aircanada_loyal

Here is my story..flying Origin - YYZ - YOW in Comfort fare.

The earlier flight from YYZ - YOW was too expensive, so I ended up booking a later flight. On the day of travel, I called the Concierge, asking if I can get on standby on the earlier flight in YYZ. Fine, I am on the standby list. I arrive in YYZ, check the app, and I am #44 in the standby list, and both cabins are FULL. I thought standby was based on status, or are there really 43 other S100K flyers. I call Concierge, and they tell me that the other 43 were bumped on an earlier flight, and have a higher priority than you. I respect that. I go to gate, I am now #42 in the list. I talk to the gate agent, and I get a confirmed seat within seconds. I board, and check the app again, at this time there are 39 people on standby (of which 6 are confirmed). 30 minutes later, 30 people still on standby. 32 minutes later... flight closed.

What happened to the 30 odd people who were on standby?
Is standby really based on who got bumped earlier, and not on status?

codfather

I would expect that as an SE100K you would definitely be ahead of the other passengers in terms of priority. I think @canadiancow would be better able to answer this!

AFAIK status is the determinant of priority in most of these situations though.

canadiancow

The standby list shows all GTE pax as well. Anyone who wants on the flight but does not have a confirmed seat assignment.

​​​​​​The standby list on 739 on Sunday was 40+ people after being upgauged because everyone needed a new seat assignment.

Past that, PDM will run a lot of logic 5 minutes after FC, including moving confirmed pax onto the standby list (sort of - but that's all you can see from the app) if:
- they already took an earlier flight but were not properly offloaded from this one
- they are going to misconnect
- several other reasons

Also bear in mind cabin comes before status on the list, so a wide body getting cancelled could easily throw a bunch of higher priority pax ahead of you.

If the gate agent manually processed your standby, it was either against policy, or you were added to the list after PDM ran (T-40 or closer to departure).

What time did you have your discussion with the GA, and what time were you added to the list?

Jagboi

A number of the standbys can be employees too.

canadiancow

If they're deadheading, they're functionally equivalent to GTE (except they 100% will guaranteed get a seat), and above all actual "standby" pax.

If they're not deadheading, they're below all revenue pax.

Jagboi

I was thinking of non revs. They will show on the standby list.

canadiancow

And there are two "types", which are handled very differently.