zambonisk

IIRC its 4 hours before the new flight you wish to take, not the original flight. I know that I've done this many times, now if that's only an elite benefit I don't know, since I've never paid the $25 (now $50) fee since its waived for 1Ks and GS.

anc-ord772

3 weeks ago I was told via the phone and at ORD that it was 4 hours before my scheduled flight. I was well within the 4 hours of the flight I wanted to take. I am currently not an elite. I hope I was not lied to.

WineCountryUA

As stated in post #1 and on the United site
Alternate flights must be scheduled to depart within four hours of your request; flights outside of four hours do not qualify and the existing change fee policy applies

It is easy to be confused since within 4 hours of original departure might seem more logical but it is up to 4 hours before the desired flight (but same day as original departure)

So if the agent said it was the orginal departure time then

anc-ord772

That makes sense, the agent on the phone said this but was over ruled by the agent at ORD.

anc-ord772

From my United email yesterday;

Request a same-day flight change at an EasyCheck-in kiosk or at EasyCheck-in Online. You can choose from available seats on an alternate flight to the same destination departing within four hours of the time of your request. If an eligible seat is available, your change will be confirmed and you will be charged a $25.00 fee.

Guess someone didn't get the message.

itsme

I would tell you to print that email out so you could insist upon paying no more than $25 the next time this comes up for you, but most of the time you are calling on the phone to set up the confirmed standby, not doing it at the airport where the email in hand might be useful to have.

anc-ord772

True, but good tip.

gobluetwo

and upon insisting, i'd give a snowball's chance in phoenix in july that the agent would show any sort of leeway on the $50 fee.

Explore

Let's say I'm booked on a 9:00 a.m. flight. I want to fly at 7:00 p.m. in a market where UA has 9 or 10 departures per day on the same nonstop routing. At 7:00a I call to confirm an 11:00 a.m. flight. Then at 10:00a I call to confirm a 2:00 p.m. flight. And so on through the day until my desired flight at 7:00 p.m. I'm not concerned about multiple fees, since I don't pay them as a 1K. I would do it to assure space on a flight that day, as late as possible. Will UA allow this?

Also some other questions:

- Would UA ever permit confirmed standby via a connection, if the booking is nonstop?

- If already confirmed for an upgrade on the original flight, will they ever carry over that confirmation to the confirmed standby flight, if space available?

- If not doing the repeat calling thing, is it best not to check in for the original flight, but just miss it and call for confirmed standby later in the day?

Thx.

paulwlee

Yes.
No. (Exceptions might be possible although rare, but only at the airport.)
No. (Although they will probably ask whether you would like to upgrade/be put on the upgrade list.)
Not sure, although I do it every now and then and never had a problem.

You may also be able to change flights multiple times through online checkin using the same method you're thinking about, although I've never tried. Maybe I'll try next time.

One thing though is that since you can only change flights into one that has H availability, flights need to be not too full throughout the day. In such a situation, just checking loads using seatcounter or some such and then just calling in the afternoon will usually work just as well. And if H disappears in the interim, you'll still be able to get on with regular standby since you are 1K. The only thing you are guarding against by calling continuously is a cancelled flight pouring passengers onto other flights, which may or may not be a concern for you depending on how certain you have to be of your flight time.

LAX UA 1K

Confirmed standby is only for your ticketed routing. You can do regular standby on another routing by asking at the airport, but changing to a connection may be risky as you might not get a seat from the connecting city.

Once you are confirmed on the new flight you can request the upgrade and if NF/NC space is open you will get it immediately. If not, you will be on the waitlist or DM list. Many agents will notice your upgrade and try to accomodate you.

If you are not planning to take your ticketed flight then don't check in for it. You can use the ticket up until midnight of the ticketed date (or cancel by that time to rebook).

Charles

Explore

Thanks for the information. However, I understand that the H class assignment is just a rebooking technicality. If there is more than one seat available on the flight, even if it's Y inventory, you get it but are assigned H (if original fare class is less than H). Also, I hear that relying on seatcounter or ual.com for available seat inventory may be misleading, since the flight may be overbooked and you will not score a seat in that case, even if there are seats for sale. And yes, the repeat calling is indeed to guard against a flight cancellation.

paulwlee

This may be true, although my experience points otherwise, I wasn't paying too much attention.
Does anyone know for sure?

If there are lots of lower booking classes it's usually never overbooked.
Of course things can change fast when there are reroutes or cancellations, like a few months ago when I watched all the JFK-SFO flights go from 9's to 0's within an hour during the Chicago storms.

It's not foolproof, but it's a very good way to gauge seat availability if you know its limitations.
(Just not for asking questions on FT like "It's showing Y9, is it safe to standby?" )

United737522

So would there be any possibility of going to SNA as opposed to LAX on this confirmed stby? Anyone done it before? I know the rules say no, but I know agents can override this. What about regular stby?

itsme

If you don't call in advance of departure to say that you are going to miss the flight or show up out of breath at the ticket counter within two hours of the scheduled departure, don't you stand the risk of having your ticket canceled and receiving nothing in return for it?