355F1

I am showing J1/Y2 on EF for a PHX-CLT flight Tuesday (AA 818).

My sister is trying to get home flying stand-by as a non-rev (her husband just got hired as a pilot), and she told me that her husband says there are over 20 seats showing as available on this flight.

Is there really this much of a discrepancy or is my sister not understanding something?

From the looks of the 5 flights that day it looks like a standby nightmare unless she gets on the 6am flight (which, I recommended as it is is showing Y7).

wrp96

Is she looking at seats assigned?

jhalapin

Now showing J1/Y0

AA 818PHX 12/27/22 7:30 AM CLT 12/27/22 1:22 PM 321 C0 J1 R0 D0 I0 Y0 B0 H0 K0 M0 L0 G0 V0 S0 N0 Q0 O0

The 6AM shows a lot of unassigned/open seats. Much better chance if she flys standby on AA 832 at 6AM

slsgsoccer0201

Not sure where he was looking, but as of right now (subject to change), AA818 only shows 1 open seat for Tuesday.

To your point, would recommend listing for AA832 at 6am. Good rule of thumb is to list for earliest flights of the day. Worst case if you don’t get on, you get rolled to the next flight and maintain your earlier check in time/priority.

Centurion

Well your sister now knows to have a backup revenue plan.

joeyday

This is the worst time of the year to travel non-rev

mvoight

Seats showing available is not an indication of the flight emptyness
Many people do not have assigned seats until the last minute.
It is better to rely on the ticket bucket numbers to determine how full the flight is.
I would not recommend standby travel during the holiday period

Tanic

About the only reliable chance of non-revving over holidays is ACM in a jumpseat. And even then...

Centurion

As others have stated non revenue travel is very impractical during peak travel times. In the old days games could be played for non rev pax. Now you need a backup revenue ticket plan. NOTE You can not buy a revenue ticket on your non rev airline as a backup to your non rev flight. If caught you or your non rev sponsor will be in big trouble and lose your benefits

757FO

Yep, and trust me, the airline will eventually discover it. I've had co-workers get in serious trouble over this,

jhalapin

There is also a redeye that has space up front......

LarryJ

It depends on what she means by "over 20 seats showing as available".

If she's looking at the seat map, that information is almost worthless. People have reservations with no seat assignment and some seats are blocked from being assigned until check-in or day of departure.

If she's looking at the actual booking information, which is available to non-revs, then it may be accurate. In IRROPS, it is common for airlines to zero out, or greater reduce, availability, what EF would show, to leave room for reaccomodating displaced passengers.

355F1

She said her husband was looking at the internal AA employee website (I am not familiar with it). I look at EF with my paid subscription.

My sister is not the brightest crayon in the box...so idk what her deal is but I told her she was most likely not going to get home tomorrow now--she needs 2 seats and is a brand new non-rev, so I believe there is some sort of list where she would be at the bottom based on her husband being newly hired?

She has until Friday to get home and Thursday's flights look good for flying standby but I simply told her "Good luck camping out at the airport for 8 hours with your 8yo waiting for a seat if you don't get on the 6am flight tomorrow.

I told her if I was Non-rev there's no way I would travel with the 10,000+ flight cancelations this weekend due to storms.

LarryJ

American uses time-of-check-in for boarding priority for non-revs within the same classification. She would be D2; D1 if using a vacation pass.

joeyday

It is bad enough to non-rev at this holiday time of year and with the disruptions caused by the weather. But with an 8 yo?

Not a great idea.