So I did a SIN MR this past weekend, and just had my last (domestic) leg to go.

After exiting customs, I put myself in for standby on an earlier flight home. I made it to the gate and saw I was was #3 on the stand by list. As the flight was ready to go luck would have it that they had three seats. I got my confirmed boarding pass with seat number.

There was someone in my seat. Turns out the reader failed to register his BP as he boarded. So off the plane I went, and put in for standby on the next flight.

It suddenly occurred to me today that as I was holding a confirmed BP, and they made me stay, was I IDB'ed? And what's the best way to get compensation.

I know that the 'morality' of such a claim is questionable as I only had the BP for moments before finding out I was going to be left behind, on the other hand UA has not had a great track record of 'doing the right thing' in recent years - so I'm not gonna lose too much sleep over my taking advantage of them.

What was the difference in scheduled arrival time for the flight you were DB'd from and the flight you took?

It was minimal. A couple of hours, but they didn't confirm me - it was the luck of the draw that I made it on.

Actually it was luck - and vigilance: I noticed that while I had been number one on the standby list for the second flight, I disappeared right as boarding started, so Iw net to the counter figuring they had just cleared me. It turns out the GA fro the first flight never took me off of that flight so the system cancelled my standby reservation fro the second one. Luckily they were able to resolve the confusion before processing the standby list.

It is an IDB although UA will claim that you were a standby passenger who happened to be given a seat by accident. Write in and expect a good amount of miles/e-cert and if not satisfied, complain to the DOT.

Seriously?

I would only be concerned if they had removed you from your original confirmed flight and you didn't get any standby before then and then not able to make the original flight. Any flight you got before your original flight is a bonus for you. If you got home at your original flight or earlier from a different successful standby, don't ask for anything, and I don't think you ore due anything. But if it screwed you up and you got home later than your original flight, then you would be due something.

Are you saying Mr. Pescado's proposal sounds a bit fishy?

It's a great example of how goodwill plays in every relationship. From the original post: "I know that the 'morality' of such a claim is questionable as I only had the BP for moments before finding out I was going to be left behind, on the other hand UA has not had a great track record of 'doing the right thing' in recent years - so I'm not gonna lose too much sleep over my taking advantage of them."

If UA played a bit better, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Oh come now, long before the merger when UA led the nation in performance and was very generous with loyalty programs,there were even more threads at how to take advantage of UA and get certs for everything. This has nothing to do with getting one over on UA for what they think is fair retribution, it's simply a question of if one can ethically try to get a gain for no loss, and this has been going on since this board first was created.

Pescado, fishy=

you win FT today ^^^

I know how the walk of shame back to Economy or off the aircraft entirely feels so I'm not unsympathetic by any means. But you took your original flight after you tried to SDC onto an earlier one and still got home on time?

Claim? By the OP's description of events, it would seem that that isn't just a potential "claim" by UA but in fact was what actually happened.

I don't think it's IDB. One requirement of being an IDB is that you hold a confirmed reservation for the flight. The OP didn't. The fact that they got a boarding pass means that they were a cleared standby passenger, not that they became a confirmed passenger once the BP was issued. You will notice that the monitors, website, and app will all show such a passenger as a "cleared standby" passenger - that is, they don't lose the distinction of being standby once the BP is issued.