United Drops $100 Stand By Fee
 

Good move United, now let's all watch the others follow suit. Gee maybe United is listening, maybe they really do want and appreciate our business.

Wishful thinking: Maybe they'll bring back United Connection! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

With their bankruptcy announcements, I was somehow expecting to see this. Glad they are doing it as there would have been a lot of angry freq fliers.

This is sort of like the answer to the question:

What do you call fifty lawyers at the bottom of the Hudson River?

A Good Start!

kmc

finally...i was starting to worry this was here to stay...

I will not allow this to stick! I demand to see the bankruptcy judge! How dare UA give away what little earning power they have. What will they do next? Offer double miles? Remove the requirement to stay a Saturday night? Will UA follow my arch enemy AW in pricing policy? Look what I did to AW, I vanquished them from my FF buddies! I will not stand for one less dinosaur in the airline industry.

OMG..there is intelligence in the airline industry afterall

Lets see, we are losing money, we are in bankruptcy, what should we do? I have an idea, lets do anything and everything to show our customers we want their business. Lets remove stupid rules that benefit no one. Good for United. Lets hope some of the other airlines get it.

rawbert

Thank you United http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Makes a lot of sense. A lot of people would otherwise just take their original flight - which DOES NOT make sense.

For example, Joe shows up at airport 3 hours early. Next AAA/BBB flight is in 45 mins with 20 empty Y seats. He wants on it. His original flight is just about sold out. Offloading him opens up 1 Y seat. Mark shows up at airport an hour later and there's a full Y fare that UA sells him and Joe is already out of town. It always makes sense to get people out of the originating airport ASAP if there are seats. It also makes sense not to penalize people if there was some traffic or security nightmare by offering a same-day standby seat.

Actually, charging for standby does make economic sense. I could explain that otherwise customers just buy the cheapest flight of the day and fly at peak time. But it's simpler just to say that Southwest has been doing it for years. They didn't do it to imitate others (they were the first), but because it works to extract peak prices for peak-hour flights. I personally dislike this policy, but its economic foundation is indisputable.

kcvt750

very smart...anyone else you would like to put down while wasting everyones time with inappropiate comments.

Sorry FT's but this stuff has to STOP somewhere. I probably should have the good taste to ignore it like the other commenters

Smart business move for UA at this time.

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~ Glen ~ Calling all United 1K Members - please join .. www.1Kflyers.com

Yes, but keep in mind that on Southwest you just pay the full fare, which is often MUCH less then an additional $100 over an advance purchase fare.

Thanks, United!

List of somewhat customer-friendly airlines:
United
Southwest
AirTran
JetBlue
AmericaWest
... to be continued