On 2-class, standby for 3-class, questions
 

I am flying SAN-LAX-MIA next week. I plan to standby for an earlier flight on both segments. On LAX-MIA, my ticket is booked in P, the flight is F and Y. The flight I want is F, J, Y. Can I assume that I will be booked into I class if standing by? What if there are plenty of biz seats left, but no I? And, if I end up with a non-I seat, would I, in theory, be able to use miles to go from J/D to F at the airport?

In my experience if you buy a two class first class ticket and then try to travel on three class aircraft (standby or otherwise) you will be seated in the business class cabin.

There are certainly FTers who are more expert than I, but I think if you are booked in P they would let you stand by for J seats on the 3 class aircraft.

In practice, it would be almost impossible to use miles to upgrade to F once you had a confirmed seat in J in such a situation. By the time they confirmed your seat in J, others would have been upgraded to F. Even if F seats were still empty the GAs would probably not be willing to take the time to process the upgrade for you.

In very, very few exceptional cases, a GA might just give you an op-up in such a situation, but I would put your chances at 5% or so.

Be happy that you are probably moving from F in a 757 to J on a 777, which is a major upgrade in itself.

Sounds like you're right except for the fact that I'd rather an aisle on a 757 than a middle on a 777. And I'm also curious how the inventories match up, as most of the routes I fly are exclusively two class or exclusively three class, and this is the rare instance I've purchased F as opposed to upgrading with miles.

I'd take a look at your fare rules, as most trans-con 2-cabin F fares explicitly forbid travel on three cabin planes. See for example KUPP7MZ (SAN-MIA). Perhaps you'd get lucky in that the agent wont look at the rules, but they could.

THE FARE COMPONENT MUST NOT BE ON
ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING
AA FLIGHTS 1 THROUGH 4
AA FLIGHT 10
AA FLIGHT 15
AA FLIGHT 16
AA FLIGHT 18
AA FLIGHT 19
AA FLIGHT 20
AA FLIGHT 21
AA FLIGHT 22
AA FLIGHT 30
AA FLIGHT 32
AA FLIGHTS 33 THROUGH 34
AA FLIGHT 40
AA FLIGHT 59
AA FLIGHTS 117 THROUGH 118
AA FLIGHT 133
AA FLIGHT 177
AA FLIGHT 178
AA FLIGHT 179
AA FLIGHT 180
AA FLIGHT 181
AA FLIGHT 185
AA FLIGHT 201
AA FLIGHT 299
AA FLIGHT 435
AA FLIGHT 1520
AA FLIGHTS 2800 THROUGH 2899.

I apologize for digging up an old thread, but I've had trouble finding an answer to a similar but reverse question regarding standby from 3 Cabin J to 2 Cabin F.

For example, on JFK-SFO, there are several 3 cabin and 2 cabin flights. 2 Cabins book Y/F (not Y/J like Caribbean 2 cabins, for example) and the 3 cabins book Y/J/F, of course. If I'm booked into J on a 3 cabin, and try to standby for an earlier 2 cabin flight, will I be able to standby into F on the 2 cabin?

Of note, I'm looking at booking an award. So trying to figure out if I can stand by from U on a 3 cabin into (hopefully) into a 2 cabin's F, rather than Y.

Thanks for any insight and happy happy holidays!

Well, technically, I don't think you'll have a problem: at any point when Z becomes available you can just switch. So, if there are seats left at the last minute, presumably they'll open up all inventories.