Maybe it is all children on this post, but those who might remember the late 70s would recall theperfectly legal transatlantic standby tickets. It was a reaction by the legacy carriers (at the time BA, TWA and Pan Am) to thwart the startup Laker Skytrain. You paid your money and then stood in an overnight queue outside the London town terminal and when these places opened around 0700 you either got confirmed or rejected.
A further development was the famous TWA 'Budget' flight, where you simple choose the outbound and return week, and then the airline allocated you a place on the emptiest flight, a week before hand. Then it was 'use it or lose it'. This one was a nightmare because you could end up going out begining of one week and back at the end of the next, or alternatively it could be out Saturday, back Sunday. The passenger had no control.
I worked in one of these airline's res. office at the time and spent many an hour arguing with passengers who were not happy with their allocated flight. Tough!