usually CO does a great job with protecting its Elites. But when they get hit with what they did last week literally 100s of flights cancelled, then all bets are off as there isnt any way for them to be able to go in there and do anything in any orderly or fair manner.

Brilliant.

I have experienced something similar on Delta were I was both standby on flight I might make depending subsequent delays as well as protected on a flight I could make. This was done by an RCC agent there I was glad she did. I tuned out number 3 in the stannby list that had 44 people on it ( you know how things can go downhill fast at ATL) and I made the flight. And yes I love those DL monitors that show the list and status.

I assume you can do the same on CO but don't have a recollection of having done that. I know I have been standby and had a confirmed seat on a later flight on NW. Just did that last week.

Because they booked and paid for their ticket and seat in good faith and don't deserve to be removed to accommodate another customer just on status.
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The platinum also booked their ticket in good faith. They seem happy enough to apply this rule for a Platinum on a Full Y Push, so why not in this situation. The full Y Push displaces the non status flyer (who purchased their ticket in good faith).

If we were merely talking about a few hour delay for the plat that is one thing, but I had a few folks stuck for 3 days in Florida all of which were plats and something like 100 Continental flights departed out of their local airports (TPA, SRQ, MCO etc) before they could get re-accommodated.

Are you serious. Do you really expect CO IT people are able to do this when it took them weeks to get the web site right?

And whoever commented that I should have tried to rebool earlier because of a weather advisory, maybe they're right. I didn't see the advisory. However, I went out to EWR Friday morning in what to me seemed like a light snow to find my 7:00am to SFO cancelled. The CSR at the PC was able to quickly rebook me through MSP and I was able to get to SFO to do my business that Friday afternoon. On reflection, it might have been helpful if she said "Mr. Handsome, I have a way of getting you out to SFO but (a) your return flight is already cancelled, or (b) you may have trouble getting back tomorrow with the weather advisories we've been given. Do you still want to go out and take your chances about getting back." So I was ignorant and I didn't ask the right questions, but it might have helped to have had a little help so I could either have rebooked for Sunday right then and there or decided not to head out.

If Delta's IT people can do it, why can't CO's? Deltamatic is one of the most horrible and arcane back-end mainframe systems I ever had the misfortune of tripping over - yet they have wrapped some fantastic functionality for both customers and agents around what used to be a mess. I used to know someone who was part of the modernization project about 8 or 9 years ago.

We keep hearing about CO's IT people - they can't do this or they can't do that. I don't know if it's the people or the processes, but something needs to change if it's really that difficult to get something done correctly or come up with outside-of-the-box solutions. I agree the website was a mess, but I think that was more of a process problem (not enough real world QA) than a people problem.

This is one thing CO is great about, and has helped me a couple times in the past. Last weekend, friends of mine (who had just gotten engaged) were scheduled to return home SLC-JFK on Friday on DL. I called and told them to rebook their flight on Thursday night -- they called DL and were told they wouldn't waive change fees until the original flight was cancelled. They ended up arriving in IAD Saturday night and renting a car to drive home, as that was the closest DL could get them until Monday!

Edited: They're not elites, or frequent fliers...but they should have listened to me when I told them to call back and ask someone else!!

you can be left holding the bag if you act too soon also, SteveinTexas was Smart but almost ended up out of pocket see here:http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=671892

I read that too. No, I check co.com often and then called once I see CO posted the rebooking criteria.

i didn't read the entire thread (nor have i continued to read the other EWR snow thread for a few days) but, as i said in that thread, i not only wasn't protected whatsoever on friday after my flight was cancelled....but, i can't remember the last time i have been protected by CO after a flight cancellation.

i don't know that CO has ever protected me after cancelling a flight...and i have been platinum for years.

when i called on thursday after getting the email that my friday flight was cancelled, at least an hour had passed. my record was untouched with no protection.

none whatsoever with years of experience being platinum. zilch.

as has been discussed in this forum, the standby list is prioritized by when you get on the list. elite status means absolutely nothing.

are you serious? i have seen no evidence of this.

IIRC, I and an AA ExPlat friend were stuck in DEN during the December snowstorm. My friend was able to be protected on three flights each on first available flights out after the planned reopening of the airport. He was protected on one flight automatically but called and got himself assigned to two other flights including one on a recovery flight.

We both went to the airport around 0700 on the day the airport was planning on reopening at around 1100. He confirmed at the counter and checked in. AA flights were not looking good around 0900. We were monitoring Flightaware and found one AA flight enroute. We went to an AA gate, waited in a rather long line and he asked if he could be standby on this flight as well. The agent said he had too many flights and had to cancel one of them. Once they canceled one flight and placed him on standby on the current flight he trumped all others on the list because he was 1) ExPlat and 2) he had checked in earlier than all the other ExPlats on the list. He was able to get on this flight.

This seems like a great system, but maybe not to other top tier elites who got trumped. So I agree that CO should have some form of protection for elites.

I have already posted about my experience at EWR on Friday (came in on SQ 22, tried to connect to CO 1198 to BOS). Briefly, after assessing the fact that I could not get through to a person on the CO PLT line, nor my company's travel agency, and the CO Elite reaccomodation line looked hours long, I fired up my computer and bought a ticket on Amtrak from Penn Station. It appeared to me that I was in the midst of an extraordinary situation and that the usual fixes were not going to work. I admit, I got lucky (and was home in my Boston suburb only about 10 hours behind schedule), but I felt that at least taking a proactive hand in controlling my destiny was better than waiting for something to be done for (to?) me.