Just to clarify the situation. The 4 SYD pax were not standbys. They were transferred over as confirmed pax. OP was and remained #1 on the standby list, as BP5B. Too bad the flight went out full, but about the only issue here is a case of bruised ego.

good, you were not entitled to those seats by being a 1K.

Doesn't UA help 1K's out with hotel accommodations on overnight misconnects, regardless of cause? (That is, they don't play the "weather" card and tell you to beat it...) I thought I read this somewhere in the Wiki or FAQ thread here.

In any case, overnighting at SFO probably inconveniences you by a couple of actual waking hours at most, considering how many SFO-LAX flights there are every day. I'm glad UA took care of the four Sydney pax - I would hope that if I'm ever in that same situation, a quick-thinking CSR would get me taken care of and save me a full day of travel.

I had one case last year where I misconnected to the final ORD-LHR flight of the day. Snowstorm in Chicago...UA wasn't obligated to do much for me. Fortunately, I had a good agent on the phone: she said "Start heading towards T5 and look for SAS. I will work on your ticket." In that span of 10 minutes, she managed to get me onto an SAS flight minutes before the door closed and I made it to London three hours late (via Copenhagen) instead of a full day late. ^

So clearly, they do sometimes recognize that missing a long-haul international flight is a pain, and they try to rectify it when they can.

did you ask about rerouting on AS either to LA directly or to SFO? This has happened to me *many* times on UA when leaving SEA or PDX when a flight is delayed, and I've always gotten a reroute. It's great because I usually get a nonstop to wherever I'm going versus the connecting flight I had booked on UA. Once, I even was on a plane and got off and got re-ticketed right there. Once (cancelled/mechanical), I got rebooked on AS w/o even calling. But i have *never* been said no to at PDX when asked for a reroute on AS for weather delays. The UA agents at pdx are not nice to me, but a little pleading always got me to my final destination, and oftne times earlier than my scheduled arrival.

Wow!

I for one would rather re-schedule with a client and be inconvenienced work wise, than miss a part of my vacation. Did they say they were going on vacation, or is this an assumption? They could have been going for a special surgery, or to visit a relative before they died.

Seriously, assuming it is a vacation, Missing a vacation that people save up for and are going on to relax is quite serous. 4 PAX being stranded for 24 hours. That is a big deal. Not to mention, assuming they were on vacation, they probably have non-refundable hotels, etc. And clients are for more understanding of travel delays due to weather than hotels in another country.


Whenever I have been stranded overnight due to WX, I have always been put up on an Inter Continental or Sheridan by UA. Never a Red Roof Inn.

You don't want to know the answer, because it's certainly not you.

That doesn't make any sense. Basically, you're saying that I got screwed b/c I got an agent that wasn't willing to bend the rules and confirm me outside of the 20min window b/c the flight was oversold, whereas another agent was.

And to be clear, that other agent confirmed them when they didn't have the inventory. They only had 3 seats available when she confirmed all 4, and ended up waiting for a no-show to get the 4th on.

Wow...I fast-forwarded and missed that post about the 4 vacationing in SYD.

That changes things a bit for me. If the five of us had been standing there at the gate and there were 4 seats available, I would have insisted that UA make sure to overlook my 1K status and get them to Australia as fast as possible - figure me out after they're onboard and on their way. I'll make phone calls and reset my meetings...clients are generally understandable about weather delays because they've been there too. I'd hate to see four people lose a day of vacation because of a misconnect.

Priorities? Easy call. Theirs > Yours. By far. Again, I'm glad UA got it right.

What's the point of being 1K if vacation or length of delay takes priority? Is not a main value for status the ability to get to point A by time Y during irreg ops? Otherwise, why not just fly southwest?

Why are you a 1K? Do you like shoving your status in other people's faces, just so that you can make a business meeting? I'm sure you have canceled a few of those in your life time for dumb reasons.

That has nothing to do with status. Some things just come first. Sounds like southwest may be the way for you to go.

What about the other SYD bound passengers waiting in line with me at CSC? Should they have DB'd other passengers for them? This whole talk of 'priority' is skewed. You may value vacation as the priority, but I value my work as a priority. Who's more important? There's no objective answer, and so that's why status should matter and be a factor.

No, but the value of status is during irreg ops. Otherwise, its all the same. Board first, board last, who cares if you don't need overhead space. The whole reason for maintaining 1K is so that I can get home on thursday nights when ORD is starting to get shut down. Or making that SEA-LAX flight when there's a misconnect in SFO.

Again, what is the objective measure for 'first'? You value vacation, I value work. The entire point of this post is I was under the impression that 1K was 'first'. If there is a UA policy that states Int'l mis-connects takes priority over Domestic mis-connects, even when both would result in overnight stays, then fine. That's their policy, and the objective measure for 'first.' All this b.s. talk of vacation vs. work is all subjective and really pointless.

This does not appear to be a case where UA IDB'ed anyone on the SFO-LAX flight. You failed to make a standby list and now you're whinging about it. Nobody's talking about a DB situation (whether V or I).

What should matter? Common sense and human decency are what matters. Four people on a full day delay. You showing up in LA by midmorning instead of late night...a delay of 2 or3 waking hours.

Even my five-year-old would understand this.

In my experience, in IrOps, all bets are off and Status may get perks like a free hotel, but not much else when tehere are IrOps.

Status gets things like, boarding priority, exit rows, E+, upgrades, shorter lines, etc.

You brought it up.