Originally Posted by
jsloan
Trying to standby for a flight after the check-in deadline is a YMMV situation. If there’s a policy, it’s against it; I’m just not sure whether or not they’ve actually codified it. It can be done, but you’re asking for a favor, and not all gate agents are inclined to grant favors.
If you were at the check-in counter at 10:48 PM, you did not “arrive... in time to make the 11:15pm” flight.
How did you end up on LAX-SAT-EWR? Was this an award ticket? If not, you had a broken fare — meaning, you had an LAX+SAT fare plus a SAT+EWR fare. That ticket cannot be applied to an LAX-EWR nonstop flight, so there’s a good chance that the agent would have had to get the help desk engaged to try to get you re-ticketed.
Thanks for the response. I suppose I meant that I arrived in time to physically make it on the plane before the door closed. Anyways, this situation came about because I needed to fly later than the nonstop LAX-EWR I had originally booked and LAX-SAT-EWR was the only SDC option with availability in my fare class. It was a revenue ticket. For what it's worth, flying a redeye with a connection in SAT was not nearly as annoying as I had expected.
Is it also asking a favor to be put on the flight inside of T-30 when there is availability? I do that fairly regularly (e.g., was recently on a 4pm EWR-LAX and arrived at the gate for the 3:05pm EWR-LAX at 2:48pm and was handed a BP right before the door closed). In that case, I showed up on the standby list, but there wasn't anyone behind me waiting to clear.