What is the process of a standby passenger on a flight?

Question

e.g., advance notice, cheaper flight, best time to go (month, week, day) airline differences

Answer 1

It does sound like you might be interested in the cheaper standby tickets that used to be available. Agreed, this is no longer the case, and in fact the only last-minute fares available are the walk-up super-expensive fares.

In terms of priority, most airlines follow this rough guideline (based on American Airlines policies, so it may be different)... passengers are categorized in this order, highest (most likely to get on) first:

--International Connecting
--Domestic Connecting
--International Originating
--Domestic Originating

Then within these categories, it depends on:

--Check-in time
--Elite status
--Fare paid (some airlines don't use this until absolutely necessary, like a tie-breaker)

Then somewhere in there, they'll actually consider whether or you have checked baggage, as it's very difficult for them to pull your luggage and get it on your new flight, and still get it out on time. Generally, you'll either have to volunteer to be separated from your luggage, or they'll take someone else.

Answer 2

In the US, you used to be able to just show up at the airport and take your chances, but not any more. These days, flying standby means you've paid for a normal ticket but don't have a guaranteed/assigned seat yet. Normally you see folks standing by for a flight that is earlier than the one the're booked into taking. If I am flying for work and book an 8pm return trip, but get finished at 3 and want to go home early, I can go to the airport and stand by for the earlier flight. I may or may not get on the earlier flight and I don't have to give up my seat on the 8pm until I am given a seat on another flight, but I also may end up hanging around the airport for 5 hours.

The other reason you will see stand-by passengers is if a different flight is delayed or cancelled. If you book a ticket on (for example) flight 48 which turns out to be late coming from somewhere else, you can stand by for flight 24 if it is going to the same destination.

In general in the US, you need to already have a ticket and a boarding pass to enter the secure area. Standby passengers are those who already have a ticket to some flight at some time but are hoping to catch a different plane to the same place instead.

Answer 3

No. In all my years of flying United i've got in ordinary terms had that take place as quickly as and in ordinary terms as a results of fact the gate agent actually forgot approximately me till the final 2d and mandatory to close the flight. often what they're going to do is bump an elite member of their universal flier application as much as First from coach, and help you take the coach seat. in case you purchase a coach value ticket, anticipate to take a seat down in coach.