Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - "e-standby"?

I keep thinking there must be SOME modern version of "flying standby"... When someone doesn't show up for a flight - say they call a few hours ahead to inform the airline - is that seat going to stay vacant regardless? In my case, I am looking for cheap RT from HNL-MNL, and entirely flexible on departure dates. Since there are limited departures to MNL each week, it seems to me that it would be hypothetically possible for the airline to text/email me saying that I have cleared a standby list & will give me 10 minutes to respond before they go to the next person. That seat stays empty otherwise, I assume, since at the eleventh hour, there's only the tiniest chance that it would be sold through Priceline etc, no?

No way that is going to happen these days....in the airline's opinion, if you want a seat at the last second, you are going to most likely pay a premium.

The exception are the weekend sales some of the airlines run.... but I have NEVER seen your routing on one of those sales.

I keep thinking there must be SOME modern version of "flying standby"... When someone doesn't show up for a flight - say they call a few hours ahead to inform the airline - is that seat going to stay vacant regardless? In my case, I am looking for cheap RT from HNL-MNL, and entirely flexible on departure dates. Since there are limited departures to MNL each week, it seems to me that it would be hypothetically possible for the airline to text/email me saying that I have cleared a standby list & will give me 10 minutes to respond before they go to the next person. That seat stays empty otherwise, I assume, since at the eleventh hour, there's only the tiniest chance that it would be sold through Priceline etc, no?

Airline revenue management has effectively decreed last minute cheap fares dead. It's just not profitable to do so. When a passenger can no longer make a flight, the profit that would have been gained from that ticket is recouped in the form of change or reissue fees. Since those who MUST fly last-minute with short notice are almost exclusively business travelers, offering up any seats just before the flight at heavy discounts on a regular basis would eat into those juicy last-minute profits. Since you as a leisure traveler are expected to be flexible, you should be able to book well ahead of time to obtain "non-ripoff" pricing.

An empty seat is not necessarily money lost. If someone is going to pay a $100 change fee to move a flight, that empty seat represents $100 profit, without any of the costs associated with a full seat (baggage handling, onboard consumables, etc.).