gotten this type of change over the phone, they always argue with me that it's not allowed. This is one area I wish CO.com was better at (showing all available options for SDC).

It was certainly a surprised the first time I called UA to make a change at T-24hr just assuming they had the same policy! Oops.

Also, note that a flight operated by United but on CO stock, SDC using CO rules might be possible by calling continental if the same fare class is available.

However, I don't know whether UA opens up all fare classes at 3.5 hours before departure.