Last month, my daughter took a trip out to California. I had booked her an award ticket to come back home on American Airlines, flying from Sacramento (SMF) to Cincinnati (CVG), with a stop in Dallas (DFW). There were several options, but the most expensive one left Sacramento around 6 pm Pacific time and had about a 8 hour layover in Dallas before leaving Dallas at 6:30pm. Now while hanging out at the Capital One Lounge DFW would be a great way to spend 8 hours, my daughter understandably would have preferred getting home earlier.
Going for a Same-Day Change
There were 2 earlier flights from Dallas to Cincinnati that were possibilities, but the cost was significantly higher (2 or 3 times the cost of the later flight). So I figured that I would book the cheaper flight and then try to do a same-day change. Best case, she would get on the earlier flight and get home earlier. Worst case, she’d have to hang out in the Capital One lounge.
Screwing Up the Same-Day Change
My problem is that I didn’t realize that I had to do the same-day change before she took off for her first flight. I waited until she had landed at her connecting airport in Dallas. Then, when I went into either aa.com or through the mobile app to do a same-day change, it told me that there were no flights available, even though there were 2 earlier flights from Dallas to Cincinnati that still had space available.
And if I tried to change the trip, it said that I couldn’t do it.
American Saves The Day
When she landed in Dallas, there was only about an hour before the first flight from Dallas to Cincinnati was scheduled to take off. I had her go to the gate of that flight to talk to the gate agent.
At the time, American had told its gate agents that all same-day changes had to be done through the app or website (they’ve since walked back that rule), but I figured it couldn’t hurt. And sure enough, they put her on the standby waitlist, and she cleared easily.
She was excited to be home 6 hours earlier than she could have been!
The Bottom Line
I screwed up a same-day change for my daughter by not requesting it before she took off on her first flight. In hindsight, that seems kind of obvious, so I’m a bit embarrassed that I didn’t realize it. But thankfully, a friendly American Airlines gate agent saved the day and got her home 6 hours ahead of schedule.
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at
What is happening with you bloggers?! You, Matthew Klint, and Anthony Losanno all suddenly went from full feeds on RSS to partial. Now a lot of us don’t get to read the posts if we can’t get to the page! PLEASE GO BACK! (Gary does too, but he can’t stop using EXCLAMATION MARKS 8 TIMES A POST, so it’s cool if he doesn’t… 😉