J.Edward

Thanks for searching ^

I think the agent was in error although I myself do not have a definite answer for you; I'll do some digging and see what I can find out.

Edited to add: I just spoke with an agent and she stated any member can waitlist but you can't standby at the airport

It seems like it's just a case of agent error so I'd just call back and hope you get a competent one.

CO 1E

I wonder how many people actually do plan B per month/year, or even know about it, for that matter? I'm certain that one of the reasons many agents misinterpret the policy is that they never encounter anyone trying to take advantage of plan B (still no excuse for ignorance of misinterpretation of the policy, however).

emch

I'm sitting here blinking in disbelief at your kindness and your generous help. You were terrific to take the time to research this question and then post a reply so quickly.

Gosh! Thanks so so much.

J.Edward

Don't know how many folks do it -- but I'd suspect the numbers would not be that great.

I also suspect that if more customers were aware of it, the usage of it would increase.

As for misinterpreting the policy...the airport staff especially the concierges are clueless on this. They've been conditioned to parrot back "no upgrades" or "all upgrades must be confirmed by OnePass" without giving trying to understand what the customer is saying.

Moreover, Plan B is actually suggested at times by the website (when you book a connecting BF international ticket (e.g. AUS-IAH-LGW) and later find that you're only in F for the AUS-IAH portion but Y for the overwater flight). Many people assume the airline is trying to put the screws to them but the opposite is true; the customer can waitlist for F overwater, standby at the airport for the IAH-LGW segment and even if s/he flies F AUS-IAH but Y overwater, a refund of the J-->Y mileage difference will be due.

The catch is the website does not make this very clear, customer service might not fully understand what's going on and good luck getting the airport staff onboard unless you know exactly where to look in the own internal system.

Case and point: I did this for Mom and it ultimently took a four way conference call to get the situation straightened out - and this was only after a very good agent in the IAH E PClub was able to dig up the internal rules within Sonic.

If it was not for CO Insider, I'd suggest that everyone who's been hosed over by frontline agent error submit a complaint to the DOT for every segment of their trip; but luckily we have him and he can enact change.
No worries, always glad to help.

This is a tricky procedure and not everyone (even I) understand I to it's entirety.

Mile-Hor

Just tried "Plan B" with a 17 year veteran who wouldn't look it up. She said we don't do "onewai" rewards, we used to, but things have change, we will only charge you for what we can put you on, etc, etc.

Rough, because they had BF/F tickets from JNB-CDG, and coach from CDG-BOS on the exact day I wanted to return, but she got huffy (not rude, just clearly not wanting to do it for me) when I directed her to it.

Has this been removed as an option in the last 7 months?

Edited: Oh...does this only work on CO and not the partners? Nevermind, if that's the case.

rjvnyc

I have a flight this Saturday to PEK from EWR and a return on the 19th from HKG to EWR. There were no standard rewards available in coach or BF for either day. Unfortunately, I do not have enough miles for BF EasyPass. Is there a way to book EasyPass Coach and try for BF?

Thanks in advance.

J.Edward

I think that's right - you can only do Plan B if traveling on a CO operated segment. That said I *think* you can still mix carriers and be eligible for this again assuming you're on CO metal.

Example:

IAH-AMS on CO (Eligible for Plan B)
AMS-JNB on KL (Not eligible for Plan B)

rjvnyc,

There has to be standard Y availability to make this work - easypass (despite being the same number of miles) will not work. But keep looking at the flight though -- especially today as CO looks like they have a decent amount of Y inventory (and currently 7J left per KVS) as CO is known to open up standard reward inventory for both cabins at the last minute.

PS> It looks like CO has standard J to NRT (CO9) where you can connect onto a NW flight (in Y though) to PEK.

PPS> Coming back if you can get to NRT (which you can do with your mileage ticket via Korean Air) there are a fair amount of standard Y seats on NW.

...and of course you can also call in to see if KE (Korean) has any availability on their ICN (Seoul) to American flights.

rjvnyc

One question, how do you properly explain over the phone to the customer service representative at reward travel that you want to book a reward that is not available?

Standard Coach became available on my outbound and I tried this. The CSR would not book me in a BF reward unless one was available. I didn't know how to explain the process.

CO 1E

From J.Edward's master Plan B post:

"Ask the agent to access the following code in Sonic “gg onestandby” and review lines 85-89 as they spell out the Reward standby policy."

hughw

1. Is Plan B relevent for partner airlines (ie. Air France) as well as CO?
2. Assuming it is, how hard will this be to explain to a French agent at CDG?

craz

JE in post #22 says its ONLY for CO flights, Ill assume that any CO code-share that is NOT actually on CO metal is also a No-Go to PlanB

Now I wouldnt want to be flying CO itself out of anywhere and have to try and explain PlanB, unless the flight is from the US.

hughw

Thanks. That's kind of what I figures and my question about explaining to an AIr France agent at CDG was a little tongue in cheek.

ND Sol

I am talking to an agent (who also talked to a supervisor) who after some time on hold said that Plan B was only available if the whole trip is on CO. I am trying to do a IAH-CDG with the outbound on AF (confirmed in Business) and inbound on CO (only Y standard availability). Any thoughts?

sbm12

I am 99.9% certain that the Plan B flight has to be on all CO metal, so they are correct on that part. I don't see why the outbound half of the itinerary should have to be, but I'm also not a CO CSR, so I'm sure they have a reason.

friedablass

Hi! I am new to flyertalk and have a question about the BF waitlist. My husband and I are flying EWR-TLV and back at the end of this month. My husband's ticket was purchased using mileage. We paid 100,000 miles for the roundtrip in BF, but he was put on the waitlist for the return flight since there were no standard BF seats available. (Agent said if we don't get the BF seat we would get 15k miles back.) I purchased an economy ticket for myself and used miles to upgrade each segment. Again, I was put on the waitlist for the return. Does anyone have experience with these waitlists? How many days before the flight do people start clearing the waitlist? As of today there are 19 BF seats available (if the seating chart on CO is accurate) and the return flight is only 3 weeks away. What are my chances for snagging two of those seats? Also, in case we don't clear the waitlist can we still use plan B for one or both of us?
I would appreciate any help I can get with this matter.
Thanks!!