nigos

I think the interpretation of rules for $25 charges to confirm flight changes within 24 hours is highly variable and depends entirely upon the level of training for the ticket agent. For example, two weeks ago in Atlanta, a RCC agent insisted that I needed to pay 2 X $25 to take an earlier flight from ATL to ORD and continuing on my to my final destination on an earlier connecting flight. This second flight was scheduled to depart 3.5 hours from the time the agent charged me the $50. The irony is my original flight was delayed and I would have missed my original connection. On the other hand, early this week my Mesa flight into ORD was 5 minutes early and I was able to get to a gate where an earlier (illegal) connection was waiting for crew. The gate agent immediately confirmed a seat without charge and eventually upgraded me to first.

LilZeppelin

I believe that can be found in the detailed fare terms. However, I would not be surprised if the agents do not know what they are saying. Last November, I wanted to confirm on an earlier flight at DCA, and the agent was checkin clueless, babbling about 100$ change fee. As she was "finding out", I dipped my credit card in the Easy Chicken, confirmed the flight and the upgrade. It took some time to have my checked in bag tags retrieved from an agent - that clueless.

itsme

I think you were overcharged by $25, and that it would have been an overcharge even if the second flight had been 4.5 hours off rather than 3.5. At least that is my understanding based on discussion with CSR about confirmed standby when seeking to go earlier than originally scheduled on initial flight and then an earlier than originally scheduled connecting flight. (I don't have actual experience of this, however, since I was only "accelerating" one flight with my $25 confirmed standby.)

What has been the experience of others with $25 confirmed standby where there were subsequent connections? Will $25 cover just the first flight in the itinerary or will the same $25 cover subsequent connections too? (It would be great if the $25 would cover all subsequent connections, including the "return" portion of an all-in-a-day multisegment MR.)

ozstamps

We are told via a verbal memo recitation post that this fee has now been waived for 1Ks.

Has any 1K needed to use this in the past week since this apparently has been kosher, and can they confirm the fee was waived please?

itsme

You really are skeptical! Didn't Tilton(?) contact you directly about the fee waiver?

thegingerman

Wow, free confirmed change for 1Ks. That's great!

camachinist

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthrea...fee+waiver+UGS

The waiver applies to UGS as well

Pat

TravelManKen

Any FT'ers have any luck with the confirmed standby changing between LGA/EWR to ORD or DEN? I have a flight this Saturday EWR-DEN-SMF, that I would like to change to LGA-DEN-SMF. The connection works fine with either routing.

exerda

Maybe that's why I never got charged as a 1K! And all this time, I just thought the agents were being courteous.


IIRC, you aren't supposed to be able to use the confirmed standby with a change in airports. (Not to mention that EWR and LGA aren't even considered co-terminals for standby purposes as it is, unfortunately). YMMV.

exerda

Hmm... IAD/DCA is considered the "same point" for free standby purposes absent any airport provisions of the fare rules, as are JFK/LGA and ORD/MDW. However, IIRC, the confirmed standby rules seem to state that you cannot change your routing, and thus agents might see that as a disallowed change.

(In practice, IAD/DCA would be the only airport pair theoretically "allowed" for confirmed standby anyway, and only then on connections via ORD or rarely DEN... since anywhere else definitely involves a real change in routing; other multiple airport metro areas aren't allowed for standby in the rules at all, like SFO/OAK/SJC and LAX/BUR/SNA/ONT.)

espostor

This is what the rules say about changing routing (as well as confirming changes on "downline" flights on the itinerary):
While it doesn't explicitly say that "identical routing" precludes multi-terminal airports, that's definitely been the interpretation I've encountered, from the 1K desk all the way to the ICC.

However, I did experience the fee waiver for 1Ks today! ^ Very cool, and not even a hesitation by the reservations desk.

Something that had me was that the gate agent at LAX had no idea what I was talking about when I asked for confirmed standby. I was trying to go on earlier LAX-SFO and SFO-CIC flights, and while she was able to just confirm me via normal standby on LAX-SFO, she kept saying that she could do nothing for me on the SFO-CIC flight because "that change would only be for if there's weather or other problems." I gave up and called the 1k desk and it was done. Anyone else have similar experiences with gate agents?

Pat89339

Does any 1k have experience using the confirmed standby where you have non-1k traveling companions on the same PNR? Are the non-1ks fees waived along with the 1ks?

heffa

I want to change my flight from JFK to LGA.

The original post doesn't specifically state coterminals for confirmed standby, but post #131 does for regular airport standby.

S*FAR/STANDBY:
Does this mean that I can or cannot go standby from LGA instead of JFK? And does it only apply to normal standby (asked at the airport) or can I call and do a confirmed standby (over phone)?

The reason I ask is that I just called and the CSR said not without a $350 change fee...

nnn

I have no experience with this, but you could argue that the confirmed standby rules say "same connection city" (see post 161), so you could argue that JFK/LGA are a single city in UA parlance, even though they are not the same airport.

heffa

I just learned from http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=601431 that JFK/LGA are "Multi-terminal cities" not "Co-terminal cities". However, my question is if this apply to Confirmed Standby (over phone) or only regular Standby (requested at airport)???