What did I/she do wrong? Declining standby seat cancels reservation
Oct 6, 2011, 9:28 am
#1
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What did I/she do wrong? Declining standby seat cancels reservation
A few days ago I was ticketed to fly AAA-BBB on the 4pm flight.
At online check in, I put myself on the standby list for the 1pm flight.
At the 1pm flight's gate, the agent called me up but the only thing left was a middle seat in row 837 so I said that I would decline and keep my confirmed seat on the 4pm flight (and on which the iPhone app had consistently been showing me as #1 on the upgrade list with 5 F seats available. Nice)
In a snippy way, she said, okay, I'll go to the next person.
I then happened to again check the flight status for the 4pm flight only to discover that I'm not anywhere on the upgrade list. Hmmmm....
Went to RCC and a very nice and competent agent worked on this and discovered that the agent at the 1pm gate had in fact canceled the rest of my reservation! (Not just the 4pm flight, but the onward segments after that as well).
He was able to get the 4pm flight (and the rest of the ticket) reinstated and was able to get my exit row aisle seat back. BUT, now I'm #10 on the upgrade list.
I went back to the 1pm gate where they were just finalizing the flight to talk to the agent who'd somehow made this mess. She was not available but a VERY nice and competent Service Director spent about 30 minutes going over the record and was multiply apologetic for what had happened. She said that the gate agent "took a shortcut" and wasn't supposed to have done what she did.
She also said that there was no way (she tried several things) that she could do to get my #1 upgrade priority back.
Not the end of the world, but kind of frustrating and I'm interested to know what you suspect the 1pm gate agent did wrong -- or what I did wrong. In the past, I've always been told that if you decline a standby seat your original confirmed seat stays confirmed and your order on the upgrade list for that confirmed flight is unchanged.
Obviously neither was the case this time.
At online check in, I put myself on the standby list for the 1pm flight.
At the 1pm flight's gate, the agent called me up but the only thing left was a middle seat in row 837 so I said that I would decline and keep my confirmed seat on the 4pm flight (and on which the iPhone app had consistently been showing me as #1 on the upgrade list with 5 F seats available. Nice)
In a snippy way, she said, okay, I'll go to the next person.
I then happened to again check the flight status for the 4pm flight only to discover that I'm not anywhere on the upgrade list. Hmmmm....
Went to RCC and a very nice and competent agent worked on this and discovered that the agent at the 1pm gate had in fact canceled the rest of my reservation! (Not just the 4pm flight, but the onward segments after that as well).
He was able to get the 4pm flight (and the rest of the ticket) reinstated and was able to get my exit row aisle seat back. BUT, now I'm #10 on the upgrade list.
I went back to the 1pm gate where they were just finalizing the flight to talk to the agent who'd somehow made this mess. She was not available but a VERY nice and competent Service Director spent about 30 minutes going over the record and was multiply apologetic for what had happened. She said that the gate agent "took a shortcut" and wasn't supposed to have done what she did.
She also said that there was no way (she tried several things) that she could do to get my #1 upgrade priority back.
Not the end of the world, but kind of frustrating and I'm interested to know what you suspect the 1pm gate agent did wrong -- or what I did wrong. In the past, I've always been told that if you decline a standby seat your original confirmed seat stays confirmed and your order on the upgrade list for that confirmed flight is unchanged.
Obviously neither was the case this time.
Oct 6, 2011, 10:53 am
#2
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I suspect the second failure was a result of the first. When your reservation was reinstated, you were then checked in for the 4PM flight, and that's when your DM time would have been set the second time around.
Oct 6, 2011, 11:41 am
#3
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I suspect it's a symptom of CO's labor-intensive SHARES system. It takes a lot of typing to do it right, so they take the easy way and don't worry since your ticket isn't their problem.
Oct 6, 2011, 12:06 pm
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A few days ago I was ticketed to fly AAA-BBB on the 4pm flight.
At online check in, I put myself on the standby list for the 1pm flight.
At the 1pm flight's gate, the agent called me up but the only thing left was a middle seat in row 837 so I said that I would decline and keep my confirmed seat on the 4pm flight (and on which the iPhone app had consistently been showing me as #1 on the upgrade list with 5 F seats available. Nice)
In a snippy way, she said, okay, I'll go to the next person.
I then happened to again check the flight status for the 4pm flight only to discover that I'm not anywhere on the upgrade list. Hmmmm....
Went to RCC and a very nice and competent agent worked on this and discovered that the agent at the 1pm gate had in fact canceled the rest of my reservation! (Not just the 4pm flight, but the onward segments after that as well).
He was able to get the 4pm flight (and the rest of the ticket) reinstated and was able to get my exit row aisle seat back. BUT, now I'm #10 on the upgrade list.
I went back to the 1pm gate where they were just finalizing the flight to talk to the agent who'd somehow made this mess. She was not available but a VERY nice and competent Service Director spent about 30 minutes going over the record and was multiply apologetic for what had happened. She said that the gate agent "took a shortcut" and wasn't supposed to have done what she did.
She also said that there was no way (she tried several things) that she could do to get my #1 upgrade priority back.
Not the end of the world, but kind of frustrating and I'm interested to know what you suspect the 1pm gate agent did wrong -- or what I did wrong. In the past, I've always been told that if you decline a standby seat your original confirmed seat stays confirmed and your order on the upgrade list for that confirmed flight is unchanged.
Obviously neither was the case this time.
At online check in, I put myself on the standby list for the 1pm flight.
At the 1pm flight's gate, the agent called me up but the only thing left was a middle seat in row 837 so I said that I would decline and keep my confirmed seat on the 4pm flight (and on which the iPhone app had consistently been showing me as #1 on the upgrade list with 5 F seats available. Nice)
In a snippy way, she said, okay, I'll go to the next person.
I then happened to again check the flight status for the 4pm flight only to discover that I'm not anywhere on the upgrade list. Hmmmm....
Went to RCC and a very nice and competent agent worked on this and discovered that the agent at the 1pm gate had in fact canceled the rest of my reservation! (Not just the 4pm flight, but the onward segments after that as well).
He was able to get the 4pm flight (and the rest of the ticket) reinstated and was able to get my exit row aisle seat back. BUT, now I'm #10 on the upgrade list.
I went back to the 1pm gate where they were just finalizing the flight to talk to the agent who'd somehow made this mess. She was not available but a VERY nice and competent Service Director spent about 30 minutes going over the record and was multiply apologetic for what had happened. She said that the gate agent "took a shortcut" and wasn't supposed to have done what she did.
She also said that there was no way (she tried several things) that she could do to get my #1 upgrade priority back.
Not the end of the world, but kind of frustrating and I'm interested to know what you suspect the 1pm gate agent did wrong -- or what I did wrong. In the past, I've always been told that if you decline a standby seat your original confirmed seat stays confirmed and your order on the upgrade list for that confirmed flight is unchanged.
Obviously neither was the case this time.
Last edited by 1KPath; Oct 6, 2011 at 12:17 pm Reason: Typo!
Oct 6, 2011, 1:01 pm
#5
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I have done what you did twice for essentially the same reasons (on UA metal / UA ticket) -- declining a potential poor seat assignment on the earlier flight and had no issues with the original flight. As an aside, I did clearing one and not clearing the other original flights. The latter IAD-SFO my personal albatross this year. Only 2 of 5 on upgrades even using CR1s.
Was this UA or CO metal / airport system? OP mention 837, but I don't see a 837 at 4PM.
Oct 6, 2011, 1:09 pm
#6
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The agent made a mistake -- what you assumed is what should have happen.
I have done what you did twice for essentially the same reasons (on UA metal / UA ticket) -- declining a potential poor seat assignment on the earlier flight and had no issues with the original flight. As an aside, I did clearing one and not clearing the other original flights. The latter IAD-SFO my personal albatross this year. Only 2 of 5 on upgrades even using CR1s.
Was this UA or CO metal / airport system? OP mention 837, but I don't see a 837 at 4PM.
I have done what you did twice for essentially the same reasons (on UA metal / UA ticket) -- declining a potential poor seat assignment on the earlier flight and had no issues with the original flight. As an aside, I did clearing one and not clearing the other original flights. The latter IAD-SFO my personal albatross this year. Only 2 of 5 on upgrades even using CR1s.
Was this UA or CO metal / airport system? OP mention 837, but I don't see a 837 at 4PM.
Oct 6, 2011, 2:18 pm
#8
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Agreed. In fact, you mitigated the situation by checking your flight again and catching the mistake. Could've been much worse if you showed up at the gate for your 4pm flight and the gate reader beeped!
Just bad luck with a bad agent. Your situation has actually happened to me before too - twice
Just bad luck with a bad agent. Your situation has actually happened to me before too - twice
Oct 10, 2011, 8:29 am
#9
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I have to say that the experience makes me a little leery of doing standby again. For example, suppose I'm checking the seat map on my iPhone for the standby flight and it's clear there are only terrible E- seats to be had. I'd ordinarily just stay in the RCC -- oops, the UC -- and wait until my confirmed flight. But if it's that easy for an agent to mess it up so badly when I don't show when my name is called, I'm not sure....
Oct 10, 2011, 1:14 pm
#10
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What does this have to do with SHARES or legacy CO systems??
When I've been in a similar situation to the OP I've spoken with the GA ahead of time and asked them to check with me before clearing me so I don't lose my good seats. That has always worked out in my favor.
Oct 10, 2011, 4:30 pm
#11
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An excellent idea and one I will now use. Given the agent's snippiness, I'm not sure it would have helped, but it sure couldn't have hurt.