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Comment by syedkarim | Hacker News Reader

The primary reason I spend more on United (from O'Hare), which is consistently more expensive is the 24-hour change policy. After 50,000 butts-in-seats miles customers are able to change to another flight within 24-hours of the original, free of charge. This has been invaluable over the years, since I can easily add a meeting or buy the cheapest, most inconvenient flight and know (has only failed me once) I can change the ticket later.

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Southwest lets you (anyone, not just people with lots of miles) cancel up to 10 minutes before the flight time and you get all of your fare back as a credit you can use for your next purchase with no extra fee. A great feature and one of the many reasons I usually fly with Southwest. Wish other airlines did the same.

Note that with Southwest the cancellation credits are only good for 12 months from the original reservation.

Delta has the same. Free same day confirmed flight changes for open seats, as well as free stand by, once you hit platinum/diamond/gold.

I'd often use it to make un-bookable connections where you land and immediately get on a plane instead of the required amount of transfer time, and get faster times to destination than you could officially order, lol. Also often just bought the last flight of the day and went to the airport whenever I felt like it that day and took the next flight out.

[I believe] the 24 hour change is legally mandated for all the airlines.

https://www.consumerreports.org/consumerist/all-major-u-s-ai...

He's talking about 24 hours before the flight takes place. The 24 hr rule for purchases is us law.

Changing your flight within 24 hours of purchasing it is different than changing to a flight within 24 hours of the original.

The latter doesn't need to happen within 24 hours of purchase.

As others have noted, this is not the same thing.

What the parent was talking about is usually called "same-day change" (abbreviated "SDC"), and is in fact only available free of charge to passengers who have a minimum status level within the frequent-flyer program.

Another related perk is the "guaranteed seat" -- the ability to purchase a ticket within 24 hours of the flight, and receive a guarantee that you will have a seat and will not be "bumped" due to overbooking (they'll bump someone else off the flight instead, if it comes to that). Which tends to kick in at the higher status tiers; back in my days of flying too much, I only used that perk once, and the last-minute ticket was expensive, but it was worth it to know I would get where I was going.

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