Northwest axes its standby program
While yesterday’s guest blogger Tyler Colman couldn’t hop on the earlier flight of his choice on American Airlines, he should thank his lucky stars that American still actually has free standby as an option.
Today, with a press release that trumpets the good news and buries the sad reality, Northwest proudly proclaimed the expansion of its “FlyNow option,” which allows travelers to confirm flight changes on the day of travel for a $25 fee. But here’s the real nitty-gritty:
Northwest WorldPerks Elite customers will still maintain the ability to stand by for alternate flights throughout the entire day of departure and will not incur a fee if a seat becomes available. Beginning April 24, all other customers traveling on non-refundable tickets will be charged a $25 fee for same day flight changes, whether boarding via standby status or confirming through the FlyNow option. The $25 fee for boarding via standby status replaces the current option that allows non-Elite customers traveling on non-refundable tickets to stand by for eligible flights at no cost.
Bottom line: Free standby is gone at Northwest, much like it’s no longer available at US Airways. You’ll pay $25 to confirm, or to standby. Why isn’t there a discount for the non-guaranteed standby option?? (Hat tip to reader Sarah in the comments!)
United kills Silver Wings Plus and Ameniti
United has pulled the plug on its two travel clubs. Silver Wings Plus, aimed at seniors, and Ameniti, targeting paying business and first class flyers, are closing shop at the end of June 2007. Ameniti was fairly short-lived, but Silver Wings Plus was around forever. The clubs each cost money to join and provided discounts for certain tickets. (Ameniti gave free companion tickets on full-fare tickets.) But therein was the problem. Much like learning the rules of a frequent flyer program seems to require an advanced degree, the rules for getting the benefit of these clubs weren’t always obvious. Members will receive prorated membership fee refunds. (Thanks to reader Richard!)
Delta to offer carbon offsets
Travelers feeling guilty about the carbon emissions spewing out of their plane’s jet engines will be able to buy carbon offsets through the Delta website beginning June 1. It won’t be mandatory, like all-business class Silverjet requires. It’s more like Expedia and Travelocity’s optional offsets.
Some seat changes on American cost $15
Bought your American Airlines ticket from a travel agent or website other than aa.com? Then you’ll pay $15 to change your seat assignment over the phone with the airline. Seat changes via the American website are still free.
(image)
RSS (FeedBurner)
Read with Amazon Kindle
Subscribe by E-mail
Follow on Twitter
April 18th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
This is something that has always confounded me. I don’t understand airline economics in the least, but it seems to me that if I show up early for a flight and there is a seat on an earlier flight, why not let me have it so long as all of the higher status customers have been taken care of? If the seat flies empty there is no revenue. If I fly in it there is attributable revenue for that flight and very little in incremental cost. In addition, the airline has a few more hours to sell the seat I would have occupied had I flown as scheduled.
Am I making sense?
April 19th, 2007 at 6:31 am
Yes, that’s the problem.
April 19th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Yes, this makes perfect sense. And therein lies the problem…trying to apply logic to an illogical situation.
It’s a pity…I was a loyal customer of a certain airline for years. I had to stop being loyal, because my loyalty wasn’t appreciated.
Service across the board is declining, and soon one gets the impression they’ll be charged to use the lav! Perhaps the airline companies think along the same lines as oil companies…”People will ALWAYS need to use our services, so we can set whatever price we want”. At least the low-cost, no-frills airlines spell it out very clearly ahead of time as to what you are getting for the price you pay.
I always flew the “majors†but no longer. Now, I get better service for a better price with a better attitude on the “Budget†airlines…because they’re trying to get my business. Seems the majors are trying to lose my business.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:01 pm
I’ll do ya one better.
I got to the airport early. Was not allowed the option of taking an earlier flight. Then my flight was delayed several hours due to mechanical problems. The airline did put me on another carriers flight, and still gave me extra frewuent flier points for the dealy. Who won in that case? Certainly not my original carrier.
April 19th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
SAS and BMI offer carbon off-sets as well.
April 19th, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Your logic makes sense, Mark, but there’s a counterargument: I think the reason many airlines try to avoid free standby is that they want to price peak-hour flights at higher prices than off-peak flights. If everyone bought the cheap fares and then stood by for the peak-hour flights, they wouldn’t sell as many higher priced peak-hour tickets. It’s my understanding that this is why Southwest doesn’t do a traditional free standby.
That said, smart inventory management could estimate the number of passengers who would want to standby for earlier flights, on average, and could build a little more flexibility into the policy.
As a fan of standby, I fear it may be on the way out.
April 22nd, 2007 at 11:06 pm
[...] Northwest discontinues free standby. WTF. [...]
November 4th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Airline employees have seen their wages and benefits disintegrate. One of the last benefits they had was low cost standby travel. These employees despise the policies that allow standby passengers to to displace them to later flights, while their airline derives no quantifiable financial benefit. An employee used to be able to choose a flight they were likely to be accomodated on, but with all of the free random standby passengers, there is absolutely no way to predict if it will be possible to travel. It is one thing to have a desirable premium passenger fly standby for free, but quite a different scenario to have the rest of the passengers (loyal only to the cheapest flight), get this service for free. It also creates alot of extra work for the agents. You will likely find that the airlines that treat their employees best (Delta, Southwest) have policies against free standby travel. The airlines that treat their employees worst (American, US Air) are glad to have this anti employee policy.