Originally Posted by palmetto86

I feel like I have been in this same situation three times during my last three UA journeys. I've had almost exactly the same interactions occur, all at hubs, that go something like this:

Me: Hi. My flight to DCA is four hours late. Can you add me on the standby list to BWI? I'm a 1K if that makes any difference.
GA: I'm sorry sir. The flight is full. I can't add you to the standby list, because you won't get a seat.
Me: It looks like there is only one other person on the standby list. Can you add me and see how things sort based on status and no shows?
GA: I'm sorry sir. It's time for me to board the flight. I don't have time to help you.
Me: I hate to keep pressing things, but the whole point of standby is to have a list of people ready to get on a flight in case it doesn't go out full.
GA: I understand that, sir.

Thankfully, in two out of the three situations, a supervisor or manager was nearby, I could explain the situation. In both of those situations, I cleared into a seat.

I see plenty of "don't know, don't care" attitudes at UA, but this scenario particularly irks me. Do GAs even understand how the standby list dynamically ranks passengers? What happened to as a result of the CS initiative? Are GAs really that pushed to get planes out on time that they would ignore standbys? I'm curious if others see this a lot, or have I been drawing the short straw lately?