I am booked on a 6:48pm IAH-PHL flight next week. It turns out that we can leave earlier in the day than we first thought, so I'm wondering what is the best plan to try to standby on one of the earlier flights.

I am under the impression that if I call that day to check on availability of the earlier flights, they will just try to get me to pay $100 to change to an earlier flight. I am also under the impression that I would be able to change to an earlier flight free of charge (assuming seat availability, of course) at a kiosk (but not with online checkin).

I know that the simple answer here is to get to the airport early and try to standby, but we live an hour from IAH and want to avoid sitting in the airport all day if we're unable to standby on one of the earlier flights. Is there a limit to how far in advance I can checkin at a kiosk? Is it possible to use a kiosk 24 hours in before the flight?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

I know if you arrive at the airport sufficiently early, and there are seats available on an earlier flight with the same route, they will allow you - often even suggest - switching to the earlier flight. I don't believe you can confirm this in advance. I don't know if the kiosk will allow this.

I don't know if you're Elite with CO, but as a non-elite, I ws able to fly stand-by on an earlier flight. This was, however, well before 9/11 and the subsequent nickel and diming by airlines (I'l say CO is an exception here). If you're Elite, stand by is not a problem with CO (Keep in mind US Air charges $25 just to be added to the stand by list)

They do allow you to do this. There is a 'change flights' button that will give you the options.

CO is very liberal with their standby rules. call the night before, let the agent know you would like to stand by for the earlier flight because you plans have changed.

most agents will look at a series of codes and tell you if the flight is open or booked even though there are still 10 seats open, they may say, "no, its full." i grew up as a employees son. any plane with 10 open seats is holding at least a family of five.

ask if they will read you the PBT (passenger boarding or booking total). some will, some wont.

that will literally tell you how many seats are sold, out of how many seats are available to sell. keep in mind they can sell many more seats than the aircraft actually holds.

this will give you a good idea about standing by early.

Thanks to everyone for your replies. I'll give CO a call Thursday night to see what they can tell me about availability.

Thanks for the inside airline info. I'll use it to fly standby on an earlier flight on Wednesday.

However, I don't think the phone agent can actually put you on standby. The only way the phone agent can change your flight is if you pay the $100 change fee and are confirmed on the earlier flight.

Otherwise, they can tell you that the earlier flights look OK for standby or not. Just remember that anyone paying $100 to change their ticket to that earlier flight will receive a seat (assuming it's available) and the numbers of seats available will go down.

-RM

Correct, but remember it's not just the $100 fee, but $100 plus any fare difference. If you purchased a discount fare making last minute changes to your flight can cost you a whole chunk of greenbacks.

I just did this last Friday.

We were on a 5:30pm flight and wanted the 10am flight. I checked seat availability online the night before - there were plenty. We could not change the flight the night before without paying the change fee & the difference in fare.

We used the kiosk in EWR to change the flight and even managed to snag Exit row seats. It was very easy to do and totally seamless.

Mary

Absolutely. Thanks for correcting me.

I've done this three times in the last year. As mentioned, I've called on the phone the night before and the agent has told me, "Should be no problem." Got to the airport at an appropriate time prior to the flight on which I wanted to standby and they ticketed me all the way through to my destination, meaning I was confirmed on connecting legs, as well.

Good to know about the kiosks...will have to try that next time.

1. Is it free to also standby on a later flight (e.g. UA and AA)?

2. If I am ticketed originally AUS-IAH-ATL with the AUS-IAH part on CO and IAH-ATL on DL, can I standby on a later AUS-IAH flight and have CO take me all the way home to ATL on their metal?

The reason I ask question 2 is because Delta has that silly $25 confirmed change business that I am trying to avoid.

Thanks for your help. Happy Holidays to all.

Is it possible to use a kiosk to change a flight to a flight that's a day earlier or a day later. For instance, if my flight is tomorrow, can I go to the airport today, use a kiosk and try to get one a flight today?

I've never tried this but I doubt that it would work.