STANDBY RULES
 

A CO phone rep told me that same day standby is ok on any EARLIER flight, but that LATER standby is limited to leaving within 2 hours of the original ticketed departure, or a $75 fee will apply. I have discount fare tix. Any knowledge from FTers on this? Will they catch this? Thanks.

If you don't like the answer try calling back and asking another rep.

I have firsthand knowledge of this (well, actually secondhand (my boss)).

Last month, my boss was ticketed on a restricted ticket IAH-DEN-IAH for the first morning flight on IAH-DEN. The day before, he and I called the Elite Priority Line (he's a Platinum) to ask if he could standby for a later flight. We were told that as long as he checked in no more than 2 hours after his scheduled departure, he could standby for the next available flight.

He checked in at the President's Club 45 minutes after his ticketed departure (well within the 2 hours he had been told), to be verbally accosted by the agent "You really screwed up. Your whole itinerary has been cancelled." He was totally taken aback by her behavior, and in fact wrote a letter to Greg Brenneman about it (her behavior actually got worse as he continued to deal with her). He received a very nice personal reply from Brenneman's office and has not seen her again after quite a few visits to various PCs at IAH.

Anyway, the PC agent eventually gave him a boarding pass for the next flight, as there were plenty of seats available, but she wouldn't re-instate his return flight because she said it was sold out. She put him on an earlier flight on his return day. Well, I knew that return flight wasn't sold out cause I had been checking its availability for upgrades, so I called our TA who had issued the ticket. In reality, his fare class was sold out but there was plenty of availability on the flight. So the P.C. agent lied to him. The P.C. agent did not charge him $75 for all this rigamarole, but surely let him know she was doing him a favor.

This whole ordeal was totally uncalled for because he did exactly what the Elite Priority Line told him he could do, just as you have been told.

So anyway, that IS the rule, and in addition to some of the agents being ill-informed of the rules, the computers (at least in his case) were not programmed to allow for the 2 hour late checkin.

A way to avoid the hassle is to call CO anytime before the scheduled departure of the original flight, tell them you are stuck in traffic and are running late, cancel the reservation on the flight, and ask to be put on standby for the next flight. That will assure the rest of the itinerary does not get cancelled.

(BTW, (Sheryl: (EXCELLENT correctly nested parentheses!)))

[This message has been edited by RichG (edited 10-12-1999).]

I have noticed this two-hour rule in some of HP's discount fares also. I think it depends on the mood/diligence of the agent, how full the flights are, and whether you can justify the delay (appeal to any humanity that the agent MAY possess).

I've never tried to standby for a later flight, so I don't have any anecdotal evidence here. I don't recommend calling if you see this restriction in your fare rules (see Travelocity or ITN), b/c it might get noted in your PNR that "PAX advised no standby after two hours of original flight departure". It's alot easier to convince the gate agent you were told the opposite if there are no notes in the PNR!

I missed my flight to seattle on saturday, due to oversleeping. I called CO about 20 mins before departure and was told, the two rule. That if I check-in within two hours then I can fly standby for a later flight. As just about all the other flights were wide open(I checked ITN), not having a confirmed seat was not really a big deal.

I get to airport about an hour and half after my original flight had left. My reservation, including my return had been cancelled. They put me on the next non-stop and reticketed me for my return. This took about 15 mins at the ticket counter. I had already confirmed my upgrade to FC for the return, so I was worried about losing that. The ticket agent got me FC for the return.

At the president's club, I checked the schedule on-line and found a connection in houston would get to seattle about an hour ahead of the afternoon non-stop. It took about 15 mins for them to figure out how to change my flight. It seems CO's computer system is a little picky about E-ticket's when the number of segments change(as I was going from 1 flight segment to 2).

I was annoyed about the reservation being cancelled. I was told by the one-pass folks that that wouldn't happen. They were wrong.

I wish I could have done the change over the phone. It would have saved me several hours.
Perhaps the one-pass srvice center could have a little more descretion(especially for platinums and golds).
They had dozens of empty seats on the later flights, too bad they couldn't reticket me over the phone.

I have noticed on 2 personal experiences and by reading posts on FT that what agents say over the phone is not always correct. It might be a good idea to get the agent's name, location, etc to make sure that they beleive you at the airport.

As a general rule, I find it safer to book a late flight and then, if my business is concluded early, stand by for an earlier departure. This way, I am at least assured of getting out of town (or back to my home town!). Most of my travel is on restricted fares, BTW.

Often my later flight is during the evening rush hour, so by ticketing and upgrading on that flight, I already have my upgrade which would be far less likely if I switched to the "busier" flight same day.

On the other hand, if I booked the earlier flight, hoping to conclude my business early, and was delayed, with the load factors these days, there is an excellent chance the later departure would be full and I'd spend a night at the airport hotel!!!

Looking at the CO Contract of Carriage I am unable to find any reference to same day standby or of 2 hour after departure rules, so I presume that these are operational practices subject to change at the whim of the airline.

Rule 135 clearly gives the airline the right to cancel reservations of passengers who do not meet check-in time requirements.

Continental's liberal stand-by policy dates back to the days when they were in economic trouble, it sounds like they are starting to discourage passengers from avoiding higher fares.

Unfortunately you can not depend on the reservation agents for up to date knowledge of rules and operational practices.

Thanks FTers for the information. As an NWA Gold Elite Flyer, I usually get placed at the top of the standby list. We can standby, generally, on ANY EARLIER OR LATER flight on the day of your reservation. Nothing is "dumped" until the end of the day. If you show up at 5pm, when you were booked at noon, nothing has been done to your return, and if you were upgraded for the return, you remain upgraded. No "2" hour rule on NWA, or most other carriers.

I decided to try CO due to some excellant fares and other FTers rave reviews. However, CO's "2 hour rule" STINKS!

I read with interest this thread on travelling standby the same day. I have got a ticket to go home at Christmas but it is for longer than I would like. In any case I was hoping to go standby a week before my scheduled departure. Does anyone know what the story is? Thanks

[This message has been edited by Anne at WebFlyer (edited 10-13-1999).]

Anne at Webflyer:

sorry but standby travel has only been permitted on flights on same the day as scheduled.

Anne, while it's not clear, I think you are referring to your return flight. Here are the rules for changing a restricted (non-refundable) ticket:

On the outbound flight, you cannot change the date of travel, at any cost, without having the ticket re-issued, paying a $75 change fee and then applying the funds from your original ticket toward a whole new ticket. You can standby for any earlier flight on your scheduled day of departure. While the rules state that you can standby for a later flight on your scheduled day of departure, as long as you check in at the airport no more than 2 hours after your scheduled departure, you can see from this thread that CO's computers sometimes cancel the entire reservation if you no-show your flight, requiring untold agony to get everything reinstated.

On the return flight, you can standby for an earlier flight on the same day as ticketed. Alternatively, you can change the return date after paying a $75 change fee and any difference in fare class. In other words, if you are ticketed in one of the least expensive fare classes, depending on the route, the fare difference could be $600-$700, or substantially less, depending on the route. In some cases, the original fare class will be available on your newly chosen day of departure. If that is the case, the only charge will be the $75 change fee.

This evening I was looking through the rules that apply to a B fare on Continental. (a restricted - non-refundable fare), Included in the written rules was the following:


"PSGRS WITH CONFIRMED TKTS MAY STANDBY FOR EARLIER/ LATER SAME DAY FLIGHTS ON WHICH THESE FARES APPLY."

Well then, I guess CO's computers don't know the rules (not surprising to me). The itinerary which is the subject of my 10-12-99 post was booked in a B fare class.