I know that one of the many "improvements" rumored to the Dividend Miles program was to abolish standby travel on earlier flights when flying on an award ticket. Has anyone had problems with this yet? Couldn't find verbiage specifically barring this practice on the usairways.bomb site, but let's face it: I ain't exactly betting the house on what I can/can't find there. :eek:

Hmmm. I was actually coming over to FT myself just now to pose the same question. Since the rules on standby on US change about every time the wind changes direction, I've lost track of how the rules work on award travel.

I assume the $25 fee still applies for same day earlier standby? And that also means that on a connection flight that ALL legs are standby? (e.g. one flies from BOS-PHL after clearing standby and then must again standby for leg PHL-ATL?)

thanks for any accurate info you can share.

(drumroll, please)

YES, you can go standby on an award ticket, but...

NO, it can't be on a previous date or a later, same-day flight.

That is absolutely fair and allows my exact MO of scheduling the last (read: fewest miles needed to redeem) flight out I can, knowing I can go standby anytime earlier if need be.

As for the $25, not sure if they're supposed to charge you or not, but we all know that's so hit-and-miss anyway, I don't know if the "official" answer would be of any use to us.

is this standby policy still current in 2007 ?
Thanks !

is this standby policy still current in 2007 ?
Thanks !

Yes, same-day, earlier flight.

Yes, same-day, earlier flight.

I was able to go standby for a later flight.....10.5 hours later to be precise.

I didn't want to buy the Standard Award but I needed to leave after 5pm and the only Saver Seat was an 8am departure. The CP Angel told me to just reserve a seat on the 8am for the Saver price and then show up for the later 6:30pm flight. I double checked with her 3 times that later standby was in fact allowed. I got to the airport around 5pm and had no problem going standby for the 6:30pm (the plane was 1/2 full). No fees charged, no questions asked! :)

The only problem with flying standby these days is that every flight is packed, so you could concievably be sitting around all day and still end up on the flight you originally booked.

how about doing standby from/to a different airport in the same city ?
I have DCA-CLT-FLL ... can I try to standby for IAD-CLT-FLL ?

Thanks

how about doing standby from/to a different airport in the same city ?
I have DCA-CLT-FLL ... can I try to standby for IAD-CLT-FLL ?

Thanks

That gets tricky. Even though the fare rules state IAD/DCA/BWI are co-terminals they seem to only think they are co-terminals when it is in their benefit. :rolleyes: For paid travel certain fares are only valid from certain airports. This is especially true with BWI fares. I wouldn't risk doing standby at another airport unless you could get to your scheduled airport if they didn't allow you to standby at the co-terminal.

how about doing standby from/to a different airport in the same city ?
I have DCA-CLT-FLL ... can I try to standby for IAD-CLT-FLL ?

Thanks

They are cooperative airports and it shouldn't be a problem but there's less availability from IAD than there is from DCA. Given the choice, I'd stick with DCA since there are nonstops and connections to FLL.

(drumroll, please)

YES, you can go standby on an award ticket, but...

NO, it can't be on a previous date or a later, same-day flight.

That is absolutely fair and allows my exact MO of scheduling the last (read: fewest miles needed to redeem) flight out I can, knowing I can go standby anytime earlier if need be.

As for the $25, not sure if they're supposed to charge you or not, but we all know that's so hit-and-miss anyway, I don't know if the "official" answer would be of any use to us.

So this means ONLY same day earlier flights? What about internationals? Any standby?

I was able to go standby for a later flight.....10.5 hours later to be precise.

I didn't want to buy the Standard Award but I needed to leave after 5pm and the only Saver Seat was an 8am departure. The CP Angel told me to just reserve a seat on the 8am for the Saver price and then show up for the later 6:30pm flight. I double checked with her 3 times that later standby was in fact allowed. I got to the airport around 5pm and had no problem going standby for the 6:30pm (the plane was 1/2 full). No fees charged, no questions asked! :)

Wow, this would be a cool option if it's allowed ---- is it written anywhere, or is it just an acceptable practice that's not advertised? Anyone else standby later same day on an award?

Wow, this would be a cool option if it's allowed ---- is it written anywhere, or is it just an acceptable practice that's not advertised? Anyone else standby later same day on an award?

could this be simply a consequence of their rule that state there is no charge for changing an award ticket provided the cities and award type stay the same ... ? ( I believe I saw this recently on usair.com)
basically you have a ticket from origin to destination that you can change at will ....
if you show up for a different flight than the one you are booked on they make you go standby as mostlikely if its a saver award there would not be any available anymore ...

Booked a last-minute CLT-PIT-PHL-ISP award ticket at the saver level, thinking I could standby for an earlier CLT-BOS-ISP (preferable) or CLT-PHL-ISP itin (better, but still through PHL...)

1. TA said there was "no way" I could do this unless I wanted to upgrade to a premium FC award class, which was the only one available then on that flight. Apparently, you can't standby for an earlier flight with an award ticket unless that award bucket is still available (good luck on a saver award.)

However, if I was willing to cough up the 37.5k miles, going through BOS was no problem!

2. Club agent said I could standby on the BOS flight, but it was now full and I had to go to the gate (it had 8 seats when I left for the airport, per SeatCounter).

3. GA for BOS flight said I can't just "go around standing by for flights that connect in different cities." His rationale--I could only fly an earlier CLT-PIT-PHL-ISP routing, that even CLT-PHL-ISP wouldn't be an option.

4. Club agent 2 says that I should have been able to standby on an earlier flight (e.g, CLT-BOS-ISP), as long as number of segments is same or fewer than my original flight itin and that there were seats available--as a PP, I assume I would have had a good shot on getting on the CLT-BOS flight, as BOS-ISP was wide open and wasn't a consideration.

Um...does anyone know the policy? :confused::confused::confused: Can't find anything specific about award tix, so the only thing I have to go on is,
"Move up program
We allow you to 'move up' to any earlier flight on the same day of your originally scheduled departure time at the airport (with the exception of flights to Hawaii and Europe). You can only make day-of-departure changes at the airport (and not by calling Reservations).

If there is an open seat available on any earlier flight that departs on the same day as your originally scheduled departure, you may change to that flight and we will automatically confirm your reservation for $25 for flights within the 48 contiguous United States and $50 for flights to Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and Alaska. This lower confirmation fee replaces the usual $100 change fee, plus any differences between your old fare and new fare, for non-refundable tickets.

If there is not an open seat on an earlier flight that departs on the same day as your originally scheduled departure, you may stand by for that flight at no charge. Standing by at no charge is not permitted if we can confirm that there is an open seat available for that flight. Seats on completely booked flights may become available if passengers with confirmed reservations don't show up for the flight. Unlike a confirmed reservation, flying standby does not guarantee that you will get on the particular flight that you want and may involve waiting for two or more flights before a seat is available to you. "

BTW, being that this is US, they of course had to bump 1 PAX off of CLT-PIT. :rolleyes:

Luckily for him, one of the new "enhancements" to the r/t voucher that he would get as compensation is that he would now only be able to book in the same class as his ticket that he was being bumped from (???)

I can't wait until I burn through my miles and get as far away from US as I can...which won't be very far, living in CLT. :(

On March 8, I was on an award ticket TRI-CLT-LGA. My original CLT-LGA 11:30 a.m.-ish flight canceled and I was rebooked on an 8 p.m. flight. I was allowed to standby for two earlier flights without a charge and got on one of them.

But weren't you allowed to standby for earlier flights because it was irreg ops, me4yankees? The question is normal ops-what is the policy......seems to be imbedded in SHARES where no one can find it.

I cannot ever remember having an issue standing by no matter what the ticket type. I was told that one is not treated differently with an award ticket.

This is the link to a US Airways award ticket web page:
http://www.usairways.com/awa/content/dividendmiles/usemiles/booktravel.aspx

Below it there is a list of fees and it says that the standby fee is $25, but is waived for Platinum and Chairman's Preferred. So based on this page's information, standing by with an award ticket is $25 for everyone else.

Below it there is a list of fees and it says that the standby fee is $25, but is waived for Platinum and Chairman's Preferred. So based on this page's information, standing by with an award ticket is $25 for everyone else.


I noticed that--I thought any preferred member was exempt from the $25 "move up" fee for standing by for an earlier flight (award ticket or not)--has this been "enhanced" to only CP/PPs?!? There is no mention of this either way in the terms of the Move Up policy, as copied into my last post.

:(

The standby fee is good to know - as a gold, I thought it was waived for award tickets as well. Wonder if you could convince the GA to waive it anyway?

This brings up an interesting scenario I'm going through... I'm booking an award ticket for PHL -> LAS. The earlier flights are all 25k each way, but you can find flights towards the end of the day that are only 12.5k each way. I've wondered if it's possible to book the later flights (so, only 25k for the RT) and then get to the airport early enough for standby. Even with the $25 change fee, this would mean saving 12.5k on the leg - not a bad price to pay, provided the earlier flight has room available.