Hey Y'all
Because of the rising cost of flying, I was thinking of flying "stand-by" to Germany in early December, but since I haven't flown stand-by since my early days as a USAir employee, I did some checking, and it looks like except for "standing-by" for an earlier (ticketed) flight, that's a thing of the past.
Or is it?
Thanks
B~
STand by---R.I.P.
Planes are running too full to be comfortable on standby.
I talked to an attendant recently. She said you can still fly standby successfully if you plan to take the flights no one wants. Don't try for the Monday morning flight, take the 11pm Sunday night flight instead.
If you can be flexible, it may still be possible.
As we used to say in the Air Force, "Flexibility is the key to airpower, which loosely translates to 'always carry on your luggage'".
I have read and heard from friends that flying standby today is impossible in nearly all cases. You really have to be flexible to make it work.
But you can try. Experts suggest that you choose an airline and call to talk with an agent. Keep calling lines until you find one which can help you.
Last I heard American was offering a few, but I will bet that has changed. Read all the pages on Graffiti Wall that apply to air travel including the archive pages.
I’m afraid Bill hit the nail on the head when he said he used to fly stand-bye in his days as a USair employee.
These days the only people who can get stand-bye tickets are either airline staff of travel trade staff.
From my personal knowledge the UK airlines no longer sell stand-bye tickets to the public and we haven’t for a long time. Stand-bye tickets just don’t generate enough revenue to make it worth while for airlines, plus they are fully refundable if not used. The words “fully” and “refundable” have the same effect in airline revenue accounts departments that sunlight has on Count Dracula.
Maybe they call it stand-by because you STAND there, saying BYE! to all the other passengers that get to fly.....
My daughter recently flew to Las Vegas from Bend, OR for Speech&Debate Nationals with a United employee and his daughter...what a nightmare. She could have flown to Europe faster. All kinds of things happened, including once actually being allowed to board a plane and then being taken back off because it was "overfueled" and weighed too much.I don't know what the employee and daughter paid, but her "friends discount" cost us $436, which was just a little under the advertised rates. They also had to go a night early and stay an additional night in a hotel since there was no guarantee with stand-by that they'd make it by the next day. I'm all about getting deals, but this goes waaaaay beyond my tolerance level. I'll do Priceline (which has been perfectly reliable for me countless times) any day. If an airline employee offered to let me go along on stand-by, I'd politely decline.
