ibrandsguest

I'm perplexed by US Airways' standby list (on the US Airways mobile website: m.usairways.com).

It so often shows 0 seats available for standby, but then plenty of people clear the standby list and can board.

For example, for flight 1946 this morning (LGA-CLT), 0 seats were available and the standby list earlier today had 55 people on it. The main US Airways site, where you buy tickets, even listed the flight as sold out in coach.

But now 20+ people cleared the standby list and got seats, so clearly there were going to be seats available, and the flight wasn't sold out. The standby list is now much smaller, and the people who cleared the list aren't even in numerical order on the standby list; for example, someone way down the list, below people who weren't cleared, got seat 1A.

(Update: I just checked the standby list again and all of the people in the middle of the list who didn't get seats have just been removed from the standby list, so it looks as though people cleared the list in order of priority, even though they didn't.)

So...how does US Airways decide how many seats should be available for standby, when a flight is oversold, etc.?

Thanks.

sdsearch

When flights go to airport control, you may no longer be able to see accurate information about them online (such as that the flight is no longer "sold out"). It could be that a one group of 20+ people cancelled or switched flights at the last minute, and that under airport control they realized they had 20+ seats now available for standby.

IAHtraveler

Many options, IMO:
-Upgauge of equipment
-Many missed the flight due to (a) late incoming flight(s)
-Airline was holding empty seats in case of problems that day (doesn't make sense to me, but how often do airlines make sense to us?)
-First flight of the day often has people oversleep/miss the flight

CPRich

People don't show for the flight.

As far as the airline knows, everyone with a ticket/reservation will show up, so only what's left is shown as available. As people cancel, no-show, mis-connect, move-up, etc., seats free up. I have seen the number climb while watching it at the gate, but it's only for a minute or two as the GA's then start giving the seats to stand-bys and the number again drops.

Flying to CLT, you're probably seeing a lot of what i see flying to PIT - pmUS employees flying to/from home. It appears to me that they can get on the stand-by list way in advance, and just put their name on everything. Last week, my aircraft held 120-ish and there were 64 on the stand-by list. There are typically 40-50 every Thursday/Friday. Almost everyone that clears stand-by is in uniform. I once arrive very late for an earlier flight - the GA wouldn't even put me on the list, she just wrote my name down. I followed along as she called all 26 names on the list, with about 7-8 boarding, and then called me. Again, I suspect all the employees stand-by on every flight so many are already gone on earlier flights.

jghassell

Something similar happened last week on a 321 when it touched 100 degrees in CLT. I think they held back seats for the weight restriction and then when the flight was delayed enough that the temps lowered the weight restriction was lifted and everybody on standby list (15+) boarded.

GalleyWench

With the new system as a nonrev you can only list on one flight. If you get bumped then you are supposed to roll over to the next flight.

JY1024

I was flying US recently at an airport where TSA security lines were particular bad for that time of day. Flight was zero'd out, as it was oversold by 6 (info given to me by ticket agent and gate agent); however, 10+ people didn't make it through security in time, so a handful of people made it off the standby list. Certainly not the 20+ you mentioned, but it certainly does happen that standbys can clear a "full" flight.