On a future itin I noticed that there is a flight that leaves 10 min b4 and gets in 2hr earlier due to connecting in different city. I called NW and they told me I could have agent at airport if there's room assign me to both flights at checkin without incurring a fee or risking standby. I was under impression you have to standby for each flight at each airport. Is the agent correct.

I thought so too, that you have to stand by for each flight segment. However, when I flew MCO-DTW-SYR last August, I requested to stand by for an earlier flight from MCO to DTW. Surprisingly, the agent immediately confirmed me for an earlier DTW-SYR flight also!

Try to get what the phone agent said documented in your PNR.

- Pat

i've always found NW very pleasant about this. i've *never* had to standby at the second airport on NW--compare with delta, which will make you standby at each airport, even when there's 50+ seats open, and all fare classes are available. i've also had NW route me thru a different hub--cleared all the way thru--to get me home early.

edited to add: if inventory is not available in your paid class, they may send you to the gate to stand by. if inventory is available all the way thru, i'd be surprised if they don't just clear you at checkin.


[This message has been edited by Seat1A (edited 03-03-2003).]

???

Between seats maybe....



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Not sure where I'm going, but I'm getting there fast.

The question is correct per a NWA csr they said you would be put all the way thru if you get the first flight if you go to a different city IE: MSP instead off DTW. That is because you don't have a seat on flight # XXX from MSP so they can't make you wait for that flight b/c you are not gauaranteed a seat on any flight from MSP like you are if you go to DTW. So you would be put all the way thru. Maybe som bonus miles if someone can work it out.

Who knows maybe someone could work the system if someone wanted to book MSP-LAS but standby by for MSP-MEM-MSP-LAS (no straight flights MEM-LAS)

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Sorry mama i gots to get all the miles i can

Brian

I'm not sure they'd want to let you standby for a flight connecting through a different city unless they could get you covered on both legs... it's not to anyone's benefit for you to get stranded at at intermediate airport.

I can see it (although it's a pain) if you are flying FLL-DTW-SFO, and standby on an earlier FLL-DTW flight hoping to make the earlier DTW-SFO flight. After all, if you get to DTW and don't make the earlier flight, you still have a seat on the original (later) flight.

But if you standby on an FLL-MSP flight, and don't make the MSP-SFO flight, well, you're stuck. You're protected on a later DTW-SFO flight, but you're not in DTW

Steve

Steve they won't send you to MSP unless they have you booked on the second flight per the CSR.

A couple of weeks ago I flew for work:
MKE-DTW-ABE, B class
On the way home I turned it into a mileage run. If I returned ABE-DTW-MKE, the price was like over $700, with B class all the way through. So I did a little investigating and found
ABE-DTW-MKE-MSP-SFO-MSP-MKE, for about $530, booked in K class for these 6 last segments. I really wanted ABE-DTW-MSP-SFO-MSP-MKE, I didn't want to stop back in MKE. When I booked this online, they had muliple itins without MKE segments for the same $530 but because K class was booked from DTW-MSP on the later flights in the day, I'd have to leave ABE at 9am get on a K class DTW-MSP flight. Going through MKE I was able to leave ABE around 12noon. I called the elite line they told me I could standby for the DTW-MSP flights. When I got to DTW and went to be put on the standby list, they said no. Asked multiple people, one lady even called her help desk and they said no. They said because my ticket was $530 I had to fly that exact same routing. I wish I would have printed out the fare rules (for routing info) and NWA.com's routing selections, to show the people at the airport that the DTW-MSP flights where an option but had to leave earlier out of ABE.

Has anybody else had this problem. You start a milage run and decide screw it I just want to get home and they don't allow you fly standby on more direct routings.

scklumb, did you ever follow up with nwa.com customer service?

i have a sfo-msp-dtw-lga connection coming up, and was wondering if i can standby for a msp-lga flight (instead of connecting through dtw). do they really care as long as your final destination is the same?

I think what made my situation different was 2 things. First the agents thought I had 2 different round trips. mke-dtw-abe-dtw-mke, and mke-msp-sfo-msp-mke (which I didn't). They looked up the fare from ABE to SFO and they had a special for ~$200. Another problem I had was the mke-msp-sfo was a direct flight. The one agent told me since the system looks at like one flight, it would not regcognize me going through MSP.

I think you'll be OK. The agent told me that I can fly standby for any nonstop flights throughout my itin to shorten it up. But because of the 2 situations above, I wasn't able to.

I still wonder if anyone else has had similar situations.

Why did I even bother to attempt to read this thread?! Oh, my head hurts .

[This message has been edited by keithguy (edited 03-04-2003).]

Sorry to dispute what was said by another agent...but, this is incorrect. Standby is just that...standby...on all flights involved. That being said, in many cases, we do book the downline leg (confirmed) if/when you are boarded at the origin (especially if plenty of seats are available) but this is not policy and there is the risk of not being boarded on your connection leg when flying on a standby basis.

Did you get your head stuck in the between seat again?



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Not sure where I'm going, but I'm getting there fast.