Air Canada Same Day Change (SDC) policy is incredibly generous, and I often use it to save money on revenue tickets and elevate my travel experience.

For more of my experiences, tips and tricks about using Air Canada Same Day Change, check out the following posts:

This article is based on my experience and my client experiences as I help them navigate the Air Canada Same Day Change policy to their advantage.

Other posts about saving money include:

What is a Same Day Change?

I encourage you to read this article to know everything about Air Canada Same Day Changes.

Walk-Through of How to Save Money with an Air Canada Same Day Change

In the picture below, I can purchase a Business Class ticket for $757 to $2,485. The price variation is a reflection of the product offering and available seat options.

Pricing for Vancouver to Montreal

If I had flexibility on day of travel, I would purchase the cheapest Business Class ticket for $757 departing at 1.10pm. That would be just a $226 premium over Premium Economy. Assuming there are open seats available at time of check-in, I can always SDC to the 9.05am flight. The morning departure flight would have costed me $2,485. By leveraging the SDC, I saved $1,727 for my customer.

In general, you will find, that the Business Class fare on Air Canada is dependent if your flight has lie-flat seats. Air Canada charges a significant premium for Business Class that have lie-flat seats. Alternatively, if your aircraft has domestic Business Class, it is not significantly more expensive than the Premium Economy option. In those situations, it makes sense to book the cheapest Business Class option and then do a SDC to a cabin with lie-flat seats.

Conclusion

As part of my travel agent work, I have leveraged SDC all the time to help my customers save money and allow them to maintain dynamic day of departure plans.

All savvy travelers should be aware of this trick, that will often allow them to save hundreds of dollars if they were buying Premium Economy regardless.

For some of my customers, I do not think of this as a way to save money. Rather, I consider using Air Canada SDC to get a complimentary upgrade from premium economy to international Signature Class instead.