Flying Standby
 

Can you fly standby when using a frequent flyer award? We received different answers to this question from two airport agents.

Absolutely YES! The FF awards are essentially open dated tickets that you can standby for ANY flight on that route on ANY day without any change fees. You can even call and BOOK yourself on those flights with confirmed space if "W" inventory is available.

That was my understanding until I tried on our return from Anchorage Airport. We ended up hanging around the airport for almost 4 hours for our scheduled flight.

Note: these two answers are not mutually exclusive. You may stand by, but that does not guarantee you a seat on the next flight out. It's possible that there are literally no seats available on the flight for which you were not ticketed, but want to take. Or,they may choose not to make W inventory available. I have successfully stood by for an earlier flight when holding a W class ticket on Northwest. If you want to do this,your best bet is to call reservations and try to make the change. If they can confirm W space,you're good to go. If not, you can still try to stand by.

I was told I could not standby in any event because we had frequent flyer tickets. The issue of whether or not there was availability did not come into play.

I've flown standby on award tickets twice before. Both were on UA though. Will probably try on NW or CO before the year is out.

Linda