Fellow FT,

I have a question about NW’s standby rules and am absolutely confused. I have received different responses from reservation agents and maybe you can give me the answer.

I have the following reservation from CMH to LAX in K class with standby allowed on the same day earlier or later.

CMH-DTW 1:30-2:30PM
DTW-MSP 3:15-4:15PM
MSP-LAX 5:00-7:00PM.

My intention is standby on an earlier flight to leaving from CMH (say 6am or 8am) on a nonstop to MSP getting me to MSP in the morning. But for MSP-LAX, I wish to keep the same flight leaving at 5pm. I am doing this so that I have a few hours at Mall of America to do last minute shopping!

I called three reservation sales agents and have gotten the following responses to the above situation.

(1) “You can’t do that because you cannot be at your connection point for more than 4 hours.”
(2) “Yes, sir. It’s do-able.”
(3) “No. By doing so, you are creating a stop-over and they will CHARGE you. What NW means about standby is that you can standby for an earlier CMH-MSP flight but you must also standby on the next available MSP-LAX flight.

Who’s right?

As well,

When I standby at the airport, am I standing-by for a K class seat or standing-by for a coach seat? Does that mean even is there are a few seats available after boarding, I am able to get those?

I am travelling with my mom, on two separate records for the same flights.. If both of us enlist ourselves for standby and only 1 coach seat happens to be there after boarding, is one of us obliged to take it?

Thank You.