I can only imagine that this will be implemented half-a$$-ed. I believe that US already charges for standby, right? Well, it's not consistently applied there, and with the UA/US merger being considered, I doubt it will be here either.

Yesterday I was booked on PHX-DEN on US. Flew standby on an earlier flight. No mention of a fee at all. I just went up to the podium, and asked to get on the list. Yes, I'm * Star, and was prepared to use that to get the fee waived, but it wasn't even necessary. I saw at least 2 or 3 other people getting their seats after clearing standby, and no one was getting charged.

Perhaps UA will have a better implementation--- right.