I have a related question: If I change flights to an earlier one because I "have a feeling" (a feeling brought on by looking at the weather, perhaps) and then my original flight is cxl, would I be charged for the change? My change would not technically be caused by irrops since it would take place prior to the irrops, but it would be action I take in anticipation of irrops.

I guess you didn't get my point. There's a huge change here: Paying for stand by is something entirely new in the industry and I'm afraid the others will look at following

Also, same day change against a fee can be done on most airlines, including AA and UA, you have been able to do this for years. :rolleyes:

To get flights confirmed on day of departure (4 hours) against paying a fee, UA has done for over 2 years, so this is definitely nothing new. Same has AA with a 12 hours window (35 bucks) https://www.aa.com/aa/pubcontent/en_...eDayTravel.jsp

The difference is that 1K members have been exempt from these fees.

Um, no, I don't think it's entirely new. US has charged this fee for some time (I got dinged in January). Southwest does not allow free standby AT ALL -- you have to buy up to an unrestricted fare. That can be very expensive.
Personally, I think CO did a good job balancing the '-' of the fee for any standby with the '+' of the wide window available for confirmed standby. For many, this will be a fee DECREASE (vs. a $100+ change fee + potential up-fare on a ticket reissuance).

My guess is that CO would want your credit card in this case.

It can be a lot more than a feeling -- you can see from the FAA website that EWR is on a 3 hour delay and you can track that your inbound is 3 hours behind 2 legs earlier but dispatch hasn't updated the times for your own flight and you are SOL.

Southwest is a whole different animal and play by their own rules. I have never flown Southwest, but while CO and others charge a USD150 change fee for traveling on other dates than planned, you can change flights/get a credit without being smacked by any fee. But same day stand-by is, like you said, is not allowed without repricing the fare to the fare available at the time.

I don't think you are right about US Airways. I stood by for 2 earlier flights in May and paid nothing. Their policy:

If there is an open seat available on any earlier flight that departs on the same day as your originally scheduled departure, you may change to that flight and we will automatically confirm your reservation for $25 for flights within the 48 contiguous United States and $50 for flights to Latin America, the Caribbean, Canada and Alaska. This lower confirmation fee replaces the usual change fee, plus any differences between your old fare and new fare, for non-refundable tickets.

If there is not an open seat on an earlier flight that departs on the same day as your originally scheduled departure, you may stand by for that flight at no charge. Standing by at no charge is not permitted if we can confirm that there is an open seat available for that flight.

A little bit confusing, but the way I see it, if you get a DMC, you pay nothing, if you get a BP with a seat at check in (which never happens because the flight is under gate agent control at the time of check in).
I did stand by for two flights in May, got a seat and paid nothing. There were open seats on both flights.

So again, CO's policy is something new and it's very clear: No more standing by for same day flights for free. Period.

There are positive things about this new policy for sure (if I read the rules correctly, you can actually change to the day before, which cost a lot more before), but still, this ends up being another fee. Of all airlines, I didn't expect CO to be the first to launch this. For us business travelers, it's just more easy to raise the ticket price a little bit so we can get our expenses approved. And for the CO employees, this is even more extra work at the gate processing payments etc. Also, there will be heated discussions at gates when it comes to operational changes, oversold flights etc. If my original flight at 5 is oversold bigtime and I'm early enough to change to the 4 o'clock flight which is empty. Will they let me do that for free to help them get everybody a seat on the 5 flight?? Many things to think about..

So while there are some (very few) positive things about this change, these improvements is just sugarcoating for stuff most travelers won't have any use for.

People stand by for flights, every flight you see people standing by, which means this is a fee that means a negative change for a lot of people.

The least thing they could do is not being worse than UA. They at least exempt their 1K members from same day confirmed change fees.

Well, I guess Scott is a "clown."
 

My wife and daughter wanted to sameday standby on a flight from MCO to IAH this morning. The ticket was bought on January 9. I told her that she would not be subject to the $50 fee.

She called me from check in and told me the agent was insisting on $50 each for she and my daughter. She handed the phone to the agent and I simply explained what Scott had posted here. I told her Scott's name and title. She then told me she did not care what some "clown on the internet posted" and that it was $50 or no go. I politely told her no thanks.

Wife has the agent's name. Wonder if Scott would like to send her a nice little email...???

As an aside, it looks like that flight went out half empty in FC according to the PDA site. Very surprised. Even on a leisure route.

Not a surprise at all, except for the "clown" comment. I would've either called the elite desk while standing there or paid the $50 and then called in to We-Care-2 to have the charge reversed. Worst case scenario is that you'd have to get CO Insider to manage the reversal of the charge later, but you wouldn't have to pay it. No need to stand on principal fighting with someone you know is wrong if you also know that you can solve the problem through different channels.

Glad to see that some of the most professional men and women in the industry are continuing to live up to the expectations they've set. :rolleyes:

Very late at the Freddies, we were the clowns, Scott was still behaving himself ;) :D

I guess not everyone is perfect and that Scott will take care of this when he returns from the beach (hopefully, he doesn't have to change his same day flight :P)

For sure. I would have taken this approach as well. I'm sure you would have gotten your money back..

And UA still lets all customers do "traditional" standby at the gate for free.

CO sees this as a big revenue generator for them....that is the only reason I can think of for only giving plats and gold a discount and for giving silvers no discounts of any type for this expanded fee. They must be concerned about the loss of revenue should they be more generous...make it free of plats or even give silvers a token $10 discount or something like that.

The worst part for me is I usually have connecting flights. So a PHL-IAH-LAX will mean a $50 fee ($25 x 2 as a Plat) and from past experience they wont confirm you on the connecting flight and simply place you on the SBY list, so I guess they will Ding me for $50 at PHL and if I dont clear the IAH-LAX part they will somehow refund that $25.

Too much of a Hassle, if Im not on a non-stop No SBYing for Me

It happened to us as well in FLL. What a shame because the We Care Line could care less.
We paid $100 and then they put us in the row by the toilet since we were sure to upgraded to first. When I told the We Care Guy this he was offended saying I was lucky to have any seat for my $50 per.

Well, I don't think you have a leg to stand on with regard to the seat assignment issue, but you should have had the fee refunded. What was the response of the CSR when you specifically stated that your ticket was purchased prior to the announcement of the fee and that you were subject to the Contract of Carriage in place at that time and wanted a refund of the fee? Or did it get mixed in to the complaint about seat assignments?

I'm confused: I was scheduled to fly LAS-EWR tomorrow night, but was able to switch to the same flight tonight for just the $25 confirmed standby fee. The phone agent didn't think it should work because of the 12-hour rule, but it went through. She was clear that I'm only be charged $25. Was this just a glitch? Can I expect a big charge on my credit card to pay for a regular change fee and higher fare?