>Very unusual, IME

OK, I have a better understanding of what happened now, sort of.

She was travelling SEA-DEN-BOS, on Frontier first (SEA-DEN) then UA out of DEN. It was booked thru Orbitz -- separate record locators for each airline, if that matters. Frontier did say that it was a United ticket -- the initial outbound trip was all UA -- and according to F9, that situation meant a) no online checkin possible for the initial F9 segment and b) any changes had to be done by and thru UA, even for the Frontier segment.

So when she showed up 25 min before departure, F9 told her that her seat had already been given away (30 min before with no check-in cutoff, full flight with a standby list), and that as noted above, it was a UA ticket and so she'd have to talk to United -- Frontier agent was sympathetic and said if it were a straight Frontier ticket, they'd definitely give her standby on a later flight.

UA counter agent in contrast was very UNsympathetic at a personal level, and said they would do a regular rebook for a later flight with her paying the change fee plus full fare difference (>$1000), but that was it, no slack for the "flat tire" situation.

I don't have a lot of experience flying different carriers on the same leg, let alone missing flights in that situation, so is this just what happens when you mix-match on travel sites like Orbitz? Did F9 have a kind ear but unfairly point the finger at UA? United treat her badly?

Btw, she has zero status on either airline.

Hmm, having looked over other threads I'm even more confused and unhappy -- most people in this situation seem to have gotten something better than, "buy another ticket", especially since my wife made it before the flight left (though after the 30 minute cutoff). Most posts were before the merger finalized though. Is this a new UA/CO policy that non-elites don't get "flat tire" standby, or did my wife just get unlucky with the agent on duty?