I made another rookie error yesterday. Learn from my mistake.
First a bit of background. Yesterday was United’s Open House and Family Day in San Francisco and I decided to attend at the last minute (a few days before the event). That involved finding airfare from PHL to SFO that wouldn’t break the bank–an arduous task when traveling within 72 hours on a Sunday.
PHL-SFO-PHL priced out at over $400 each way, far too much for my budget, but PHL-SFO-SNA-SFO-PHL (on the identical PHL-SFO-PHL flights) priced out at only $260 each way. That was acceptable so I booked a morning o/w from PHL-SFO-SNA and a late evening return from SNA-SFO-PHL, with the SFO-PHL flight being a redeye.
That itinerary, of course, does not bode well for spending a day in San Francisco so my next task was finding the optimal flights to take between SFO and SNA. I determined that the SFO-SNA flight leaving at 2:54p and making an immediate turn back for SFO would be the ideal combination, allowing me to visit the Open House in the morning/early afternoon, fly down to Orange County, and fly back in time for the large Flyertalk dinner at 6pm.
When I got to SFO yesterday morning, I asked to be put on standby for the 2:54p flight to SNA (I was confirmed on the 10:35a flight). The 2:54p flight (operated by a CR7) was zeroed out, but only oversold by two so I did not sweat clearing the standby list. Much to the bemusement of the customer service agent who helped with my standby, I also asked him to move up my confirmed 8:30p flight from SNA-SFO to 4:55p. He complied, but because the flight was more than three hours away (though wide open in Y and with three seats for sale in F) he only put me on standby.
Have I lost you yet? When I returned to the airport at 2:15p to catch my flight down to SNA, I forgot to stop in the Red Carpet Club or at a customer service counter to get confirmed on the 4:55p SNA-SFO flight (confirming my seat would allow me to go on the upgrade waitlist). Fast forward an hour and half. I reach SNA at 4:20p, 15 minutes before scheduled boarding for the flight back to SFO. As I approach the counter in the small commuter bungalow, I see that the agent has already cleared upgrades into first class–a Premier Executive and a couple Premiers. If I had only confirmed my seat in SFO, a benefit of 1K status, I would have scored the upgrade.
I wasn’t terribly disappointed. After all, we’re talking about a 55-minute flight on a regional jet. Nevertheless, economy seat width is narrow and I would have liked the extra space. I should have known better. Had this been a four hour SNA-ORD flight instead, I would have really been bummed.
So to sum up this rambling: 1Ks on United get free confirmed same-day changes if seats are available and the flight you desire (same routing) departs within three hours. Take advantage of this perk if you want to increase your chances for an upgrade.
Wow, what a long day. You’ve got more hutzpah than me for the standby game. Nice job, though… coach was your “punishment” for forgetting to do the same-day change, I guess.
[Side note: I experimented once with a multi-segment itinerary that I checked-in for, but didn’t fly (value of ticket was <$150). After each flight departed, the system offloaded me for the next segment, but I could re-checkin online again. That brings up some interesting possibilities for the future…]
I had a blast at the UA event, too. Missed the dinner.
I believe the confirmed same-day standby thing requires seats in the H-bucket to be available. Forget where I read that, probably FlyerTalk.
Just do remember consequences of breaking fare/CoC. 10:35am to 2:54pm changes your SFO stop from a layover to a stop over. Unless your fare permitted this (unlikely), this voids your ticket. Thus if you got a more thorough GA you might have had to pay more to get back.
Misnomer/oxymoron – don’t call it “free confirmed standby”, that just gets CSRs/pax confused. Call it “same day confirmed change”, call it “3 hour advance change” – just not “standby” (as if you’re confirmed, you’re not standing by; if you’re standing by, you’re not really confirmed).
@Darren: You are correct-H is required. I had that info in the draft post, then I thought it might confuse people further!
@Oleg: I hear you, but UA is so loose with standby (IME at least) that I don’t sweat it. Now if I was dealing with FT’s “fastair” in ORD, that would be another story…
UA has no problem, for example, clearing you on a 6am flight from LAX to IAD even if you’re confirmed on the redeye with a connection the following morning, so I don’t see any qualms with standing by for a later flight–and accepting the fact that you are standing by, which means you might have to wait..and wait…and wait to get on a flight.
In my case yesterday, I was on two separate tickets. PHL-SNA and SNA-PHL.
@UA-NYC: Good call. I’ve edited the post and title to avoid confusion.
@Matthew – Have you noticed that CO Plats are offered the ability to do a free confirmed change any time during the online check-in window (24 hours ahead) and that the website will show yu alternate flights with available space? I find that 24 hours is much more useful than 3 hours… I hope this survives the merger over the smaller 3 hour window. For that matter did you check PHL-IAH-SFO on CO befroe booking the UA flights?
@HunterSFO- I did not notice that–that’s a great way to possibly help upgrade chances. This merits a separate post next week. Wish CO would stop selling the cheap upgrades to GMs…
I did see that PHL-IAH-SFO was a little cheaper than UA, but I had a voucher for UA! 🙂
I’m flying EWR-BRU tomorrow and back on Sunday. Maybe something will go wrong and I’ll get some CO e-currency!