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As we all know, most standby tickets are issued in Y, but occasionally it is also possible to get standby tickets issued in C class. For instance: my airline has an agreement with LX (carried over from the good old SN/SR times) allowing us to get standby tickets in business class on SWISS. Whereas this is obviously great, it also makes things more complicated to understand (at least for me) http://www.nonrev.net/forums/style_e...>/rolleyes.gif
I've used it once so far and it worked great, but then the flight wasn't full (not in C nor in Y) so there wasn't any real chance for any problems with it, but it has made me think about what would have happened if things were less than ideal?
My question is thus double:
1- If I recall corectly, my staff office issued our STBY travel tickets in C class with LX as ordinary ZED tickets to give us more flexibility, rather than as an ID95 (or whatever) ticket on LX alone; if I'd used the ticket on another ZED carrier however, would I then also get a business seat (provided there is one available obviously) since that is the class I was standing by for, or would I automatically have been downgraded to Y, even with C class seats available and the corresponding ZED fare paid for it?
2- Where am I in the priority list?
If Y class were overbooked and C class had open seats, would I still get the seat as a C class standby pax, or would they upgrade a full fare Y class pax and drop me in Y (or even worse: leave me behind!)?
Thanks for any meaningful replies.
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1- If I recall corectly, my staff office issued our STBY travel tickets in C class with LX as ordinary ZED tickets to give us more flexibility, rather than as an ID95 (or whatever) ticket on LX alone; if I'd used the ticket on another ZED carrier however, would I then also get a business seat (provided there is one available obviously) since that is the class I was standing by for, or would I automatically have been downgraded to Y, even with C class seats available and the corresponding ZED fare paid for it?
<blockquote>Ultimately, it will depend on your agreement with the new transporting carrier. If, for example, you are ticketed in a market served by both LX and AA and you used the ticket on AA you would not be considered for travel in any cabin other than Y because the AA/SN agreement includes Y cabin only. If it were in a market served by LX and LH and your agreement with LH included C class, then LH would consider you eligible for access to C. </blockquote>
2- Where am I in the priority list?
If Y class were overbooked and C class had open seats, would I still get the seat as a C class standby pax, or would they upgrade a full fare Y class pax and drop me in Y (or even worse: leave me behind!)?
<blockquote>Again, depends on your agreement first and then that transporting carrier's own boarding policy. Some carriers upgrade commercials before they upgrade staff others have the reverse policy, both for very good reasons. One other scenario to keep in mind, you purchase a C class ticket but are accommodated in Y because C was full. Are you entitled to a refund and which carrier is responsible for issuing the refund? Is it the carrier that sold you the ticket or the one who holds the coupon (value) of the ticket? </blockquote>
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Thanks for your reply.
Since it took a while before anybody came up with an answer and I had some time to spare at the office, I went up to the staff travel office at my airline myself and asked them how it worked.
Seems they just issue a regular ZED ticket (so for travel in Y clas) and LX just 'knows' that it should upgrade SN staff to C class whenever possible, just as it does with its own staff (and in return SN does the same to LX staff then).
As such, whenever switching to another airline, we should just expect a seat in Y class there indeed, but then we've only paid for Y class as well.
Now, the agreement between SN/LX dates back to the Sabena/Swissair days, but with SN (now Brussels Airlines) and LX under the same roof again (that of LH: Lufthansa), there's a change it might also come to include LH in the future indeed.
As far as I know LH staff can travel in C class on standby basis at their own airline: anybody around here knows whether that's also valid for LX staff when flying LH (and vice versa)? If it is, then that's good news for me... :-)
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I think AA ZED has answered the question well ......
I'd like to point out a couple of things from my own experience.
When you present yourself to a ticket counter, generally, time permitting, the agent will look at the bilateral agreements.
However, what I have found, 9/10, a check in agent will accept the ticket regardless what agreement you have.
In fairness, in these times, there's money on the ticket, you only board if there is a seat, I doubt if your own carrier will decline the billing via interline, providing
the coupons are billed at face value.
United do not refund based on downgrades. So, if there is a Business Class ZED available on a particular carrier, as an employee, you are
expected to have a ticket issued in Y and C. If it transpires that only Y is available, you offer the Y coupon. There are no interactive refunds.
This is understandable. Given staffing levels these days, which Interline Department is going to request an adjustment from another carrier ........
I have found that boarding priorities are very debatable. For example, an alliance carrier may on ' paper ' stipulate that on ' paper ' alliance
carriers are boarded immediately after their own staff, I have found this to be inconsistent where said airline is handled by a Vendor.
