New to this particular realm of FlyerTalk so sorry for asking what's probably an obvious and/or oft-asked question.
Flew JFK-LAX today and the reps were looking for volunteers to take a later flight in exchange for $600 in Delta Dollars. However, they could only guarantee a flight for the next day, and could only offer to put volunteers on the standby list for same day flights. Absolutely needed to make it to LA before the guaranteed flight would get me in so turned it down, but immediately regretted it after landing in my seat.
Was curious if folks agree that I should've just tried standby or if I made the safe decision here. There were still five more direct flights out of JFK that day (though there was some nasty weather on the way). The rep discouraged folks from taking the offer if they had anywhere to be, so I assumed it was going to be a challenge getting off the standby list. I have no status, though don't know if that would've factored into it or if I would've jumped to the top of the standby list.
Would appreciate your thoughts for future reference, and again, sorry for the banality of my question.
I got 600 for dtwyul a couple of weeks ago. It was the first request for the GA and new flights was 3 hrs later. I jumped and got rerouted to a sched I wanted.
If you had to be in LA at a certain time, you made the right decision.
I have been reading that east coast flights have been a mess the last couple of days because of weather problems. The fallout from that was probably still in effect today, combined with whatever delays were occurring today.
New to this particular realm of FlyerTalk so sorry for asking what's probably an obvious and/or oft-asked question.
Flew JFK-LAX today and the reps were looking for volunteers to take a later flight in exchange for $600 in Delta Dollars. However, they could only guarantee a flight for the next day, and could only offer to put volunteers on the standby list for same day flights. Absolutely needed to make it to LA before the guaranteed flight would get me in so turned it down, but immediately regretted it after landing in my seat.
Was curious if folks agree that I should've just tried standby or if I made the safe decision here. There were still five more direct flights out of JFK that day (though there was some nasty weather on the way). The rep discouraged folks from taking the offer if they had anywhere to be, so I assumed it was going to be a challenge getting off the standby list. I have no status, though don't know if that would've factored into it or if I would've jumped to the top of the standby list.
Would appreciate your thoughts for future reference, and again, sorry for the banality of my question.
Nope...I turned down $600 this year also, best decision I ever made . Time is money for some and it isn't always worth it. The rebooked flight ended up going MX, BAAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!
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You needed to get to your destination in a set time frame. Delta could not confirm you in this timeframe.
There's only one choice to make here, unless your "need" isn't anything close to firm. This goes triple as a non-status pax, but even as a top elite who would jump to the top of standby lists, if you have a set schedule to make it'd be foolish to move over to an unconfirmed itinerary.
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JFK was a total mess again today because of the heavy rain this afternoon.
It's always a serious gamble when they tell you that they can only put you on standby for the rest of the day. Would you have cleared? No one knows the answer for sure but I'd bet it's better than 50% today. Why? Because of the weather there would have been a lot of misconnects at JFK. You probably would have gotten on an afternoon flight that wound up delayed due to the weather.
But you can never be certain. And if you had to be somewhere in LA at a certain time then you made the right choice by taking the flight you already had a seat on. $600 in DL dollars is nice but worthless if you miss your appointment.
-RM
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As a former FO, I've taken the money deal once, and insisted on protected seats beyond the 'standby on the next flight'. The GA had no problem arranging that, but I still made it onto the next flight out, protection unneeded. That was for $200, and I didn't mind the extra 2 hours in the SC to get more work done.
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It sounds like the GA was not offering a hotel room as part of the deal and this could be seriously expensive (for the quality) when IROPs hit JFK. The $600 would probably have been in the form of three $200 vouchers that cannot be combined or transferred.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
It sounds like the GA was not offering a hotel room as part of the deal and this could be seriously expensive (for the quality) when IROPs hit JFK. The $600 would probably have been in the form of three $200 vouchers that cannot be combined or transferred.
The last $600 voucher received for a domestic was one $600 voucher. And yes a hotel would be an issue but the options as described included stand by on a flight the same day.
. Time is money for some and it isn't always worth it. The rebooked flight ended up going MX, BAAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!
