Without slamming a particular airline, I can say this--I have had two vendors in my office in Cleveland for a few days, and both have no status.

Both have been trying to get flights to New York since late Wednesday night--those were full. Thursday (yesterday) was a complete miss for both of them--despite having "bought up" to full fare tickets, neither has status. Ergo, it seems that every time a flight is preemptively cxld, they rebook the people with status first, and (unscientific secondhand observation) those who have been waiting the longest.

I think they both got out this morning to Newark--since presumably continental has some decent metal on the hub-->hub flights (and I hope so--because the weather in Cleveland has gone really south today and is going to remain as such).

But what I'd personally like to know is the methodology they use for who gets rebooked and in what order--it would allow the traveler (particularly one without status) to plan accordingly (I'm sure the two vendorgents in question would have liked nothing better than to have escaped Cleveland a few hours earlier rather than spend an extra 36 hours in town)--had they known.