Originally Posted by
appleguru
But as far as I know, the GAs can add people to the standby list/clear people onto the flight right up until departure (and even after in some cases!), though theyare usually too busy trying to get the plane out and may not be helpful in actually doing it.
One time I had a GA just tell me to board into a seat after boarding was complete. She never added me to the standby list and I never had a BP for that flight. Once the plane pushed back, she squared it away in the system (or possibly right before so the planes paperwork was correct, but I never got a BP)
My experience as well. I don't like to push it, but there has been twice in my experience where out of necessity I ran up to the gate, less than 10 minutes before scheduled departure. In one of them, the GA got me on no problem.
In the other, the GA could not get me on, and there was no Red Coat around. A Performance Leader/Ops Manager (is this what they are called now? I remember
Widgets saying someplace the term changed, but I forget it...my apologies) happened to walk by, and she starting typing endlessly (like in Meet the Parents) and after a minute told me to get on, and take any seat...and that she would square it in the system.
I boarded, sat down, and refreshed the app, and saw she had placed me in last Economy Comfort (at the time) aisle and that someone was in my seat! I kindly pointed it out to the FA prior to takeoff, and asked her if she could help me rectify it after takeoff. She kindly did, and the poacher was sent back to his original seat (his initial excuse was he wanted to stay with his luggage, which was directly overhead
).