Originally Posted by
suvayanr
GAs may allow you to do this if you're SDS on an earlier direct fight. For example, you're flying A-B-C but an A-C flight leaves earlier than A-B, you can present your case that if you don't clear standby you will just board your original flight.
Did this at the gate in LAX a week or two ago; direct was delayed long enough for me to catch it... and I'd actually hopped onto an earlier flight OAK-LAX, so got very lucky... (sorta: once I was on the flight and online via Gogo, it became clear that I could have had a sleeper seat to JFK, spend the day in NYC, and headed to my final destination in the evening; which would have been preferable... FWIW).