Hello everyone!

I've been lurking for a while and had a question with regard to standing by for an earlier flight. I've done my fair share of flying this year already but have come across a connundrum.

I'm scheduled to fly from GFK-MSP-DTW tomorrow morning and am looking to escape on an earlier flight out of GFK. In the past, I've been able to make a quick run to the NW ticket counter here (operated by Pinnacle, whose service as of late has been more miss and less hit) and be added to the standby list for flights the next day.

When I tried to do the same thing today, one employee told me there were four seats open, with no one on the list and to use the self check-in to put myself on the list. He then went off to talk with one of the rental car agents.

After spending about two minutes doing battle with the self-checkin machine (my 2007 SE card has seen better days) I wasn't able to pull up any standby options. Another A-Team Pinnacle employee came out at that time, searched on his computer and said that there were no seats available and no way to add someone to the standby list saying "uh...I think there's a time limit or something." After challenging that idea I realized I wasn't going to get anywhere I left.

I've called the SE line and asked them what to do. They said to go back to the airport. I decided after lurking here for a while to ask you guys.

Is there a time limit for being added to the revenue standby list? Do the contract stations have limits on adding people to the list? I'm pretty tempted to fill out a TTU, although I've filled out a fair share lately and don't want to get branded as a complainer :-P.

NW offers a 'confirmed standby' option known as 'Fly Now'. Assuming you're not on a full Y or J fare, it requires inventory in the same class you have ticketed - L, Q, whatever. There are time limits. See this for details.

http://www.nwa.com/corpinfo/newsc/20...220051584.html

Last time I was trying to extend a MSP stay I think the rubric was six hours max (this worked for me, getting a 9am flight before a 250pm connection).

Also, as Fly Now goes, there were discrepant posts and threads on this, but the final word from NW Scoop was that if you are booked in T you do not need to have T seats available in order to FlyNow--as long as their is ANY availability in ANY coach bucket you can do fly now.

Not true in my experience; do you have a link to that post? (Not doubting you, just would be interested to read it)

After a great meeting over the weekend, I'm now back where I started.

It would appear that the "standby" and "fly now" options are both made available at 12AM on the day of departure on the website, irregardless of how early the flight may be. When I logged on after that time, the site offered to list me on the 5AM flight out of GFK (no thanks!).

In any case, the standby game worked out perfectly for me...made both earlier flights and arrived at my destination two hours early for a change.