Mileage Run Discussion - Flying standby during segment run

This weekend I have a segment run which takes me ORD-CLT-IAD-PIT-PHL-CLT-ORD all for $143.00 on a mixture of UA and US.

My question is: should I try to fly standby on earlier flights during the run? I'm thinking yes, of course, why wouldn't I? It would just mean I might be able to complete the segment run quicker and limit the risk of potential delays.

Are there reasons why I should not try to fly standby during the segment run? Is it possible that flying standby could potentially mess up my routing?

Are there reasons why I should not try to fly standby during the segment run? Is it possible that flying standby could potentially mess up my routing?

If a flight is overbooked, you may want to try for the bump rather than go early.

Flip-side questions: would you be trashed by a 30 minute delay along the way ??
If a flight went cx, do you have a backup routing to get home, and still claim original-routing credit ??

/.

Congrats on finding a reasonably priced segment run! I cannot think of any reason when getting to a connection early could hurt you. I would be very surprised if you were able to get all of your flights early, but you never know.

I believe US Air charges for standby, even if there's room. I'm not positive about this, so you may want to research it.

A backup route is a must, especially when US is involved. If you wake up and see there is rain or snow near any of the cities involving your US flights, you can count on delays. Especially PHL. I hope this doesn't happen to you.

This is my first segment run ever. I never thought about a backup route. How should I go about planning a backup?

The standby fee is waved for Silver & higher.

Even when doing a MR, I always try to take the flight's that's leaving now, rather than to wait for my later-scheduled flight... in case that one runs late or CX'ed.

JP

Does US waive the fee for *A Silver & higher?

The first thing to do for planning a backup route is to download the schedules for both UA & US. But to be honest, every airport on your route will have a direct flight to ORD, so you should be OK. By having the schedules handy, you can suggest flights to the agent if they can't book you on a direct flight.

In my experience, any missed segments on US flights will *not* count towards EQS and you won't be able to claim original routing credit on them. The UA flights you should be able to. If I am wrong on this, somebody please correct me, but I tried to do this on an all-US flight and got the segments flown, not originally booked.

I don't think they do. Because the OP was going through a lot of US hubs, I thought he was after US miles. My bad.

JP
Does US waive the fee for *A Silver & higher?

As soon as you have the opportunity to catch a flight get outta there... especially if US is involved in the itinerary !

Do they really charge for standby?

I cant say if you can claim original routing credit on UA/US but I never had problems on AA. A bump voucher on a segment/mileage run is always difficult to take. If you are positive you get original routing go for it if offered, otherwise no way !

They charge 25$ to non-silver-or-above.

JP
As soon as you have the opportunity to catch a flight get outta there... especially if US is involved in the itinerary !

Do they really charge for standby?

I cant say if you can claim original routing credit on UA/US but I never had problems on AA. A bump voucher on a segment/mileage run is always difficult to take. If you are positive you get original routing go for it if offered, otherwise no way !

Just to clarify, I believe you cannot request original routing mileage (or segments) on US flights credited to UA MP. If flying UA flights, I'm pretty sure it's possible, but I've never had to do it. Since OP is on a mix of US & UA flights, I'm not sure how that would workout.

There is another thread going on right now in the United forum about the US $25 standby fee. My understanding is that if the flight you're wanting to standby for is full, they'll let you standby. If there is space available, they want you to pay $25. Unbelievably stupid, but that's US for ya...