I fly on the BOS to DCA rout about 50 segments a year mixed on B6 and US; and used to fly DL when DL offered this market as a shuttle flight. I've been Gold Medallion, Chairman's Preferred, United 1K, and Mosaic. Also I take a lot of 1-2 day trips.

Recently I got to the gate in BOS about 10 to 15 minutes early for a flight and I wanted to standby/same day confirm which is free as a Mosaic. I know I was there more than 10 minutes early lets say 13 to 16 minutes early.

The agents would not book me on the flight or on standby because they said you had to arrive 20 minutes early. Also one confirmed passenger boarded after I started talking to them so they still had the door open and they had the system up in a configuration where they could on passengers tickets to the flight.

I can't really say the same thing would happen on the US shuttle. I can't imagine if I came up about 15 minutes early and if they had seats that they would not book me on the flight. I don't think by and large that the out time on US flights is as early as B6, but I would like to more systematically know that since I can't look at every flight.

Part of the reason may be the B6 IT systems, I don't know if they have a way at the gate to quickly revalidate a ticket rather than going through the more involved ticket rreissue process. I think US agents have a one line computer entry they can use for their "Move Up" which will book the pax on the earlier flight.

I don't know how many computer entrys are needed in B6's Sabre to put a pax on standby and if the system will allow the agent to list the standby segment for a much earlier flight; again Mosaic member.

I just find that at the airport as a Chairman's Preferred or now an Executive Platinum there is more of a sense of urgency to help you with a legacy airline in something like this. I know Mosaic is relatively newer for B6 and I don't know besides some general training if the company culture has really taught the agents to really try to help Mosaic members.

I know the Delta shuttle still allows boarding with in 5 mins of departure but the DL shuttle is currently not an option on BOS DCA. I just bring this up because I grew up on the northeast shuttles where you could literally just show up and get on the flight.

I think ideally the B6 app should allow the pax to self service same day change and standby and that this would be a good solution.

I am always just trying to compare B6 and US service on this route so I am curious about your thoughts.

Retrospectively I could have probably called the Mosaic line 20 mins before departure but at that point I was walking through security.

Also a supervisor did appoligize and say they likely could have gotten me on the flight but again these agents and the company have this mantra about closing flights early which I guess is fine for someone who flys 3 times a year but if your flying and running around 1-3 times a week you don't necessarily want these early early departures because literally every minute counts!

I also don't know if JetBlue really wants to target market such frequent flyers or if they focus more on a different segment of traveler?

Also Southwest and again the Delta shuttle is pretty good at not closing the door too early!

Also I could have sworn in the 90's they didn't close the door this early!

All ended well I got where I was going but I'm more curious than anything, I know Gary on @BoardingArea has written about his frustration also with AA boarding flight too early!

I hope there is someone else who flys a lot on this route on US and B6 who can chime in!

I'll likely continue flying both, and this will be just one more thing to weigh in.