Thanks for the data point. I didn’t think to check to see if I was still confirmed on my original flight until after the plane was in the air. That makes more sense; I was just surprised that it cleared in advance without being called to the podium, as that’s my usual experience. And, I agree it does make sense to hold the confirmed reservation until the standby passenger has boarded.

So, to answer the OP, I guess it should be safe to add yourself to the standby list in advance.

Same Day Flight Change on a SIA Ticket
 

I have a domestic business award ticket from SFO-EWR (I class) booked via Singapore Airlines. Does anybody know if United will allow me to do a SDFC to an earlier flight with this ticket (standby or confirmed)? I know its not a 016 ticket, however in my experience United is pretty liberal in allowing SDFCs outside the officially published constraints if there are seats. I am a Premier Platinum if that makes any difference. Sharing any experiences with a similar situation would be much appreciated!

This is against the posted rules but some agents may be willing

HOWEVER, this needs to be the absolute last segment on the itin if you can find an agent willing or very dire consequences will occur. SQ will not be notified of the SDC but will also not get a notification you took the original flight, leading to a cancellation of all reaming unflown segments.
Standby is no problem.

AC award on UA metal allows same-day standby in UA app. Does anybody know if it also work on TK issued awards?

Anyone know which FF# I should use to get higher standby priority?

My United MP number, with Silver status, or my AC*G status?

If I had to guess, it's that UA treats its home elites better than foreign *G

The answer is yes

Flying SFO-YVR-HND on 016 stock. I'm a little worried about the connection time in YVR, so would like to change to an earlier flight (there are UA and AC options). Existing flight is UA marketed with a UA flight number, but AC operated. Will I be able to SDC to an earlier AC or UA flight if there's space in F, or is this not allowed because it's an AC metal flight?

Earlier AC-operated flight, no. Earlier UA-operated flight, maybe. Until last year, the answer would have been no because YVR-HND is an AC flight. Now, you might have somewhat more luck, but the fact that you're trying to change the operating carrier could pose a problem. The examples I saw last year were all UA metal connecting to OAL metal.

I have an United 016 award ticket EWR - LHR - BOM - CCU. EWR-LHR is on UA and the rest on AI. Am I allowed to do SDC to EWR-DEL nonstop on UA, connecting to DEL-CCU on AI? Thanks

SDC, as we know it? No. However, there are no fees for award changes, so if you find award availability from EWR to CCU via DEL, you should be able to do a regular change for no fee. Any difference in miles will be charged, however.

Thanks. I will stick to the original routing then. The other option is twice the amount of miles.

Either SDC or a regular change would require inventory in your current fare bucket (X/XN for economy, I/IN for business, I'm guessing) to process anyway. When I say you'd have to pay any difference in miles -- UA has been adding between ~2500 and ~4000 miles to prices for close-in bookings. So if inventory opens in your fare bucket, you'll be able to change to it, whether today, the day of travel, or anytime in between -- but you may need to pay this relatively small number of additional miles for the privilege.

If it were an all-UA operated itinerary, SDC would likely be an option, but would still depend upon fare class inventory. The DEL-CCU segment is the problem here.

Got it. I am booked in XN and the EWR-DEL is YN and probably won't go down to XN in time. I have also al alternative LX option for the whole itinerary which I might switch to. It will only be 4,000 extra miles as you point out.

Hello all, quick question on confirmed flight changes / "same day" changes. Say I have a flight departing Sunday at 5pm. If I want to change to a flight the day before, Saturday, at 10pm (less than 24-hrs earlier), would that be covered as a "free" change"? The premier benefits says 24-hrs but the footnote says "same day" and I am not sure which is correct in practice.

Is it best to do this at the airport?

Yes, you would be able to change to the 10 PM Saturday flight for no charge, assuming availability in your fare class, starting 24 hours before your Sunday flight (so, 5 PM Saturday in this case). No need to go to the airport; you can do it on the app or the website, or by calling.

Have there been changes to UA SDC procedures recently?

I’m certain that I’ve changed to earlier or later flights the same day, same origin and destination, sometimes different connecting cities, occasionally the night before ticketed morning flights, without additional charge, including when the change is to a different booking class, MANY times. I recall reading that within 24 hours (of flight times) all booking classes “even out” or “zero out”.

Trying to do a SDC for tomorrow’s SLC-IAH-LGA itinerary to one of two SLC-DEN-LGA itineraries because SLC-DEN-LGA is 2 hours less flight time than SLC-IAH-DEN. One DEN connection would allow me to depart at the same time and arrive 2 hours earlier, the other would allow me to depart 2 hours later and arrive at the same time. LT Gold, both SLC-DEN-LGA itineraries are showing plenty of available seats.

Full desktop website errored out twice. Mobile app showed significant additional fares. Just spoke to a UA phone agent and her supervisor, both told me that since there is no “T” class availability in the flights I’d like to change to I would have to pay $196 or $133 to make the change.

I’m pretty old, Medicare eligible for 2 years, really hope I’m not remembering this incorrectly. Thank you.

What you're being told is correct at least for the past few years. Requires same booking code to be available to SDC. Levelling out of buckets was something they did close to departure of flights (certainly not at 24 hours out), however it is not clear if they're as aggressive about levelling buckets out or when exactly they are doing it.

Changing to a different booking class has never* been free on UA during regular operations. You’d only get it for free in case of IRROPS.

That hasn’t been true on a widespread basis for years — and it was never 24 hours. It was 4, and then 3, and then closer to 2 — if it happens.

That is correct, but T availability may appear at any time. Keep your eyes open. :)

* since I started flying UA regularly around the time of the CO merger, about a decade ago. I can’t speak to policies before that.

I am booked on UA863 SFO-SYD tonight in Prem Plus (A), I would rather take UA829 tomorrow night as would prefer to stick around here a little longer and upgrade looks better. My thought process was this morning to try to change to a SFO-LAX-SYD flight thats within 24 hrs and a long layover and then when 829 is within 24 hrs switch to that if possible. I am fine with the outcome of having to go to LAX anyway. I am not seeing any free SDC options in the app though, I presume this is because the domestic leg has no A as no Prem Plus? Is this something a 1K agent would be able to do, put me in Y for the domestic and then A for the international and all be good?

Maybe. However, you’d be jeopardizing your chances of getting back onto the nonstop tomorrow. The computer certainly wouldn’t allow it, and you’d have to find an agent who was willing to read back into the record and make the adjustment.

If your mind is set on SDC, and you don’t mind living on the edge a bit, I’d consider waiting until 8:10 PM tonight and then trying to change directly, without an intermediary, with the understanding that if it failed, you’d have to be at the airport posthaste. You can get a pretty good idea of how successful you might be by keeping an eye on A inventory during the day (which you’d need whether you had the intermediate LAX flight or not). You could set an ExpertFlyer alert for A < 2 as a warning that your plan is in peril. (EF is a paid service, but they offer a free 5-day trial that would suit your needs).

Note that there are currently 6 seats blocked for upgrades in Polaris, and that you probably won’t be one of those passengers unless you’re on the flight before T-24.

That said, have you tried changing to the flight that you want using the regular change tool? If this is a return of a round-trip ticket, and your original fare is valid for travel on a Sunday, you may be able to change now for free, skipping any of the drama. Give it a try. :)

Thanks so much for the detailed answer, I would maybe be tempted to live on the edge but probably won't thrill my other half so may just have to suck it up and take the original.. Sadly just changing it to tomorrow throws up a charge of 3100AUD :(

I asked this question upthread about a month ago and got no responses: "Who's higher on the standby list, non-UA *G or Premier Silver, since I am both?"

I attempted to answer the question myself by swapping both numbers at check-in (of course, that's really hard to do on this airline for some reason, as noted on plenty of other threads...lol)

So I didn't. I simply stayed with my non-UA *G number.

On Saturday I flew LAX-SFO, I assume this route is elite heavy because of the 70+ on the upgrade list for CPU. There were 25 on standby. My name was #1 for the full 24h I had checked in, and I checked that list often. I assumed the other 24 people had no status and were doing the free standby.

I was bored and waited at the gate for my new boarding pass and chatted with someone who ended up telling me his name, and I asked if he was the guy #2 on the waitlist. He had 1K bag tags and said that he had "status" which I assume was current.

So there you go, I don't know how, but I was ahead of UA's home Premier members on the waitlist. It was an O/D flight and booked on 014 stock and they even let me choose an Y+ seat which I didn't think was still offered to *G flyers.

Is this surprising (that as a foreigner I was atop the list)? I found it so! Only three people cleared I believe.

I think it has more to do with the fact that it was 014 stock ticket and not 016. If you didn't fly, UA would get $0 revenue. On a 016 ticket, they could just rebook you. It's more difficult to do that when ticketed outside UA.
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The vast majority on the standby list tend to be employees or their families / friends, not paying customers. I would be very surprised you would be ahead of a paying high status customers. The other passenger could have been on a NRSA ticket (Non-Rev Space Available employee ticket) . They could have status but that does not count if on NRSA ticket.

Very knowledgable responses as always, thanks so much for explaining

hoangtri1 WineCountryUA

Changing UA award ticket to direct
 

I booked a UA award ticket from ORD to LHR in J for March. What I booked was a good price - but the actual ticket is ORD-BOS in Y and then BOS-LHR in J, which is probably why it's a good price. I am United Silver.

Wondering if I could expect to have a chance of changing to ORD-LHR direct in J on the day of travel, if there is a J seat available on the day of? The United policy seems to be:

Premier members have extra flexibility for flight changes made within 24 hours of departure. Premier members may be able to confirm a seat on another flight within 24 hours of your originally scheduled departure time for no cost at all.* If a Premier member’s original ticketed fare class isn’t available on the new flight, a fare difference may apply. If your original ticketed fare class isn’t available, you can always stand by for free.

That seems to imply that I might be able to pull this off, but curious if anyone has a different interpretation here and/or any personal experience and/or if there are any nuances for award travel.

Almost zero chance of your award inventory being available on day of travel. You can’t just switch if a seat is available, the award inventory has to be available, also. If there’s an open seat, you’ll probably see a fairly large mileage increase to swap.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7a72316c7.jpeg
Have not seen such tight restrictions before. This is for a EWR-YUL-LHR-EWR round trip on 016 stock. The outbound is UA-coded/AC metal, and the return is UA. What are my chances of SDCing to (assuming fare class availability) or getting on the standby list for the UA daytime nonstop on the day of departure? Thanks for all the expertise on this thread!

Those fare rule restrictions are not uncommon and (if you hadn't figured out yet) are used to keep the deep discount fares on the flights that tend to have 'excess' capacity.

However, the fare rules aren't a factor in determining SDC possibility. In your case, the issue is AC metal — not allowed by policy. However, sometimes agents will move you over on request, so your only chance is getting lucky with who you ask. I think most likely to get it done at the airport, but that's still a toss-up.

I looked through the FAQ, but didn't see an exact answer, so here goes:

I am booked on a paid nonstop from SFO to RDM tomorrow on the morning flight (there's a morning and evening flight each day). Would like to SDC (or standby) for the same flight exactly one day later (same time, flight number, etc, just 1 day later). Is the correct strategy to wait until it's <24 hours to tomorrow night's flight, SDC for that and then wait until it is <24 hours to the following morning's flight (Wednesday morning flight -- the one I want) and SDC a second time for that? Thanks!

I no longer see option to book an earlier or later flight in app (same day flight change), 1k, travel in F, first flight of the New Year!

Yes, that's the only approach that will work for SDC, although note that there's no guarantee you'll find space on both of your target flights.

Is there an alternative flight with inventory in your fare class? Connecting? Any non-UA segments?

Are these still the current/officially allowed? I think the language may have been modified in https://www.united.com/ual/en/us/fly...t-changes.html or am I misremembering:

I was flying DEN-DFW-ORD and DFW-ORD cleared PZ. At DFW, the app and kiosk offered no SDC option for PZ or my ticketed fare class as usual when segment is upgraded. Did a flight search in the app and saw DFW-EWR-ORD was selling for V-W class with my ticketed fare class at 8. Went to the gate and GA said confirmed changes were not allowed (even though I showed her the website above) but she would try putting me on standby. I instantly cleared standby into my original ticketed fare class and she was puzzled. She called over a supervisor and the supervisor said "direct" flight cannot be changed to flights with connections. She deleted the cleared-standby segments and told me to call reservations.

I called reservations and the onshore agent said she couldn't see DFW-EWR-ORD option in her system even though flight search in the app was displaying the option. She also said that changing from non-stop to connections will require fare difference.

My question is :
If my fare only allows DEN-HOU-CHI, does that mean if I'm at IAH and see IAH-IAD-ORD, I'm not allowed to change to that? or was the agents simply unfamiliar with the SDC policy?
per
The weird thing is that the routing rule was DEN-HOU-CHI but I was still able to change to DEN-DFW-ORD.

On a side note, Kirby was sitting a few rows ahead of me on DFW-ORD and I got to talk to him for a sec lol

Noted the same last week. Has the system changed?

Thanks for the feedback! No alternative ways to get there from SFO. Just SDC'd for the later flight on the same day (step 1) and it rebooked me into Y! Now, I need to wait until tomorrow morning and I should be good for the following day SDC. Assuming it keeps my Y fare, I would assume it would be easy to confirm if a single seat is available for sale on the following day's flight.

What you've quoted has always been the rule. It's just that the app used to ignore routing rules willy-nilly, and it seems that it no longer does.

That is always how the system was supposed to work, yes. Certain fare rules (advance purchase, minimum / maximum stay, day of week / time of day / seasonal restrictions) were ignored by policy, but the fare was always supposed to be valid for the new routing. It's never been the case that you were supposed to be able to turn IAH-ORD into IAH-HNL-NRT-EWR-AUS-DEN-ORD just because UA flies all of those sectors. :D

Also my experience with the upgrade list. Recently, I was the one passenger upgraded on an MCO-DEN leg. It was an 014 stock, G-bucket fare, so not a chance other than for the 014 ticket. The ticket was purchased only ~30 hours in advance, was way cheaper than the UA options and also gave much higher PQM's than the $$$ paid would have implied. The same impact on the upgrade list was not evident on the DEN-YVR leg. A good experience except for the futility of trying to standby on an earlier DEN-YVR flight operated by AC.

There is zero reason to believe that a 014 ticket has any better upgrade possibilities than a 016 ticket.

Rather, I suspect you were not the only passenger upgraded; you were just the last passenger upgraded. Unless you saw a ton of 1Ks walk past you on the way to the back, I'm not buying this. The only other thing I can think of is that AC messed up the fare (see below) and put you into Y.

Flights operated by UA earn PQPs based upon the fare paid to UA. If you got a large bonus, it might be that AC somehow messed up its fare table in a way where they paid UA for a more expensive ticket.

Checked in for flight tomorrow, no options for same day flight change! Definitely something has changed.

Need cities and fare class to help figure out if SDC isn't available because of fare inventory or because there might be an issue. But I'll bet right now it's simply your fare class not being available for flights within 24 hours of check-in.

-RM