Wombat18

Can anyone explain how standby fares work for domestic flights ? I've rung several of the airlines and they seem to be denying that they exist !

UpgradeMe

That's because with a few narrow exceptions (college students on AirTran for example) they do not exist.

[This message has been edited by UpgradeMe (edited 01-06-2000).]

Old Gold

Standby fares have been extinct for a long time, the airlines didn't like the class of passenger they attracted.

RichG

Old Gold is certainly correct, except in the case of People Express, which didn't mind transporting people who had the time to hang around all day waiting for a seat (or a flight that wasn't cancelled), but found it couldn't make enough money on them.

But now, having declined to cater to that kind of passenger, the airlines now seem to have a problem with people who get angry when they're delayed for a half hour and can't get a straight answer why.

Just an observation.

chalf

Though there aren't standby fares per se, most airlines do permit +/- 2 hour same-day standby on even the most restricted tickets. One airline agent explained this to me as the "stuck in traffic" policy.

There was a thread on FT about this some months ago.

Mattis

Interesting to hear that stand-by fares are a thing of the past in the US. In Sweden standby fares for youths (under 26) are promoted heavily by the main carriers (SAS with partners). I've always wondered what economic reasons lie behind SAS generosity towards stand-by passengers; for only 200 SEK (~ 23 USD) incl. taxes you can travel on all domestic lines in Sweden, and that includes free meal, papers and you can even get FF miles with UAL Mileage Plus.

I wonder if Sweden is the standby loving exception in an otherwise standby hostile world, or do other countries apart from the US also have a similar stand-by market?

M.

[This message has been edited by Mattis (edited 01-09-2000).]

YVR Cockroach

It's either revenue generation (most of the costs have been paid for (fuel, paper, etc.) or perhaps a social service for little incremental cost. The Canadian airlines have done the same for students.

Note: I've noticed BA is starting to load only as many meals as there are passengers onboard. I've seen them load/unload meals in the galley minutes before door close. This follows a trend in the US. I've seen USAir done this many times in the late '80s.

leroy11

Terenz - please post more info about Canadian stand-by air deals for students. Thanks!!

Back to the subject - some airlines do offer standby:

AirTran as previously noted for youths.
Most USA airlines as long as departure hour is during same calendar day.
Ansett New Zealand offers an unlimited standby air pass.
DL used to offer a similar pass (foreign residents only), but my understaning is that it's been discontinued.

------------------
Cheers.

Leo.

Carl

Please be aware that AirTran is a notable (and perhaps the only) exception to this in terms of how their policy works. You can standby up to 24 hours in advance (yes, even the previous calendar day) but never after your ticketed flight has departed. If you call them at least an hour in advance of the flight and indicate you cannot make it, you retain the value of your ticket less the change fee. You would then be allowed to purchase a walk-up fare and use the residual value of your ticket to purchase it. However, if you do not call an hour before the flight, you lose the entire value of the ticket. This is one of those weird ValuJet policies they've kept in place. I know several people who have been burned by this, including me when I first moved here and took a delayed shuttle to my first ValuJet flight in early 1995.

Adman

I think it's important to distinguish between two concepts that have become blurred in this thread:

Standby FARES do not generally exist in this country; that is, you cannot walk up to the airline and by a (presumably cheap) ticket that allows you to standby on flights. The reason: one of the airline's ways of distinguishing between business travelers, who generally are willing/able to pay more, and leisure travelers, who are more price sensitive, is the ability to plan and purchase in advance. Many business travelers plan travel at the last minute, whereas leisure travelers do not. If standby fares were offered, airlines' ability to extract the maximum price from business travelers would be undercut, particularly at times of the year, such as now, when passenger loads are generally low and business travelers would generally be "safe" trying to fly standby.

On the other hand, standby POLICIES -- the ability to standby on another flight on the same day you have a discounted, nonrefundable, nonchangeable ticket -- vary from airline to airline. American, for example, will let you standby on an earlier or later flight the same day, with just a few exceptions, with no penalty or extra fare.