{"id":21202,"date":"2024-11-01T21:49:48","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T21:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/?p=21202"},"modified":"2024-11-01T21:49:49","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T21:49:49","slug":"take-advantage-of-airlines-same-day-change-policy-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/2024\/11\/01\/take-advantage-of-airlines-same-day-change-policy-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Take advantage of airlines&#8217; same day change policy in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>From what I understand, &#8220;same-day standby&#8221; is a very common practice in North America, where airlines allow passengers to move to a different flight on the day if there&#8217;s availability. What you may not know is, such a thing also exists in Europe, although airlines don&#8217;t proactively advertise it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[British Airways]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>British Airways is possibly the vanguard in this area, and there&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/british-airways-executive-club\/1771960-faq-same-day-changes-sdc-free-change-day-fcod-ba-tickets.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">a lengthy thread on Flyertalk<\/a> where people share their experiences. In order to make use their Free Change on the Day (FCOD) policy, there are certain rules:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Short-haul <strong>direct <\/strong>flights only<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Revenue flights only, so no Avios ticket<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Excluding Economy Basic \/ Hand Baggage Only fare &#8211; Economy Plus and all Club Europe tickets are okay<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>FCOD opens at midnight local time* and closes one hour before departure<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You can request a free change to another available flight of the same route on the same day<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>You may be able to change the airport (e.g. from LHR to LGW) but that comes with a fee<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that there are data points suggesting it&#8217;s actually midnight UK time instead of local time, at least in some cases. Bad news if you are travelling from Europe as it won&#8217;t be open until 1am or 2am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[Aegean]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Aegean has a very similar same-day change (SDC) policy, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.aegeanair.com\/plan\/fare-rules\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">written in the fare rules<\/a>. You&#8217;ll find some discussions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/aegean-airlines-miles-bonus\/2026211-business-class-free-same-day-changes.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">on Flyertalk<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fare applies to ComfortFlex and Business Class fares (excluding Business Basic), so less generous than BA. I flew Aegean recently and got a chance to test it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The SDC option prompted after midnight Greece time when I started online check-in, available on both web and app.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/aegean-same-day-flight-change-example.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"478\" src=\"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/aegean-same-day-flight-change-example.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-21268\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/aegean-same-day-flight-change-example.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/aegean-same-day-flight-change-example-300x179.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/aegean-same-day-flight-change-example-768x459.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Note that you must do it via online check-in. The &#8220;change flight&#8221; button in manage booking only brings up paid options. Although I didn&#8217;t proceed, it looked very straightforward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>[SAS]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SAS allows same-day flight change on short-haul Plus Pro tickets and for Diamond members. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flyertalk.com\/forum\/sas-eurobonus\/2171163-same-day-change-sk.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" title=\"\">You can find a guide on Flyertalk here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The option is available from around 22 hours before departure, instead of &#8220;on the same day&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Most OTA bookings are ineligible<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Award bookings are eligible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Same day flight change is a nice gesture from the airline, with which you can book a cheaper flight of the day and hope to change it later, if it&#8217;s worth the gamble. Interesting to see if more airlines (notably Lufthansa and Air France) will add this feature in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From what I understand, &#8220;same-day standby&#8221; is a very common practice in North America, where airlines allow passengers to move to a different flight on the&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145,17,40,168],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-21202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aegean","category-british-airways","category-europe","category-sas","tag-airline-promotion"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21202"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21270,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21202\/revisions\/21270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.verylvke.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}