Is standby fee discretionary?

Old May 20, 2013, 12:16 am
  #31  
 
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Originally Posted by mre5765

Taking an earlier that increases the odds of making a connection saves UA money. Perhaps agents handing out free standbys tire of handing out meal, hotel, and taxi vouchers. @:-)
That was the argument when the fee was put in place. The agents lost that arguement, the rule (not option) still exists. I work with a few agents who have bragged to me that they have never charged a few for anything in their career...no E+, no change, no standby. I can assure you that over the large sample size, that the cost of vouchers given out that would not have been given out if standby was free (flights are still full, standby people don't always get out, those that do, are usually exempt from the feees anyway, and the a plane cncling gives vouchers to all, not just the ones who were denied a free standby) is far less than I collect by doing my job. I'm willing to bet that the numbers across the board back this statement up, as I'm sure someone has crunched the numbers and hence, why the policy still exists. Plus, missed connections, in most cases, do not get a voucher generated at the airport, be it a bus, a meal, a hotel, or a cab.

Heck, based on the fear of mid connects causing huge losses due to vouchers being issued, if it were such a massive cost, would surely cause MCT times to increase system wide by 3 additional hours as a safeguard. Clearly that isn't happening, so someone MUST be overestimating the cost of vouchers being generated for misconnects. Not trying to attack you here, but the opinion which some people may have. It is very shortsided.

Last edited by fastair; May 20, 2013 at 5:21 am
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Old May 20, 2013, 10:30 am
  #32  
 
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Originally Posted by AttyWSW
If I want to fly on an earlier flight the same day but I don't want to pay a standby fee. Are the agents ever allowing you to do this without paying or are they implementing the fee strictly across the board. United is who my flight is with. I don't want to go to the airport 3 hours early if it will do no good. But there are plenty of available seats on the earlier flight as of now. I know it's way more than 24 hours before my flight but I'm just trying to see if they will allow it with no fee. .Not a member of Premier, Elite or anything else. Just a regular frequent flyer member.
Once exception: Before I regained silver (and after), I have had great luck with getting free changes to earlier flights using the reps in the United Club. This is part of the reason I pay the $400/year for the credit card.
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Old May 20, 2013, 11:32 am
  #33  
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Originally Posted by pinks
Once exception: Before I regained silver (and after), I have had great luck with getting free changes to earlier flights using the reps in the United Club. This is part of the reason I pay the $400/year for the credit card.
I think the majority of the travelers the agents in the United Club deal with are Gold and higher so I don't even think they think twice about not charging the $75 fee for Silvers...I think, most of the time, it's not that they are blatantly giving away freebies...they are just doing what they are use to and I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't know Silvers were suppose to be charged in the first place.
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Old May 20, 2013, 11:47 am
  #34  
 
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Originally Posted by burlax
Still a lot better than UA and somewhat better than AA ( given that AA choice+ fares are actually affordable ). Although people are concerned that the bennies will be jeffed up after the merger.
I completely disagree.

United (pmCO)'s policy is one of the BIG reasons I fly United exclusively.

The 24-hour SDC policy is absolutely fantastic. It lets me book customer meetings and be flexible about it; something I can't do with US, AA or many other airlines.

In fact, shortly after the merger (but before 3/3), I booked a pmUA flight. I was absolutely dumbfounded when I couldn't SDC to a flight the previous day but within the 24-hour SDC window. The pmUA agent was nasty and said "what part of SAME DAY change don't you understand?" I explained that Continental lets me change to any flight with availability (of which there was plenty) within the 24 hours prior to the flight.

She then said, literally, "You Continental people had better get used to it, this is United now."

Wow, could she have been more wrong?!

(In fact, that was a very memorable business trip, since I got denied the SDC, I had to stay over in a hotel. Had the TV on in the hotel room and a scrolling message popped up: "Stay indoors. Exotic animals on the loose."

In all seriousness, this is one of the places where pmCO's policy was *much* more customer-friendly than pmUA's, and one that I'm grateful has survived the merger. It really is very business-traveler-friendly.
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Old May 20, 2013, 12:23 pm
  #35  
 
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Originally Posted by mgcsinc
If you were on a challenge, weren't you Gold? If so, there's no fee.
Nope, was Silver at the time of the MR, and at the start of challenging back to Gold.
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Old May 20, 2013, 12:29 pm
  #36  
 
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Originally Posted by mirage47
Nope, was Silver at the time of the MR, and at the start of challenging back to Gold.
During the challenge period, you are the status you're challenging to, unless it was an unusual challenge.
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Old May 20, 2013, 12:56 pm
  #37  
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Originally Posted by dmurphynj
I completely disagree.

United (pmCO)'s policy is one of the BIG reasons I fly United exclusively.

The 24-hour SDC policy is absolutely fantastic. It lets me book customer meetings and be flexible about it; something I can't do with US, AA or many other airlines.

In fact, shortly after the merger (but before 3/3), I booked a pmUA flight. I was absolutely dumbfounded when I couldn't SDC to a flight the previous day but within the 24-hour SDC window. The pmUA agent was nasty and said "what part of SAME DAY change don't you understand?" I explained that Continental lets me change to any flight with availability (of which there was plenty) within the 24 hours prior to the flight.

She then said, literally, "You Continental people had better get used to it, this is United now."

Wow, could she have been more wrong?!

(In fact, that was a very memorable business trip, since I got denied the SDC, I had to stay over in a hotel. Had the TV on in the hotel room and a scrolling message popped up: "Stay indoors. Exotic animals on the loose."

In all seriousness, this is one of the places where pmCO's policy was *much* more customer-friendly than pmUA's, and one that I'm grateful has survived the merger. It really is very business-traveler-friendly.
I think the focus of this thread wasn't the 24-hour rule part of SDC (which I agree is GREAT), but whether or not the $75 fee was discretionary (at the decision of the agent involved in making the change.).
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Old May 20, 2013, 2:10 pm
  #38  
 
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Originally Posted by fastair
That would be on par with established procedures. UA charged standby if it was on any leg(s), while CO charged only on the originating flight of each direction. People who had flown their 1st leg of the day on CO could standby on the subsequent connections for free. UA adapted CO's policy, so inyour case, the UA (old CO) policy was applied correctly.

Otherwise, it is $75 on a domestic ticket unless on a refundable fare or UA gold/higher, in which case, there is no charge either.
So this loophole allows a GM to standby for the connecting flight without fee? And it's still in place, presumably because it cheaper than reprogramming SHARES?

I have some GM friends / family who will benefit from this!
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Old May 20, 2013, 2:51 pm
  #39  
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Originally Posted by hobo13
So this loophole allows a GM to standby for the connecting flight without fee? And it's still in place, presumably because it cheaper than reprogramming SHARES?

I have some GM friends / family who will benefit from this!
I'm not sure this gap actually exists. A GM was flying with me in summer 2011 XXX-(UAX)-YYY-(sCO)-ZZZ and SDC'd to an earlier sCO flight YYY-ZZZ and was charged the fee by the lounge CSR at YYY.
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Old May 20, 2013, 5:00 pm
  #40  
 
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Originally Posted by PDXPremier
I think the majority of the travelers the agents in the United Club deal with are Gold and higher so I don't even think they think twice about not charging the $75 fee for Silvers...I think, most of the time, it's not that they are blatantly giving away freebies...they are just doing what they are use to and I wouldn't be suprised if they didn't know Silvers were suppose to be charged in the first place.
I also got free changes for the year when I wasn't silver, even when they asked and I acknowledged I was without status. I remember one time telling the UA Club rep that I had no status and asking what the cost would be to get on the earlier DCA-IAH flight. He changed the ticket and said that the system showed no fee was owed. I'm guessing that he was just giving me a freebie.
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Old May 20, 2013, 5:21 pm
  #41  
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Originally Posted by pinks
I also got free changes for the year when I wasn't silver, even when they asked and I acknowledged I was without status. I remember one time telling the UA Club rep that I had no status and asking what the cost would be to get on the earlier DCA-IAH flight. He changed the ticket and said that the system showed no fee was owed. I'm guessing that he was just giving me a freebie.
Fastair is free of course to correct me, but I don't think Shares automatically adds the fee...I think the fee has to be manually added by an agent that knows a fee is suppose to be added.
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Old May 20, 2013, 5:35 pm
  #42  
 
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Originally Posted by PDXPremier
Fastair is free of course to correct me, but I don't think Shares automatically adds the fee...I think the fee has to be manually added by an agent that knows a fee is suppose to be added.
That's the sense I got too.

When calling to do SDC over the phone, there seem to be different ways of doing it, and there seems to be differing levels of manual-ness.
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Old May 20, 2013, 5:42 pm
  #43  
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Originally Posted by mgcsinc
That's the sense I got too.

When calling to do SDC over the phone, there seem to be different ways of doing it, and there seems to be differing levels of manual-ness.
So would you say they are more or less likely to waive the fee over the phone compared to in-person at the airport or UC?
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Old May 20, 2013, 5:47 pm
  #44  
 
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Originally Posted by PDXPremier
So would you say they are more or less likely to waive the fee over the phone compared to in-person at the airport or UC?
From the comments upthread, it sounds like the best bet is at the UC.
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Old May 23, 2013, 8:24 am
  #45  
 
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Originally Posted by fastair
Heck, based on the fear of mid connects causing huge losses due to vouchers being issued, if it were such a massive cost, would surely cause MCT times to increase system wide by 3 additional hours as a safeguard. Clearly that isn't happening, so someone MUST be overestimating the cost of vouchers being generated for misconnects. Not trying to attack you here, but the opinion which some people may have. It is very shortsided.
Here's how I look at it: a customer not in front of my counter is a happy customer. I'd rather make sure the customer gets to their destination on time... which could mean more return business back to UA. Cost to UA? Nothing. Benefit.... Happy customer. Revenue guaranteed to UA for that flight. If a last minute customer comes up and purchases a ticket, my free SDS doesn't get on... no revenue lost. One would think that UA would rather get the pax to a hub an hour sooner after exhausting all options to try to sell the seat and make sure they keep the revenue... versus gambling on the regional to make sure they get there on time. If they lose the gamble, they potentially can lose the revenue (rebooking on OAL) and will certainly lose goodwill (United is *NEVER* on time... ORD is a horrible hub to connect through..... I avoid Chicago as much as I can.... I hear those phrases way too often) Also, like I said earlier, I will never touch a downline segment because that would be benefitting the customer too much. If they wanted to get to their destination earlier, they should have booked for an earlier ticket.


You also have to remember -- I'm at a small outstation that only flies to ORD for UA. There isn't many options to keep people on UA metal from here. Most delays here will cause the customer to go over the "late 2 hours to destination" reroute rule -- which allows for fee-free cancellations. My stance would change substantially if I had more options for customers.... I would never SDS for free if I was in ORD because of the amount of options present.
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