Originally Posted by
mander
On the wednesday before Thanksgiving my wife and I were flying ***-ORD-LAN. When we got to ORD we found that an earlier ORD-LAN than we were scheduled on was delayed and about to board. We asked to put on the standby list for the full flight and were. I ended up 1st on the list and my wife 4th. We are both 1Ks but I was on a Q fare and she was on a standard award. I don't understand how priority works in situations like this. Could someone enlighten me? TIA
Standby is prioritized based on the following:
- Elite status (GS, 1K, Platinum, Gold then Silver)
- Fare class (Y, B, M, etc. all the way to X)
- Time of standby request
The only thing I'm not sure of is a disrupted passenger. By that I mean someone who needs to standby for a flight because an earlier flight was cancelled or they misconnected due to some other issue. They *might* get put at the top of the list because they've likely been rebooked in "Y" (most would be) but status may not play here.
Regardless, for the OP's situation, it means there were 2 other 1K's who were standing by on the flight who had a similar or lower fare class than the OP but a higher fare class than the OP's S.O. The other two 1K's may have been on the same fare class as the OP but requested the standby later than the OP (hence they are farther down the list) or they were on an award ticket but requested the standby earlier than the OP's S.O.
Hope this helps.
-RM