I personally find travelling on standby really easy. I usually take ZED tickets and always do my homework in advance of travel and will always take a back ticket which can be refunded later. Last year When I was in SIN I planned to travel onwards to OZ on QF however all flights where fully booked so therefore I used my back up ticket to travel with MH.
Maybe I have just been lucky. A friend recently got stuck for nearly 1 week on SB tickets so at the end of the day it's the chance you take.