An agent can absolutely put you onto ORD-IAH-PHL, but I don’t know that they would. I’d want to prepare a decent reason as to why the ORD-IAH-PHL routing was the best choice available.

Doubtful. App may most likely give you ORD-IAD-PHL if your fare class is available. If you beg an agent on phone, your chance of success for ORD-IAH-PHL is small. Just give a try! Good luck.

How about “my in-laws fly from IAH to PHL on Sunday afternoon and they need some help?”

But, as you pointed out, it’s not within the rules; you’re asking them to break a fare rule on your behalf. I mean, they could route you ORD-FRA-PHL too, but that’s even less likely.

OK, as you properly inferred, then, it breaks a routing rule.

UA9198 departs Frankfurt daily at 12:55 PM and arrives in Philadelphia at 4:10 PM. (Operated by Lufthansa, obviously.

The Island Hopper is a direct flight (same flight number), so as long as you’re not making a stopover en route, there’s no difference between the non-stop and multi-stop routings from HNL to GUM. Technically, UA should collect a fare difference when someone does this, as there’s a special surcharge in the various fares to Asia / Guam that gets activated when you take the Hopper — but that’s the only rule being broken in that example.

Agents have the ability to put you upon just about any flight for any reason that they can defend if they get audited. So, if you’re ticketed from ORD to PHL, and you want to route via IAD, that’s within the rules and doesn’t require a reason. If you ask to go ORD-CLE-IAD-PHL, that’s one more transfer than permitted by the rules, but it’s travel in the right direction and if it was the only thing that was available, or it fit your schedule better, or whatever, it’s likely you could get that done. (Maybe ORD-IAD is full, etc.)

But when you ask to fly via IAH, you’re adding 231% to the traveled distance (2249 miles vs. 678 miles). There are going to be a ton of options that are clearly better by any measure except PQMs. There are only two ways I can see that working — your original flight is cancelled and there’s no alternative that gets you in earlier, or all of the ORD-PHL, ORD-EWR, and ORD-IAD flights are full and you’re able to convince the agent that you need to get out of town ahead of the storm.

Anything outside of the routing rules requires an agent to do a manual override, waiver or otherwise.

Sort of? SDC isn’t technically any more flexible by rule. In practice, though, the app is sometimes pretty flexible for SDC. That’s been less true recently, but you may still get some higher-PQM options. As soon as you have to call an agent, though, the waiver and SDC are going to be treated the same — you need a convincing reason to get an agent to help you.

Exactly. I mean, you can always ask, and the other example in the thread — “I’d like to meet someone who’s on another flight” — isn’t terrible either. But timing is by far the easiest to defend, since it’s pretty easy to make a case that a change which gets you to your destination as quickly as possible is a reasonable one.