Is there still a "Standby" facility.?

[cockney steve]

I am certain I saw it mentioned somewhere on Pprune ,recently.

Currently my daughter and #2 son are savouring the delights of Santiago,pending their flights back in a few days' time. The Airline wouldn't move them to an earlier flight and wanted USD3500 EACH for re-ticketing, when they could have done it on the Net at 2500....my suggestion that they went "standby" was met with derision and I was told it went out years ago and carriers would sooner fly empty seats than shunt willing pax from later flights.

Please, Anyone?

[Hotel Tango]

You may have seen reference to it in context of staff travel. Airline staff benefit from reduced fare travel but do so on stand-by basis when for leisure. Although there may well be some exceptions in some corners of the world, commercial stand-by fares are generally no longer sold.

[Tableview]

There are a number of commercial and practical reasons for having such fares, and daft as it may seem, they are sound from the airline's perspective.

[PAXboy]

One of the reasons that Stand-By went was that lots of pax were using it! So, if you stop selling cheap seats at the last minute? Folks have to buy more expensive seats. Simples! :hmm:

It seems to have been one of those unspoken agreements that everyone has stopped selling them (some time ago) and went in the opposite direction - it is now cheaper to buy far in advance. For the obvious reason that they then have your money in their bank to earn interest. Whilst it might not be much per ticket, the accumulated sums are vast and carefully managed.

[edi_local]

You won't find any standby fares for normal every day passengers any more. Staff travel and family/friends of staff are the only time I ever see them.

You can get waitlisted passengers who may be booked on a later flight but turn up very early so can be put on "standby" for an earlier flight and get a seat if one is free at the last minute. It's not that common to see though. This isn't generally available to normal passengers except in extreme circumstances and even that would be at the airlines discretion. Most waitlisters would be people who bought fully flexible tickets or high tier Frequent Flyer status customers who may have entitlement to such benefits. They aren't really standby in the true sense of the word as they have confirmed tickets for later services and have often paid a lot for it too!

[ExXB]

Standby also created some logistical nightmares at airports. When Pan Am and TWA first introduced a standby 'youth' fare between the US and Europe it was an unmitigated disaster when they were unable to accommodate the demand.

I recall that some passengers waited weeks, in the peak summer travel period, to get on.

It is bad enough when this occurs with non-revs (employees).

Great idea, but very difficult to implement.

[RevMan2]

Air NZ offers standby fare for revenue pax on their domestic routes at $69. Pain if you're flying non-rev standby these days (and what Air NZ charges for nonrev standby, there's not a big difference in price)

[cockney steve]

Thanks, folks. It was indeed an Aircrew member who referred to Standby..

Son and Daughter have somehow rented a self-contained apartment for a few days and will pick up their original scheduled flight back to UK.

[pwalhx]

My comment doesn't necessarilly relate as standy but is relevant to some of the comments. I spend a fair amount of time in the Far East and in China in particular you can never be sure of your timings of meetings and getting around. Therefore I am always cautious in booking flights and will tend to opt for a later flight in case of delays getting around. Often I am well in advance of the flight and quite commonly will go to the airline desk and say I am booked on the 22.00 flight there is one at 20.00 can I change and they will routinely say yes and do so with no charge and a smile. In fact I have even been offered the chance to switch airlines for even earlier flights.

[Espada III]

Not in the UK though. I arrived four hours early for a flight from LHR to MAN and there were three flights departing before mine. They wanted three times the ticket costs to transfer.

[Tableview]

Depends. I arrived much earlier than scheduled off a transatlantic at LGW and had booked a cheap ticket to JER on Fly(May)Be. There were two flights out earlier than mine, went to the ticket desk, asked to change, they wanted £120, when I'd only paid about £40 for the original ticket.

I've worked in RevMan so I fully understand why the airlines don't want to change peoples' flights in those circumstances but knowing that the one I was one was full and the others not, I rang Exeter, spoke to someone in space control, who released a seat for me on the earlier flight, then went and checked in.

The point is that if the earlier flights are wide open and you have the potential to sell a higher revenue seat on a later flight, it makes sense to do so ..... but not to make too much noise about the fact that you will do it!

[pwalhx]

To be fair it has also happened in the UK, in the days of MAN-LCY on VLM I used that flight a few times and on more than one occasion I was early and asked if I would like to go on an earlier flight. I suspected as has been said this maybe took pressure of a busier later flight but who knows.

[Gibon2]

EasyJet has (or had) an explicit policy of allowing you to transfer to an earlier return flight for free, if there is space available. I've used this successfully on occasion, although there are relatively few EZY routes with daily frequency high enough to make it a practical option.

[Hotel Tango]

Depends. I arrived much earlier than scheduled off a transatlantic at LGW and had booked a cheap ticket to JER on Fly(May)Be. There were two flights out earlier than mine, went to the ticket desk, asked to change, they wanted £120, when I'd only paid about £40 for the original ticket.

Sadly also a sign of the times, since in many companies these days staff are no longer authorised to take initiatives based on experience and common sense!

[edi_local]

Not sure common sense is a factor.

These days you can buy so many classes and types of ticket with limitless restrictions and conditions. If you buy a dirt cheap £40 ticket then it will obviously be far more restricted than one which would cost £160 for the same flight. If you need to be flexible then you pay for a flexible fare, it's not hard. People who don't need to be flexible, like myself, are prepared to sit around airports for hours on end waiting for their departure time. I'm glad of these cheap tickets even if it means I can't jump on any flight I like. In days gone by they offered one fare which was much higher than today's average. I'm not sure why people think they should automatically be entitled to switch to an earlier flight if the ticket they bought and paid for doesn't allow it!

I have used the easyJet facility to jump on an earlier flight a few times, but then they offer (or offered, I'm not sure if it's still around) that on all tickets which the route allows. They also had a policy of flying you back to any London airport if your flight was delayed and another flight to a London airport had space, although again, not sure if that still exists and on which routes that would apply these days.

[wowzz]

Slightly off-thread, but can you up-grade once boarded, as was the case with certain carriers a few years ago?

[Hotel Tango]

I don't think the majority necessarily believe it's their right, but an empty seat is an empty seat.

edi_local, you are a new generation flyer with a different mind set to us oldies. ;) We remember somewhat better times. And, believe me, there were just as many restricted tickets in those days too. However, check-in supervisors and station managers had a great deal more autonomy than they do now, and they were generally better motivated to promote good relations. Now days it's all about follow "the rules" or pi$$ off!

[RevMan2]

"Can you up-grade once boarded?"
I'm sure one can.
Experienced something similar on LH not long ago on a night flight back from the Far East.
Pax decides that his Y seat isn't what he really wants and esconses himself in Business.
Cabin crew susses him and suggests that he moves back to steerage
Usual argument - seat's empty, not costing them anything, wuggawugga.
Purser called, who politely explains that they have his credit card details from the original booking and that his account will be charged with multiple €k. As they speak. But seeing that he's now paying for the privilege of sitting in Business Class, would he care for a glass of champagne?
Never seen anyone move so fast...

[Tableview]

Usual argument - seat's empty, not costing them anything, wuggawugga.

That's the old bus/train argument I've heard so often when people are caught without a ticket ..."but the train was going anyway and the seat is empty so what difference....."

[DaveReidUK]

Sadly also a sign of the times, since in many companies these days staff are no longer authorised to take initiatives based on experience and common sense!

Presumably some bean-counter has worked out that, if there's a long queue behind you at the ticket desk of passengers about to pay the on-the-day fare for the flight you want to swap to, then giving you one of those seats would lose them one of those fares (assuming the flight is now full).

Highly unlikely, I would agree, but then that's how bean-counters work, hence no discretion available to the staff at the coal-face.

[WHBM]

The term Standby has been used for two separate things. Back in the 1970s-80s it was a reference to waiting at the airport to see if there was space for a (cheap) ticket, in other words there was no reservation for you and it was space-available. There were various incarnations of this. Then it disappeared. It was a poor revenue model because pax got to know flights where there were normally seats available and went for the cheaper option.

In more recent times the term is extensively used in the US for the practice, on frequent routes, of waiting at the departure gate with a ticket and confirmation for another flight (which may have been previously, you having missed your connection) to see what the final load may be. fares being the same, the revenue is not an issue.

To be fair it has also happened in the UK, in the days of MAN-LCY on VLM I used that flight a few times and on more than one occasion I was early and asked if I would like to go on an earlier flight. I suspected as has been said this maybe took pressure of a busier later flight but who knows.

Both VLM and Scot Airways on their LCY domestic routes were very good at this, and your ticket was essentially regarded as "next flight out if there's space". They knew their business-oriented market valued this type of service. I once even had a completed load sheet reopened and reworked for me by Scot at Edinburgh when the previous flight had just closed - I didn't even have to ask, it was just done for me. Alas the dead hand of Air France, alias Cityjet, procedures now prevails on these routes.