This Is When A Diamond Status Comes Handy

To cut my unfortunate airport story short, I was being accidentally kicked out from a confirmed seat when I changed my booking 6 hours prior to my departure and at the end, I got put on 3 standby lists from Beijing to Hong Kong - in vain. 

This was when I knew I haven't flown often enough and when a Diamond Card comes handy!

The common wisdom is that the airline standby list is prioritised by status, fare class, and then time added to the standby list, in that order. That list is constantly re-prioritised as more people book, and that order holds true hours before departure, when departure management control kicks in.

All stranded passengers in standby tonight were being reaffirmed by ground staff that they will do their best to get us on to the next flight.  An hour passed, we waited for another. 630pm came and then 730pm flight came and gone and finally at 2030 hour, we were being told the last flight has been cancelled. 

First person to call:  My boss.


Told him all about the technical issues they had with the flights, numerous delays accumulated during the day and my flight was cancelled and I could only get on the first flight out the following day etc etc...hence the need to be excused for work. 

What I didn't tell him was the fact that I was put in a really pleasantly new hotel close to the airport, and got upgraded on my flight back!


I had no status on standby, but then who am I to complain when I could have breakfast like a king?