$25 plus fare difference for same day standby?
 

Although I'm SM, I haven't flown Delta much for the past 12 months or so. But I did last week and was making a connection in ATL. I had about a 1 1/2 hour layover, but when I arrived in ATL, there was a flight to my destination in the final boarding process. I asked the gate agent if they had any standby space left on that flight. He responded "we no longer do standby's, it would be $25 plus the fare difference for the earlier flight".

Huh? (I opted out because I had a travelling companion who had checked bags that wouldn't have made the earlier flight). I've got a few questions about this:

1. Was this gate agent blowing smoke, or has Delta actually adopted this standby policy?
2. Does this make any business sense? If they've got seats availabe on a flight, why not encourage standbys? Once that plane leaves, you can't sell the empty seats - but you still have the opportunity to sell the open seats that are created on that later flight. (Or use them for other's missed connections, other airlines oversold, etc.)

You might want to go through some old posts, but YEP - no logical reasonable standby for an earlier flight no matter how much SENSE it might make.

Sorry

While he was correct in saying that DL no longer does stand-bys, his statement that it's $25 + the fare difference is wrong. It's just $25.

Some of us like the new program, though I admit that since they waive the same day confirmed fees for me and I can still do standby, I kind of have the best of both worlds. If I were paying, it would be well worth the $25 to call them in advance before going to the airport. Remember, there were are a lot of situations where you can actually get on a SDC flight where you wouldn't be able to do standby. I will concede the opposite is true too.

Overall, I give same day confirmed a ^. It sure beats standing at the gate, sweting it out, as all the other pax board. Also, upgrade not clear, call and see if leaving an hour early or later there is any V seats left. I'm always amazed how say a 1pm can leave with with a full Y and F, and the 2pm can go out with 5 empty in F and 30 in Y (happed to me yesterday)

Of coure some of my like of this program comes from the fact that it is free for me)

Who gets it waived? Just PM, or GMs and SMs too?

Also, save me the search time.... when did this new policy go into effect? Its not so bad when travelling alone, but get a family of 4 and all of a sudden you're looking at $100 extra - or $200 if you've got to make a connection and "stand by" on both legs.

shuttle standby
 

i dont know if it was just a sunday thing or what, but two times in the past two months i've gotten to LGA about an hour and 15 minutes before my scheduled departure and just literally walked onto the one prior to it, not paying any fees or whatnot. for instance, this past Sunday, i was booked on the 7:30PM LGA-DCA shuttle. I got to the gate at 6:20PM. walked up and asked if i could get on the 6:30. The agent asked if i had checked any luggage. When i said "no" she said go ahead- and i was on the 6:30.. is this just a Sunday thing? i know that on Friday nights they are militant about not letting you on the 6:30 flight without paying $100...

SMs and regular members pay $25 for same-day confirmed if a seat is available, and cannot go standby.

GMs and PMs can do complimentary same-day confirmed as many times as they want, and if a seat is not available, a GM or PM can go standby.

Same-day confirmed and same-day standby can only be requested within 3 hours of the desired flight - no earlier under any circumstances or else it counts as a change, and you'll have to pay a change fee plus fare diff. This can be a pain if you're in flight when "3 hours before" happens and want to take the next flight out of your connecting city for whatever reason. PMs can call SMS from the plane gratis though.

As a side benefit for my $25 each time I’ve been “same day confirmed” my LUT fares have become Y netting more Miles. Maybe a fluke but more MQMs none the less.

That would make the $25 almost worth it - If the Company was paying.

It's a fluke and it means the agent that did it didn't know the proper way to do it.

Count yourself lucky and don't expect it to happen again on a same-day confirm. However, if you are rebooked because of cancellation, delay, or weather, you'll get the Y MQMs every time ;).

Not to point out more Delta idiocy, but does this make any sense at all? Whatever happened to the good old days when coach was coach and you didn't have to worry about what fare class you were booking in? Has it really gotten to the point where Delta wants its customers sitting around LAX on an LUT fare hoping for mechanical problem so they can get rebooked to a Y and triple their MQMs to New York? :rolleyes:

Hey, now you're thinkin! :D

[QUOTE=platbrownguy]SMs and regular members pay $25 for same-day confirmed if a seat is available, and cannot go standby.

GMs and PMs can do complimentary same-day confirmed as many times as they want, and if a seat is not available, a GM or PM can go standby.[\QUOTE]

Hmm, I am GM and I have been charged the $25...but have been happy to pay it to get a confirmed seat instead of playing the "hover at the gate game". It's also worth $25 to be able to confirm an exit aisle or an aisle when changing flights, rather than get stuck in a middle seat as a standbay....