I know fly co to see the yanks is going to get on me for starting this thread (because I saw something about this recently, but couldn't find it) or probably yawn at my post, but I have a question because I haven't been on stand-by in a while.

I got caught up in the bad weather Monday in IAH coming back from AUS on my way back to MCO. I arrived at the airport early in AUS and was offered an earlier flight to IAH (since everything was running late), which might connect to an earlier flight to MCO. Since I didn't get the upgrade to MCO (I did from AUS-IAH, but was willing to give up the 36 min flight to get home early), I agreed to go. I was put on stand-by on the earlier flight to MCO in case we didn't make it to IAH in time, which in turn we did. So once in IAH, I asked if I had cleared yet at the PC, but was told to go to the gate. The GA told me to wait nearby. As the boarding process was coming to an end, they called me up first and gave me my seat my seat in 22E. I immediately knew I had a middle seat, but was happy to get on the plane. Having read a recent post where somebody asked about whether status affected the stand-by order, I had to wonder about it since being a plat I was called up first. So here's my question:

There were still a lot of people waiting around to board which I assumed were also on stand-by, and as I boarded I also noticed there were still several empty seats including a few aisles and windows. Sure enough, after the general boarding was completed, there were many straglers who came in late and filled those seats, including a family of five that had to be split up but got mostly aisle and window seats. And the last seat, an aisle in the row in front of me was taken by a CO employee. So, I know this is kind of lame, and I'm certainly not complaining, but is there something different I should/could have done to get a better seat? Or do GAs sometimes enjoy putting a plat in a middle seat?

Thanks, Ed

Hey, don't you get 1,000 bonus miles for sitting in a middle seat? I thought CO has a No Middle Seats for Plats guarantee?

CO is supposed to be implementing elite-ranked standby lists but I hadn't heard it was actually in effect yet. Maybe it is? In that case, your plat status got you put towards the top. With regards to your seat assignment, you could have just asked the GA to move you if a seat was available. Remember that most of the standbys that got on after you only made it on because people who were checked-in either didn't get to the airport or misconnected.

-RM

Priority standby started back in October IIRC. I think it goes first through the involuntary SBYs in pretty much the same order as upgrades would and then through voluntary SBYs in the same order.

I might be wrong about the order, but I do know they do the involuntary and then the voluntary and they have some priority for elite.

Re Middle Seat:
https://www.continental.com/web/en-U.../services.aspx

The CO front line is generally not very conscious of Elite status and doesn't treat them much differently than regular customers.

While CO has addressed the standby by status problem, CO GAs usually just run the standby list and has the computer assign seats.

I'll give you a parallel example of how this very same situation was handled on UA just a few weeks ago when I went standby on an earlier flight (I'm only mid-tier there). The agent is calling standbys, and I'm not hearing my name, so I'm wondering if I'd somehow been missed or fallen off the list. I approach her, she tells me she has my name, I'm at the top of the list, and I will certainly clear. But all she has is lousy seats right now. She mentioned that she'd noticed I had an aisle seat on my later flight and said she anticipates being able to offload a couple E+ aisle seats in a few more minutes, so she was skipping over me on purpose so I could get one of those once they free up. Several minutes later, sure enough, I was issued an E+ aisle boarding pass. ^

People are on standby, meaning the flight was fully booked. The reason there are empty seats when you boarded is because those other people missed their flight (most likely due to mis-connection). But they can also show up too.

When you clear the waitlist, those seats were mostly likely not available at that time. So, I don't see what else you can do in this scenario.

I once got 2500 miles for the "no middle seat guarantee" when I flew in an Q fare. But it was CO EWR agents who messed up my reservation, and bumped me from my exit row seat... I was so upset that I ended up in the last rows and in the middle for over 7 hours in an oversold EWR-LAX flight....

I got $150 voucher and 2500 miles... for the bump and the argument I had with the #@$% agent that did this....

The 2500 bonus miles are automaticaly added to your account if you are flying in a Y or equal fare... If the flight is in a different fare is opt to CO Care to granted it or not... but for elites Im sure they will do it...

And I do the same thing. Not all CO GA's are bad. In fact I even call up Elites on a regular flight to seat them into better seats.

I thought the no middle seat guarentee was only if you bought a full fare ticket..@:-)

CO should address this issue. I often have to standby for flights and end up in less-than-ideal seats as a Gold, even when better ones are assigned to others (not necessarily Elite).