What are our chances?
 

I originally booked a direct flight from DFW to Provo, T&C with American Airlines. They have dropped the direct and put us through Miami with a four hour layover. I noticed they have a flight which has only a one hour & 10 minute layover. I do not want to switch to the shorter layover flight. (We have had a horrible experience with a flight from DFW through Miami with a one hour layover that was delayed out of DFW causing us to miss our connection. We had to spend the night in Miami and miss a day of our long awaited Caribbean vacation. :( ) My question is this: if we should arrive in plenty of time to make the earlier flight, and provided they have available seats, would they let us fly out on that earlier flight if we were to ask?

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question but I was just thinking about it today and thought I would see if this is something that is ever even done. I know our luggage would stay on the regular flight, but the airport is maybe 15 minutes from the hotel, so it's worth it if we can arrive a lot earlier.

Airlines often will let you fly stand-by on an earlier flight if you are nice and polite and ask - my husband has done this on business many times. Do not know if, however, the fact that it is an international flight will make a difference.

I think AA will put pax in an earlier int'l flight if there are still seats available. You need to go to the gate for the earlier flight and tell the gate agent. However, I don't know if they allow that if you have checked luggage. I'm pretty sure it won't be a problem if you have carryon only, but since airlines prefer luggages to fly out with the pax on the same flights, they may not let you stand-by for the earlier flight due to checked luggage.

Thank you for your reply. It's good to know it is a possibility. I didn't want to rush to get there to ask if there's not even a chance. I won't get my hopes too high though!

Thank you also yk. We will have checked luggage. I'll give it a try just in case(if we even arrive in time). It's good to know that I won't be asking an absurd question.

Call the airline the day before and ask how the earlier flight looks like, I mean whether it is already fully booked or if still some seats available. They have probably booked you on the later flight because the earlier flight is already full !

Ticket rules are fixed but human beig sometime is flexible so you may try stand-by for the earlier flight. I do not see any reason why they would not board you on the earlier flight if they still have empty seats, except for the checked luggage issue......but if you have checked luggage to the final destination and you make it for the earlier flight from Miami then you have to wait the luggage at destination from the later flight!!!!! Is it really worth ?

Thanks Fabio. Yes, since our hotel is so close to the airport and we will have a rental car I think it will be worth it to have a few extra hours in paradise. We've been before and would enjoy arriving before sunset instead of after it, if possible. I would ask now about changing if we hadn't had such a disappointing experience before. When we missed out connection there was a later flight out, but it was full so we couldn't go on it. We had to spend the night in Miami. I swore to avoid that scenario again if at all possible. I don't have my heart set on it, just investigating our possible options. I appreciate your input.

I see now my fault that I had not read your first post completely till the end.. with the car and hotel close to the arport I would definitely try the earlier flight, but as gail wrote, be nice and polite when you ask it. All depends on the seats availability but also on the counter agent in front of you !!!

A couple of points. There are lots of AA flights from DFW to MIA, so chances are very good there will be open seats on an earlier flight into MIA. Since they changed your itinerary on you they will rebook you at no cost to you. Do some research so you know all your options from DFW to MIA (or San Juan), then on to T&C.

Second, at least for domestic flights AA is quite reasonable with same day standbys. For no cost you can just show up and put your name on a standby list, and if there are seats available (after paying passengers and FFs with higher standing than you get dibs), they you're good to go. They also have a $25 guaranteed same day standby. I forget the exact rules, but I believe you can call ~12hrs before your schedule departure, and for $25 only get a guaranteed seat on a same day flight.

I do one or the other quite frequently when I travel for work and my last day schedule changes.

I have no idea if they'll do that for an international flight.

If at all possible try to go with just carryon luggage. You really don't need much in Provo. Provo is very casual. Also, go to AA.com and look at the flight and see if there are any seats open. If it's sold out you can forget about it. If there are seats, then run, do not walk, to that gate and try to get on that flight. Supposedly, passengers and luggage go on the same flight. That might be your problem - but if you have carryon luggage - two each, you'll be OK.

I think it's highly unlikely that they'd let you stand by for MIA-Provo and fly without your luggage. The better options, which others have mentioned, are to ask AA to rebook you onto an earlier DFW-MIA flight or trying to stand by for the earlier DFW-MIA flight if you can't rebook. (Have you considered the possibility of flying DFW-MIA the night before, e.g. after work, and staying overnight at the airport before continuing on to Provo?)

Another alternative, if you can't rebook and have too much luggage to check is to look into having your luggage sent on ahead via a courier service, so that you can fly standby with carry-on only.