I just flew home last night and thought I'd share one of my favorite money-saving travel hacks: the 24hr standby and same-day confirmed flight change. This time, it saved me $179 on a one-way ticket on American Airlines.
Here's how the thinking goes: I wanted to buy a one-way ticket from Miami to NY. But I didn't want to pay the $379 fare for the primo evening nonstop. (I was shopping about 36hrs in advance.)
There were connecting fares available for $200. The total travel time would be 5hrs instead of 3 1/2.
So that's what I bought, with this master plan in mind: American allows what they call "same-day standby and same-day confirmed changes" which you can request anywhere within 24hrs of your flight. For non-elites, it's a charge of $75. For elites, standby is free and confirmed change is the $75.
In markets where there are a ton of flight options between your origin and your destination, this is a really solid gamble. You can process the request online or on their app. I call, because then you can ask the agent how your chances look. In this case, the agent told me the nonstop flight I wanted wasn't sold out and that my standby chances looked good, so I didn't bother paying the $75 confirmed change fee. (A note: elites get pushed higher up the list, so as a Platinum, I knew I'd have a very good chance of getting one of the open seats.)
I didn't have to show up much earlier than my paid flight, so it's not like I was risking getting stuck at the airport for hours, if I hadn't gotten on.
I did get on. Granted, it was the dreaded middle seat, but to save nearly two hours' travel time and $200, I can make my peace with that.
Some key notes to make this work for you:
- Don't check a bag. If you check, it defeats the whole purpose of getting an earlier or faster flight because you'll just be stuck waiting for your bag at the other end, which will come on your later flight. If you've been living by my freelanceafarian rules, you know this one already. Carrying on is the only way to fly, people.
- Play this game when you can live with your original itinerary. Because even if you're willing to pay the $75 confirmed change, there might not be any seats available on your preferred flight and you might have to stick with your original, purchased itinerary.
- Call as close as you can to the full 24hrs in advance. Because obviously, if you're paying for the same-day confirmed change, you'll get first dibs on any open seats.
- Avoid gate sprints. When picking your standby flight, check or ask how close it will be to your original itinerary flight gate. If the standby flight is only minutes earlier than your original flight, and you don't get on, then you need those gates to be pretty close in order to make your original flight.
- Beggars can't be choosers. Be prepared that you may get a middle seat. And if you're elite, you probably won't get your upgrade. All okay by me, on short flights.
- Have Elite status, or aim to get it. All these hacks work even better when you've got status. I'll share some elite-earning hacks soon.
Okay, that's it for now. If you try this and it works, please come back and post your success in the comments!