This missing agent issue is really driving me crazy. Last night I missed my LAX-SFO connection after strong headwinds made my JFK-LAX segment nearly an hour late. EZ Update tells me I have been rebooked on a flight three hours later. Knowing that there is a flight to SFO within the hour, I head to the gate to try and get on the standby list. Of course, there was nobody at the gate. There was also nobody at the Customer Service Center. I call the 1P line and they tell me that they cannot put me on a standby list and that only the GA can do that. I start searching for an available GA to no avail. This was LAX at the busiest time of a busy holiday weekend and there were only four GA's (that I could count) and each one was was working a desk for a different flight with a line 20+ people deep.

So, I go back to the gate for the earlier LAX-SFO and join the very long line for a non-existant gate agent. 15 minutes before the flight, a GA comes up and announces that she will be clearing standbys and not to bother her while she is in that process. She ignores the line and just starts calling names. She then hands out about six blue boarding passes and announces that the flight is full.

How in the world am I supposed to get on a standby list if UA doesn't have an agent to work the gate? I've only been flying UA for three months but this is the second time the GA has failed to show until the last minute. The first time was in ORD, and the pilot actually came up the jetway to let us know he was waiting for us (the pax). Alas, there was no GA to board the flight until 5 minutes before scheduled departure. Does anyone actually work at the airport anymore?