Purchasing low fare with intention of going standby on a later flight?
 

Not being able to buy a later flight for the right price, I was wondering if ther's any problem (both Airline policy, and ethically) buying a cheaper fare for an earlier flight with no intention of going then, but to try to go Standby later.

Well, I assume you are flying because you have to get somewhere. What if you dont make in on the standby flight?

Never heard of later standby, only earlier standby. I don't believe this will work, and if you don't get the standby, then you missed your flight and have a worthless ticket.

"I can't afford it, so I'll pay less and then lie to get what I want.

Is there any ethical problem with that?"

Umm, you're joking, right?

Ignoring the ethics (which doesn't seem to be a problem), there are easier ways to get done what you want. You just have to [snip]

[This message has been edited by CPRich (edited Feb 08, 2004).]

Kidz, how do you go standby later? I've never heard of it either. If you don't show up for your earlier flight, your ticket is worthless, right?

I've successfully "stood-by" on a later flight for NW since same-day stand-bys are allowed. I went to the front counter, asked if I could get on a later flight and they went ahead and punched it up for me.

In other words, NWA does allow later flight stand-bys. If you don't check in for your flight at the required time, your reservation will be cancelled, but as long as you're standing by on the same day and there's availability on the flight you want, you've got that seat (although they may make you sweat it out at the gate).

More info on this can be found over on the NW boards.

aloha

p.s. Travelbuzz?

[This message has been edited by slippahs (edited Feb 08, 2004).]

I've been told I could stand by for a later flight on both Delta and American. But, this is very risky because your ticket dies if you don't make it that day.

If there are any later flights you could book instead, this is always the better option. If you miss your standby, then you still have a confirmed ticket on a later flight.

Hi all,

I've done this numerous times. I would purchase a later flight for a lower fare, then standby on an earlier flight.

I don't believe that this is unethical. Here's why: The Terms and Conditions under which I purchase the ticket give me the right to stand by on the same day of travel. This is exactly what I paid to be able to do! This is perfectly within the guidelines on which I made the purchase.

The airline and I agree to a contract. I expect the terms of the contract to be upheld by the airline, they expect the terms to be upheld by me.

Of course, I risk spending extra hours at the airport waiting for my originally-booked flight. That was also the effect of the T&Cs under which I made the purchase.

- Tim in Hollywood

Kidz,

Because this has nothing to do with miles or points, I'm moving it over to TravelBuzz!

Regards,

Flipside

I'm not sure which airline the original poster is using.

United allows later standby for free, if I
understand correctly. The problem that I see arising is that you might standby for
the later flight the same day, and not be able to get on it. Then you will have to pay a change fee to get on a flight the next day (or whenever one is available) and possibly any difference in the ticketed price.

Undoubtely someone who is more of an expert than me can say what the deal is with United. In any event, if you are willing to take the risk of having to pay a change fee and arriving a lot later than planned, then by all means go for this strategy. I don't see anything wrong with it ethically, but you certainly would not always win.

I used to do this all the time too -- sometimes I would even travel on the following day -- and I was never charged a change fee, until about three years ago when the airlines became much less lenient. On most major carriers, even with their cheapest published fares, you can put the value of the ticket (minus change fee) towards future travel within a year of the original travel date. Delta was the only exception; their requirement was that you book your NEW travel by the original travel date. But Delta reversed that policy about a year ago. As far as I know, you can still travel standby but you have to pay a change fee AND the difference in fare. I don’t think there is anything unethical about this at all. But you are taking a big risk in that there’s always the chance that there won’t be seats on the flight you want.

There is nothing unethical about standby. I do it all the time for the purposes of saving money. The airlines allow it as part of the benefit of buying a ticket. If they felt standby was "unethical", they simply wouldn't allow it at all. (Southwest, in a way, has done this. Other airlines tried to take a harder stance about a year ago, and then relaxed.) So we don't even need to have an ethics discussion: the standby process is built into the rules and policies themselves.

What we are talking about here is purely risk. When you buy a late-night flight and standby earlier, your risk is the cost of your time spent standing by in the event you don't get on the earlier flight. (You know you haven't risked your original seat.) When you buy an early flight and standby later, your risk is that you lose the entire itinerary plus at least some value of your ticket. It's up to you if you want to take that risk, which most of us would agree is higher than the more common standby approach.

In short, if it were a dirt-cheap LGA-DCA ticket with 15 flights a day, I'd probably risk it if the price was right. If it a transcon with 2 flights a day, I probably wouldn't risk it at all. But that's just me, and your risk tolerances will undoubtedly vary.

If you have to be at the airport for the earlier flight to get standby status, why not just take that flight? DL flights generally are packed and it's a risk to try to standby late at night.

Don't try this on Southwest. They have been wise to this scheme for years, and they will charge you full fare unless you miss your flight by less than 2 hours. Otherwise, as you effectively point out, Southwest could not maintain dramatically different prices for peak hours vs. off-peak hours. (Economists call this "capturing the consumer surplus".)

The fact that other airlines allow this practice is more proof that they just don't know how to run their businesses.

I've definitely gone (same-day) standby on later flights -- both intentionally and unintentionally! -- on UA without any problem.

Obviously, one problem to watch out for as many others have noted is full flights later on in the day.

Another thing to watch for is that while many fares allow same-day standby on any flight, there are some discount day/time restricted fares that specify that the flight you standby on must meet the day/time restriction of the fare. For example, I've been tempted before to buy a cheap mid-day fare, and go standby on the 6am flight. The cheap fare isn't valid on the 6am flight, and the standby provision of the fare says that you can't standby on that earlier flight.

I've never actually faced that rule in practice, and I don't know if they'd actually enforce the rule -- i.e., make you pay the change fee and fare difference to actually get on the other flight. But I wouldn't want to find out. (And for that matter, as others have pointed out, you'd be violating the contract if you did that. I'm definitely in the camp that says it's unethical if and only if it's a contractual no-no.)