As a result of weather delays getting into PHL, the wife and I got switched to an RJ back to RIC. I stopped by the club in Terminal F (clearly the wost club in the place) and offered to switch to a later flight. My thinking was that the RJ was not yet at the gate, the weather was awful and I would get bounced to death and the 319 would get me a seat up front. Plus, the gate agent told me that the RJ was oversold by 2.

I advised the lady at the club if she would switch us. Suprisingly, she gave me a lot of grief about why I wanted to do it. I told her mostly that I had burned a certificate to get first and I didn't want to go on the RJ. She told me I could only switch if I paid $50 in standby fees. I pointed out that I was doing her a favor, since the flight was oversold, but she was adament. I declined to pay $50 and waited it out.

As you may have guessed, the flight eventually had to bump 13 pax because of weight. Instead of paying $50, I got two free tickets. Even better, processing the bumps took so long that the other flight actually got home 6 minutes before the RJ. So, bad customer service cost them two free tickets and I got there faster and got to ride up front. It was sweet.

It is awful nice to be on AA at times. I have on a couple of occassions wanted to change flights and as long as I was on standby there is no charge. In addition on one occassion at the AC I asked them to check the list for me and they looked and said "window or aisle", I said huh, and they said basically, we arent supposed to do this so soon but this thing is empty, youre a platinum and there is no point in making you keep coming back to check or worrying for 90 minutes so I forced a seat for you. Got me home 8 hours early and was REALLY appreciated. I just dont see the sense in the US policy. I forgot they still did this nonsense in fact.

[This message has been edited by GadgetFreak (edited Dec 14, 2003).]

US will nickle and dime even their best customers while AA has a much better idea: Treat your best customers very well and they will come back even more often.

United also has free standby, which makes so much sense. The standby charge might make sense in theory, because it forces extra revenue out of passengers, but almost always in the airline industry nothing is really in theory alone. As this example shows, it ends up costing the carrier more money. As my own example, a few weeks ago I was flying Chicago to Tampa on United. A snowstorm was predicted for later in the day, when I was planning on flying. I go to O'Hare, get on a much earlier flight that was lightly loaded (for free), and was no longer United's problem. Had I had to pay a fee, I would not have taken the earlier flight. The result? My flight would have been cancelled and I would have been a far greater head ache to United.

Not only is it a bad policy in general, but I'm pretty sure she was wrong in this case. According to their website, PHL was on a winter storm list that allowed me to change to any flight earlier or up to seven days later or even change my destination without charge. Usually the folks in the clubs are quite easy to deal with and accomodating, so I was quite suprised she gave me a bunch of attitude.

I thought your "gift" was that your flight departed on time and that you got your bags at your final destination. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by minnie:
I thought your "gift" was that your flight departed on time and that you got your bags at your final destination. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif</font>

No one can expect to get "two gifts" out of PHL.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by planeluvr:
No one can expect to get "two gifts" out of PHL.</font>

Really, get serious, that wouldnt be a gift, that would be a miracle.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by minnie:
I thought your "gift" was that your flight departed on time and that you got your bags at your final destination. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif</font>

I had to laugh out loud at this. We were actually 0-2 on that criteria. I'm guessing that they had to throw bags off the RJ to make weight. Didn't bother me, they had to deliver the bags to my porch and I didn't have to carry them to the parking garage.