Quick question: Does anybody know how NW allocates seats to people on their standby lists?

I was at LAX yesterday, and as soon as LAX-DTW Flight 330 was delayed until later than Flight 334, I asked the Worldclubs attendant to put me (and my wife and daughter) on 334. She said it was oversold, but put us on the standby list.

She also put the two individual guys behind us on the list.

I overheard them talking about their Silver status. Being Platinum, I didn't think twice about it, that is, until we were at the gate. They got seats, we didn't.

Anybody know why this would happen?

I will give a plug to the PE line operator, who was able to rebook me in ~5 minutes time after they cancelled 330. Thank goodness for the hotline...beats the heck out of standing in line waiting for reticketing!!!

Pretty sure NW orders their standby list by mishandled pax then elites then everyone else. In theory you should have been higher on the list than the two silvers. Fare class (except full "Y") doesn't play into standby as far as I know.

I'm *guessing* that you didn't get the seats because you said there were three of you flying. Your original post implies that only two seats were available. If that's the case, you were probably overlooked by the GA and the seats given to the next two guys on the list. Just a guess.

-RM

Thanks, Rob.

It was impossible to distinguish when she made the transition from booked/ticketed passengers (without seats) to standby passengers. Considering it was oversold, maybe there were only two seats available for all of the standbys.

Just to wrap this up...

Customer service responded to my question. It seems that no unticketed passengers got on this flight. Apparently, the two guys I heard were receiving upgrades...they had already been ticketed.

Here's a surprise, though. Quoting NW's customer service:

That's interesting, because their website definitely says:

"Priority Airport Standby

SkyTeam Elite Plus and SkyTeam Elite members, when flying on the SkyTeam network have priority over other passengers when standing by at the airport for SkyTeam-operated flights.

Priority airport standby is not available on Korean Air."

Note, however, that it says nothing over priority within skyteam elite and elite+ members, when both are on the list.

What about non-revenue passengers? I was waitlisted today and did not receive a seat. One uniformed pilot was boarded and I assume he was working and that is why he was given priority. After boarding I swear that the GA's identified two open seats "up front" for FA use. Is this common? Flight was 808 HNL>MSP. They were asking for 7 VDB's and the final announced offer was $500 coupons and rebook in FC on NW222 (my ticketed flight 4 hours later).

Perhaps the FAs were prioritized because they had to get back to report to duty? No, it's not common for two seats on NW808, IME, to be reserved for FA use (although it very well could have been that the seats were inoperational). NW808 isn't long enough for pilot rest seats either.