American recently implemented a very valuable benefit for their top-tier elites, allowing free within-24 hours changes for all Executive Platinum members. I consider Same Day Confirmed Changes one of the most valuable, money-saving elite perks.
The benefit is in full-swing, and users are reporting lots of success and ease of use, which is really great to hear. Previously, Executive Platinums could only same-day standby for a flight, which was frustrating since it didn’t guarantee a confirmed seat. Now, changes are confirmed.
I find the benefit most useful for when booking tickets within 24 hours of departure. Here’s why:
Let’s take a look at a Washington Reagan to JFK trip.
The 6:10p departure is $308 (this is round-trip with a flight returning 2 days later), while the 7:27p is $237 (again, round-trip with a flight 2 days later). If you want to fly on the 6:10p, but don’t want to pay the extra $70, here’s where 24-hour free confirmed changes come in real handy.
Book the cheaper $237 fare, knowing well you’re about to have it changed. Once booked, call the Executive Platinum desk and ask for the free 24-hour change to the 6:10p. Because you know there are seats still available, you know you’ll get the change. The agent will change the flight for you, for free, and you’ve now just saved yourself $70, rather than confirming it at time of booking. I find it easier to use this feature over the phone, but online options exist as well, though I’ve found they often say “no options are available,” when, in reality, there are plenty.
Look how much money you’ve saved using this benefit, and by not booking your desired flight at the time of ticketing!
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
You should probably clarify that changing it in this way will only work if you’re booking within 24 hours of that new flight you want to take, and that just because there are seats available does not mean it’s available for Same Day Confirmed Change.
True, true. It needs to be in E class, as I was recently told. So, searching on AA in combination with searching on Expert Flyer will yield the results you need to make a decision.
Looks like someone already beat me to it, but no doubt “seats available” doesn’t mean “SDC available”. In fact, I’d say quite frequently you’ll find seats available but AA won’t have inventory for the confirmed change.
This pretty much comes down to having an ExpertFlyer account where one can access this data, it seems like.
Not necessarily. AAgents will tell you if there’s inventory if you call. You can confirm availability that way and then book.
A littlE misleading here. You could awlways do a confirms flight change, but had to pay $75. Only change is that it is now free for EPs. This came from the US side of the house where it is free — although only available at the airport within 6 hours of departure I believe. AA decided to align the monetary aspects early but keep the 2 seperate processes until integration.