MilesBuzz! - Any airlines allow standby travel?

Many many years ago I used to get an award ticket for certain dates and show up at the airport on other dates to see if seats were available. if yes, the airline gave me the seat without any fees. Is this still available on any airlines?

Many many years ago I used to get an award ticket for certain dates and show up at the airport on other dates to see if seats were available. if yes, the airline gave me the seat without any fees. Is this still available on any airlines?

AirTran has a similar program. It is not award based, but you pay a small fee to get on the standby list. I think it is for college students only, but YMMV

http://www.airtranu.com/airtran_u.aspx (http://www.airtranu.com/airtran_u.aspx)

Many will let you change a ticketed award reservation for free, but you still have to find availability to make the change.

Outside of the blackout dates, the Southwest award should work that way but you wouldn't even have to ticket it in the first place. I don't have any first-hand experience there so that may not be correct.

So far as I know all the legacy airlines let you fly standby if you have an award ticket for the same route on a different flight. Years ago, I did this several times.

More recently, I missed an award flight to Paris a few months ago--due to a change in check-in time by AA for the connecting flight to JFK from 30 to 45 minutes (I was about 5 seconds late).

AA put me on the next flight out and and on the next day flight to Paris from JFK--as a stand by. We got on that flight with no problems (except for paying for a hotel at JFK).

But, keep in mind, stand-by is risky these days. The flights are very very full and you may not get on.

Outside of the blackout dates, the Southwest award should work that way but you wouldn't even have to ticket it in the first place. I don't have any first-hand experience there so that may not be correct.

OLD understanding. Southwest does not have blackouts anymore and there awards are capacity controlled like the legacies, so forget about peak dates.

Different Date:
For the most part, award tickets are date changable. Some for free, some for the change fee. Most are free, I know DL charges $50 and maybe US.

Same day standby:
DL and USalso charge a small fee for same day standby last I checked. Most other airlines do not. Southwest does not allow standby on restricted tickets at all.

Standby generally applies to same day travel only.

if theres room on the flight its not a problem, specially if youre flying mid-week

if theres room on the flight its not a problem, specially if youre flying mid-week

No problem at all. WN will just make you pay up to their full fare, thats all.

OLD understanding. Southwest does not have blackouts anymore and there awards are capacity controlled like the legacies, so forget about peak dates.
Yep...I was reading the rules that apply to the older tickets (http://www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/rr_program_faq.html#award_tickets).

No problem at all. WN will just make you pay up to their full fare, thats all.

How do you pay up to full fare from an award ticket?

How do you pay up to full fare from an award ticket?

Indeed, you cannot.

If flying a flight where WN couldn't put you on in award inventory, you would have pay full fare for a new ticket on that flight.

...

Different Date:
For the most part, award tickets are date changable. Some for free, some for the change fee. Most are free, I know DL charges $50 and maybe US....

Which airlines are free?

Rules seem to change all the time, so you'd be best to just check with each airline you're interested in to see what the current rules are. I know that AA and US were last time I needed to do an award with either of them, but that's been long enough that the rules may have changed twice since then.