Introduction

The Standby Option of the MyFBO.com software provides the ability for customers / members to wait for resources to become available for rental.  Customers / members can wait for a particular aircraft (by tail number), a type of aircraft, and/or an instructor on a selected day and within a range of times.  If the subscriber allows multi-day scheduling by customers, then customers can also wait for a particular aircraft or type of aircraft across multiple days.  (Instructors cannot be wait listed for multi-day flights.)

Standby requests are entered into the subscriber's database as an alternate to entering a reservation -- by customers / members themselves or by the subscriber's staff.  Standby requests need not be as specific as reservations, i.e., a reservation must specify particular start and end times while a standby request includes the earliest start time, the latest end time, and a requested duration.  For example, a standby request could indicate a start time of 7:00 A.M., and end time of 7:00 P.M., and a duration of two hours. This means that any two-hour block within that time range would be acceptable to the customer / member.

All of the same "rules" apply to entering a standby request as to entering a reservation. The standby request can have a duration only as long as would otherwise be allowed.  And unless the standby request includes an instructor, the customer must be qualified according to the usual checks that are applied during the scheduling process.

Standby requests are sometimes created as a result of flight cancellations or reassignments at the discretion of the staff.  If a flight must be cancelled due to maintenance, the staff can also mark that request as "high priority," causing it to be considered first when aircraft time becomes available.

The Standby Option operates through the standby scanner -- the program that checks each standby request against available resource times.  

General Standby Parameters

The Standby Option is enabled by an Administrator in the Reservation Type Parameters on the Admin Tab / Parameters and Settings Menu. The Standby Option is an extra-cost feature and will be included in your monthly billing once enabled. Please see MyFBO.com Current Rates for more information.  

Once the option is enabled, an entire menu of standby parameters will become available to the System Administrator on the Admin Tab / Parameters and Settings Menu.  

The most important selection is the mode of operation:

• Fully Automatic -- The standby scanner is triggered by flight cancellations or other changes in your schedule.  Time assignments or notifications are made automatically by the online system.  
   
• Semi-Automatic -- The standby scanner is triggered by the staff.  Time assignments or notifications are made automatically by the online system.  In semiautomatic mode, the online system provides timed reminders to the staff when a standby scan is needed.
   
• Manual -- The standby scanner is triggered by the staff and time assignments are made by the staff.  Manual mode also changes the way that the online system processes aircraft cancellations -- converting canceled time to "held time" for future assignment by the standby scanner.

Additional selections for all modes of operation include:

• Which standby requests have preference.  Standby  requests marked "high priority" are always considered first.  This parameter determines whether standby requests with the greatest requested duration or standby requests that are the oldest are considered next.  Processing requests from oldest to most recent may be "fairer" to customers / members while processing requests from longest to shortest may increase resource utilization.
   
• Whether a customer / member must have an e-mail address on file to enter standby requests.  This is particularly important when fully automatic or semi-automatic operation is selected, as the online system notifies customers by e-mail.  If time becomes available for a customer with no e-mail address, the notification is sent to the subscriber's general e-mail address who must then notify the customer by phone.

Automatic Modes

In fully-automatic mode, the standby option manages all facets of the assignment of time to customers / members.  The standby scanner runs automatically each time a reservation is canceled by a customer, and requests permission to run after every cancellation or reassignment by staff.

In semi-automatic mode, the subscriber's staff determines when the standby scanner runs.  The standby scanner manages the assignment of time to customers / members.

Parameters for Automatic Operation

Parameters related to both fully-automatic and semi-automatic operation include:

• Whether conversion of standby requests to reservation is required, allowed, or not allowed.  If "required," the standby scanner always converts standby requests to reservations.  If "not allowed," standby requests are never converted to reservations.  If "allowed," whether a standby request will be converted is decided at the time the request is made by the customer / member.

There is the danger that a customer / member may not check his or her e-mail to learn that conversion of a standby request to a reservation has occurred -- and thus become a "no show."  You may then be placed in a position of assessing a cancellation fee to a customer who didn't even realize they had a reservation.  Therefore, careful consideration is advised before allowing or requiring the conversion of standby requests to reservations.

• The minimum advance time on notifications from the standby scanner.  Unless this number of hours is available between the standby scan and the start of a proposed reservation, the standby scanner will not convert that standby request to a reservation.

Additional parameters related to semi-automatic operation are:

• The first hour of the day during which staff is prompted to run the standby scanner.  Typically this is set to the time a subscriber's office opens in the morning.
   
• How often the staff is prompted to run the standby scanner.  This is usually set to two (2) hours or more.

How Automatic Operation Works

When the standby scanner runs, it checks each standby requests against available resource times.  If the time that a customer has requested becomes available and that time is a specified amount of time in the future, one of three things will happen depending on the parameter settings for your system:

• The customer / member will be notified by e-mail, allowing them to return to the online scheduler and reserve the time that has become available.  
• If enabled by your system administrator and requested by the customer / member, the standby request will be converted to a reservation and the customer / member notified by e-mail.
• If required by your system administrator, the standby request will be converted to a reservation and the customer / member notified by e-mail.

Customer notifications of the availability of resource time are limited by a counter included in the standby request.  The counter defaults to nine (9) notifications.  However, the customer may set this to as many as 99 times or as little as one time.

Manual Mode

In manual mode, the subscriber's staff runs the standby scanner and controls the conversion of standby requests to reservations.  Manual mode also changes the way that the online system processes aircraft cancellations -- converting canceled time to "held" time for future assignment by the standby scanner.

Parameters for Manual Operation

• The first hour of the day during which staff is prompted to run the standby scanner.  Typically this is set to the time a subscriber's office opens in the morning.
   
• How often the staff is prompted to run the standby scanner.  This is usually set to two (2) hours or more.

How Manual Operation Works

For each standby request for which there are times and resources available or for which time has been held, the standby scanner will present complete customer / member contact information as well as a list of available resources and times.  This allows the staff to communicate with the customer / member before making an assignment.  This process is repeated until all standby requests have been processed in order of priority. 

Standby requests that are assignable can be skipped rather than assigned.  Such requests will appear again on the next run of the standby scanner if resources remain available.

At the end of the manual standby scan, staff normally frees all remaining held time.  The staff can also see a list of standby requests that could not be satisfied or were skipped during the scanning process.

Customer / Member Access

Customers / members access the standby option through their regular menus and displays once the System Administrator enables the Standby Option.  The customer selects the date for which they wish to stand by and enters the duration and possible times for their proposed flight and a notification counter (defaults to nine).  If your Administrator has enabled the automatic conversion of a standby request to a reservation, the customer will see that option (defaults to "no") as they are entering the dates and times.  

If you have enabled overnight scheduling for customers / members, overnight standby requests will also be allowed.  The software will display an additional column for multi-day standby requests on each customer's availability page.

Staff Access

A subscriber's staff accesses the Standby Option through the normal customer scheduling process.  An additional "Standby" column is added to the rental scheduling page.  To create a standby request for a customer, click no more than one aircraft and one instructor and then push "Schedule This."  On the next page, enter the duration and possible times for the customer's proposed flight.  From this page, staff members will have the option to create a standby request for "any resource of this type" rather than for a specific aircraft.

For multi-day standby requests, staff should proceed using the normal multi-day scheduling process.  With the standby option enabled, an additional button will appear on the multi-day resource selection page allowing.  Pushing the "Standby" button will allow entry of the customer's standby request.

01/13/11 cli