canadiansemiFF

Was flying MCO-YYZ-YOW and ran into an annoying outcome. MCO-YYZ was scheduled for 21:45 - 00:26. Last YYZ-YOW flight is 00:30 so of course I couldn't book it and i booked a hotel near YYZ for the night and the 08:10 YYZ-YOW the next morning.

MCO-YYZ arrival was revised to 00:10 (or so) and YYZ - YOW was delayed to 00:40 (I know they keep that cabin door open until the last possible minute to accommodate late connects as I have taken that flight many times so I figured I had til ~00:32 to get to the gate). I got off the plane and raced through customs and to Domestic security (no time to go upstairs to the AC desk) thinking I had a shot of getting home. Turns out Domestic CATSA wouldn't let me through as I didn't have a boarding pass for "that day" and that my flight left "too far in the future". I tried to plead that it was past midnight and that it's not any different if I showed up at at 08:00 for a 16:00 flight but a) it was quickly obviously going to be fruitless and b) didn't want to get flagged or anything

Anyway - rather than this being a vent about what is probably a reasonable CATSA policy, I instead ask what would have given me the best shot at getting on the 00:30 YYZ-YOW? Would the MCO gate staff have given me a standby ticket? Or would I only ever have a chance if the 00:30 flight was so delayed that i would be able to go upstairs to the AC desk?

Thanks

songsc

Usually asking concierge helps somewhat.

yyznomad

Putting "CATSA" and "reasonable" in the same sentence is blasphemous.

RangerNS

Concierge, ticketing, the desk. And avoiding security entirely by taking the bus.

canadiancow

Was there no one at the connection desk?

If they put you on standby, they can print out a SBY boarding pass, and then you'd have no issue getting through security.

In the future, getting added to the standby list in MCO might have been the best option, since then you'd have likely cleared by the time you landed.

canadiansemiFF

Thanks should have clarified. It was a ghost-town. The expedited Customs booth to go from F to D via the bus had shut down for the night and there was not a soul in the little AC connections area when you come out of the baggage hall. Good to know for the future that the MCO gate agents likely were the best option.

I was probably being generous. There didn't seem to be a specific rule they were following as both the arriving 8 hours early for a flight and the fact that my flight was "today" logic fell on deaf ears to the front-line person and her supervisor. He just shrugged and said his hands were tied, those were the rules.

yyznomad

When they say "that day", they really mean "operational day" even though technically it is after midnight.
In this situation, I would have preempted by engaging AC staff to assist. How much better that may have resulted for you... I'll let others speculate.

RangerNS

Your standby priority is also be somewhat determined by when you ask.

montrealer

The "correct on paper" answer would be 1) MCO AC staff, 2) Connections desk outside customs, 3) Domestic check-in desks on level 3, and of course 0) Concierge if eligible. CATSA were going according to the rules, and so by the way the "expedited Customs" F-->D booth would probably not have been able to let you through either (not 100% sure of this).

In your specific situation, MCO AC staff was certainly worth a try, though I *think* they are contract employees rather than genuine AC ones, and so may not have been experienced/authorized/competent to make it happen. Sounds like 2) was abandoned, and so 3) was your only remaining option.

canadiancow

I'm not sure that's true (I actually have no idea what breaks the tie for standby after cabin, status, and fare class), except in the sense that if you're added after the onload list is processed, you're effectively below non-revs.

RangerNS

Fair enough, thought sooner is always better. OP did theorize that last flight of the night is held as long as possible for late CX. A loan STBY who has a perfectly good morning flight might not be waited for, but it might tip the balance.

Are GAs KPId on OTP and load factor?