I tried doing a search, but didn't find anything for this. I need to go to a meeting in the Houston area, then onto LAX the same day. Pricing w/IAH as a connecting city is around $300 if I book less than a 4 hour layover, but $1,000 if I book a 6 hour one, which I think I'll need with ground transportation. I'm thinking I'm probably not the first to think of just booking the cheap ticket and trying to slide through on standby on a later connection (I won't have any luggage) . There's flights all day. Has anybody tried this before?
My itin- MDW-IAH, IAH-LAX 1/19; LAX-MDW 1/21
Thanks for any help anybody can give.

Have you tried pricing it out as two tickets? MDW-IAH-MDW and IAH-LAX-IAH? That might be cheaper, though I suspect that such pricing is what you got when you put in a 6 hour layover. I'd suggest also trying ORD and other airports near LAX. Did you try the "nearby airports" button?

If you are booking through a travel agent, he or she should be able to tell you the chances of getting on the later flight if your meetings "run late." If you don't have a travel agent, you need to know how full the flight you want as your backup is. I think there is an ITN website that might give you that info, but I don't have the URL.

Continental is very good at trying to assist the customer - I've missed a few flights and gotten on the next ones with no problem; however, I have also had one situation where I did not get a seat assignment on the flight on which I was confirmed and was involuntarily denied boarding because of overbooking.

To commend Continental, though, I was with a colleague the other day who was able to change his flight from CLE to IAH instead of HOU with no penalty, which surprised both of us (I was also flying into IAH and was able to drop him off at HOU to get his vehicle a couple of hours before he would have gotten there on the plane to HOU).

All of that having been said, you have to be prepared to deal with the consequences if you cannot get a seat on the flight you want (eg, are you prepared to spend the night if you cannot get a seat on the later flight - there is a Marriott attached to IAH). If not, pay the money for the flight that you actually want.

BTW, I'm from Houston, and I agree that a 4 hour layover will not generally allow you enough time to go to a meeting and get back to the airport - what part of Houston is your meeting? Let me guess - the Galleria area - it will be very difficult to get back to the airport in time if this is the case (too much roadwork and traffic).

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not sure exactly where my meeting is, but my college said it would take about 1/2hr to 45 min from the airport. I tried doing 2 separate tickets (and nearby airports), but it still kept kicking the fare out of whack when I put in more than a 4 hour stay in IAH. I can get a single ticket on AirTran for $223, plus ~$200 for a MDW-LAX on another LCC, but then I have to stay in CHI for the night, and either pay for a hotel or drive back and forth like crazy. I stay at a friend's house in LAX. Also, no chance for NW miles (even at 50%, I still want them) or upgrades that way.
I checked the availability and it is good for the later flights IAH-LAX (for 1/19, and for this Wed 1/12 for comparison); generally the later the better, so I guess I'll take my chances. Can't cost me any more than the $700 fare difference for booking it later on purpose.
One last question- when I check in for the flights in MDW, it will print out both boarding passes, so if/when I go awol in IAH, will this cause problems for me showing up for a later flight?

reserve the cheaper flight. call tech support (not the res line) and see if they can switch the connection to the later one. tell them an old friend will be passing through iah and that you'd like to have lunch. i bet they can get you on the connection at the same price. as long as the res was made online and the tech line booked it, youll get the 1k booking bonus and 100% eqm.

Do you have experience using this approach? In my experience, whenever they make a change to a pre-ticketed flight, they refare it.

DL 433/4352 (via ATL) gets you to IAH at 11:16am.
DL 2608/1181 (via DFW) leaves IAH at 6:54pm, arrives LAX 10:48pm
Choice of flights back to Chicago

$580 gets you to LAX and back on dates you want w/ 7 1/2 hours in Houston.
Long day, though.....

There is a relatively lightly booked 764 IAH-LAX at 9:10 PM Wednesday night that you should be able to get on if you "miss" your connection earlier in the day...