The restaurant analogy was pretty darn good, although I will wait for the apologists to come up with the difference.
And thanx for clearly pointing out the difference between WN's policy and DL's proposed policy. The notion of "full fare" is so completely different--to Southwest it is a minor surcharge, to Delta it is a massive change in price, almost always 100% greater in the East and 200% to 400% in the West.
And yes, an empty seat later in the day does have value. Accomodating passengers who standby earlier leaves the seats free for the myriad of things that happen: missed connections involving any of the inbound or outbound flight crews, cabin crews or machines, weather, other airline problems involving rebookings, getting the luggage moving when there is certain space for it...and finally, it allows yet another group of people downstreram to standby for YOUR booked space.
My most important reason against this is the MASSIVE and BLOCKLIKE nature of the change. Thirty days ago we were opeating under a standby system that was decades old. Now the three largest US carriers have a brand-new system that it utterly different.....complete with pious justifications about why this is the way it "should" be. It is almost Orwellian newthink.
The idea of change fees is a decent counterpoint. The initial fees were modest, often waived, and then raised in stages as the airlines thought the market would bear them. But these jacked-up standby and inflexible discount tickets, all done at once, are unreasonable. The market will speak.
This traveller will nurse along his 2002 DL segments to reach a suitable award plateau, as insurance if these restrictions are lifted. But I am thinking hard: picked up an AirTran schedule last night......booked NW recently for a flight to DTW to cover at least Silver with them.
[This message has been edited by Justin026 (edited 09-15-2002).]