Although I'm SM, I haven't flown Delta much for the past 12 months or so. But I did last week and was making a connection in ATL. I had about a 1 1/2 hour layover, but when I arrived in ATL, there was a flight to my destination in the final boarding process. I asked the gate agent if they had any standby space left on that flight. He responded "we no longer do standby's, it would be $25 plus the fare difference for the earlier flight".

Huh? (I opted out because I had a travelling companion who had checked bags that wouldn't have made the earlier flight). I've got a few questions about this:

1. Was this gate agent blowing smoke, or has Delta actually adopted this standby policy?
2. Does this make any business sense? If they've got seats availabe on a flight, why not encourage standbys? Once that plane leaves, you can't sell the empty seats - but you still have the opportunity to sell the open seats that are created on that later flight. (Or use them for other's missed connections, other airlines oversold, etc.)