Originally Posted by
76toPHL
I don't really see how GA's will have time to explain this fee to each standby pax, take a credit card, wait for a receipt to print, have people sign, then print boarding pass, etc. while trying to finalize and close the flight.
I wonder how much the additional revenue that GA's actually do charge at $50/seat will be offset by planes leaving later as GA's go through the standby list one-by-one to try to fill the plane before it departs.
Also, I always though it was in UA's best interest to send a pax on an earlier flight with an empty seat, as they now have an opportunity to sell the later seat for revenue. What are they gaining when a standby refuses the $50 fee and a plane goes out with empty seats?
I BELIEVE (haven't seen the internal details yet) is that you effectively pay when you request the standby, much as the same as you pay to UG with miles when you request it, but the actual "charge" doesn't happen unless you clear.
If that is the case (and I think the reason it took UA 1-2 months to do this after AA did, to brainstorm for a week, then get programmers to code it,) then there should be very little last min work for the GA. Much less then we currently do, as that work would be done already and the volumes of standby would decrease.
I am wondering if with the decreased volumes of voluntary standby this generates, as well as the addl revenue if they may eventually modify the standby with bags on domestic flights policy. Maybe hire back some ramp manpower to do bag changes and offset the cost with the fees generated. A "value" added cost would be very nice.