Chart: changes to same day flight changes

If you arrive at the airport earlier than you expected, or your meeting runs late, you may need to travel on an earlier or later flight than you originally purchased. It used to be that airlines would let you go standby on a different flight on the same day as your original flight, without charging a fee. But on most airlines, Airfarewatchdog.com has learned, that perk has gone the way of free food and pillows. Here are the latest rules for same day confirmed and same day standby flight changes, and as you can see, all airlines have slightly different policies. And nor surprisingly, these fees have gone up on some airlines since we last checked. United and American increased their fee from $50 to $75, and JetBlue from $40 to $50. Frontier, however, actually lowered its fee for same day changes.

Airline	Fee for same day (non-confirmed) stand by	Fee for same day confirmed change	How to make change	Restrictions	Exceptions
Airtran	$0	$25 per segment	At airport only	None	No charge for fully refundable fares.
Alaska	Not available	$25 within 6 hours of departure only; otherwise, fee plus difference between current fare and fare originally paid	Airport kiosk and online	None	No charge for fully refundable fares or MVP Gold Mileage Plan members and their companions in the same reservation.
American	Not available	$50 $75	By phone or at airport within 12 hours of departure	Only for flights to/from the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean	No charge for fully refundable fares (whether revenue or AAnytime frequent flyer awards); elite passengers can standby for no charge, but they cannot same day confirm without the fee.
Delta	Not available	$50	Within 3 hours of scheduled departure time	U.S./Canada only	No charge for fully refundable fares or Delta Diamond, Platinum or Gold Medallions
Frontier	Available for free to Summit frequent flyers and those on Classic and Classic Plus fares	$25-50 depending on fare type	At airport only	None stated	“Summit” frequent flyers and those booking Classic and Classic Plus fares pay nothing
JetBlue	$0 but only for flight immediately prior	$40 $50	Same day change by phone or at airport beginning at midnight (in the time zone of departing flight) of same calendar day as original flight; standby starting 24 hours before original flight	Same day change not available for routes with just one flight/day	No charge for refundable fares
Southwest	Not applicable	Not applicable	At airport or by phone	There is no fee for a change, but you must pay any fare difference between original fare and last minute “walk up” fare	No charge for passengers booking Business Select or Anytime fares
United	$50 $75	$75	Confirmed change at airport or by phone; standby at airport only	U.S. and Canada for standby; United-only flights for same day confirmed whether domestic or international	No charge for fully refundable fares, for Global Services or MileagePlus Premier 1K, Premier Platinum, or Premier Gold flyers
US Airways	$0 but only if there is not an open seat on an earlier flight	$75	At airport only	U.S., Canada, Caribbean	Waived for all US Airways Preferred frequent flyers and travelers on refundable fares
Virgin America	$0 but only if there is an available seat on an earlier flight that day	$25-$50 depending on length of flight	At airport only.	None	Fully refundable fares can be changed without a fee.

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