Awesome Standby Experience
 

This week, I had an awesome experience on CO that I want to share. Events like this are why I love CO.

I had meetings in BWI and I flew in on a morning RJ flight, I was flying out the same evening. For the return, I got my upgrade to FC at the 5 day mark--all was good.

My afternoon appointment cancelled at the last minute. I called the Elite Line and was told the afternoon flight was sold out. With nothing else to do in Baltimore, I went to the airport anyway.

I was the 3rd person on standby for the afternoon flight. By this time, even my original evening flight was sold out due to the maintenance issues on American.

To my surprise, I was given a seat on the earlier flight before the 2 people waiting ahead of me. Next, I hear an announcement that this flight is overbooked. CO will pay any volunteers $300 and a first class seat on the evening flight.

The FC seat on the later flight they were giving was clearly mine. It appears they bumped someone on the earlier flight just for me. They could have easily left things alone, told me there was no seat for me and I would have believed them. The other two folks ahead of me on standby couldn't believe what happened, but I don't think they had status on CO.

Either way, I thanked the gate agents as I boarded the earlier flight. Some unsuspecting volunteer thinks they pulled a fast one on CO by getting a $300 travel voucher and a FC seat on the evening flight. Little do they know the fast one was pulled on them!

Too cool! Thank you Scott, and CO!

I highly doubt they bumped someone from the earlier flight to accommodate you, that would have been very wrong and is simply not done. It's more likely that they had a bunch of people not check in, so the flight was no longer oversold closer to boarding time.

Perhaps the new standby system which ranks standbys according to status kicked in, or the agents ranked you ahead of the non-status standbys manually. If the other two customers had lower status, or no status, or were sent over from AA, then you should have cleared ahead of them anyway and I don't see what there is to be shocked about.

[QUOTE=bocastephen;9562096]I highly doubt they bumped someone from the earlier flight to accommodate you, that would have been very wrong and is simply not done. It's more likely that they had a bunch of people not check in, so the flight was no longer oversold closer to boarding time.

I have a difficult time understanding how "a bunch of people not checking in" results in one of three standby's (number 3 at that) getting a ticket which directly overbooks the flight.

Believe me, I know I'm not that special. I do spend a lot of money with CO, but the facts are the facts...

So did you take the bump?

You stated the flight was overbooked - so it's possible a sufficient number of people did not check in, did not appear at the gate in time, or mis-connected in order for you to clear into a seat.

Now I've re-read your post, it appears the agent made the overbooked announcement after clearing you, which does seem odd, and why would they offer a guaranteed F seat on another flight if there were people waiting to upgrade into that seat?

Boca, there was no one waiting to upgrade. The earlier flight was a Colgan Air Dash which seats like 80 people with no FC. The later flight I was confirmed on was sold out (including FC). They were only able to offer the FC seat specifically due to letting me take the earlier flight.

By the way, CO will bump anyone when an Elite purchases a Y in advance. How do you think they are able to offer the benefit of guranteed reservations on a sold out flight? This is the first time I've seen them bump someone when a Platinum is waiting on the standby list.

Any way I slice this, it was pretty neat...