I just had an experience with this and I find it bad customer service. I have a friend who booked JFk-SAN tommorow night at 6:45pm. She would like to get to SAN earlier, so there is an 11am non-stop. She called and was told that the only flight she could standby on was the 2:10pm JFK-BOS-SAN. That makes no sense at all, so the 11am SAN flight will go out with empty seats and B6 will lose a customer after this.

In isolation, it makes no sense. But considering the purchase decision as part of the scenario, it does make sense.

Allowing free standby without limits harms the airline's ability to price different flights differently, reducing profits. You want to buy the cheap flight and standby for the expensive flight, and the airline wants to sell you the expensive ticket.

If you were on Southwest, you would have to pay full fare (minus the purchase price of your ticket) to standby on an earlier flight, even just 30 minutes earlier. Count your blessings.

AFAIK all airlines will let you standby for the next flight if you miss your flight and show up at the airport within a reasonable time afterward. So if you want to play the "buy cheap, fly expensive" game, book the flight before rather than the flight after.

US-based airlines offer this. Many others around the world do not. And with some in the US it depends on calling in before the original flight leaves.

jetBlue's "immediate previous flight" rule for free standby is an interesting one because it includes connections - routings that might not actually be any more convenient - rather than looking only at the same routing. I actually think that they are unique in this approach, though some other carriers do not allow change of routing for standby, so the rules really do vary based on carrier.

As for the "plane goes out with empty seats and someone will never fly the carrier again" theory, if something like this is enough to put them off of jetBlue I'd hate to see what happens if there was actually something bad happening.

Yeah, try some of the European airlines' fare rules. Most KLM tickets out of Kenya to the US are no change, no standby, non-refundable. You pay $2000 for a ticket and if you can't make that flight for whatever reason, you can buy a whole new ticket when you get to the airport.

Most US legacy carriers with their high change fees are also trying to make it as difficult as possible to standby. Most also make you pay a fee to do it.

Did you consider paying the $40 fee to confirm the earlier flight onthe same day of departure?