Airlines commonly let people ticketed on their flight travel on standby basis that is if there are available flights, on earlier flights.

Does it mean that a lot of tickets are bought on late flights which the buyers do not plan on taking because they plan on travelling earlier on standby basis?

I can imagine they might in the case of connections - eg where the connection is 45mins and a later flight gives them 2 hours. They might well book the 2 hours hoping still to make the earlier connection.

If your flight is not flexible then often airlines won't allow you to board an earlier flight - even if you think it might be to their advantage to let you do so. I remember joining a queue in Lisbon for TAP air enquires. Almost everyone in the queue was asking to transfer to an earlier flight. The answer was always the same "sorry Sir your ticket doesn't allow changes unless you pay this fee etc".

I do that, only because AA is tolerant of my shenanigans... and because they do, AA is always my first choice. It's a symbiotic relationship.

Actually I try and keep things symbiotic in-flight too. The aircraft tends to rise because of lift, and my body mass (together with gravity) does its bit in the opposite direction. We find the best level.

>Airlines commonly let people ticketed on their flight
>travel on standby basis that is if there are available
>flights, on earlier flights.

They used to, but not any more... Often you have to purchase a more expensive ticket for the 'privalege' of departing earlier.

Cheers,
Geoff Glave
Vancouver, Canada

As a PM on Delta (and as a GM as well), stadby is still free. So, I just book the cheapest ticket of the day and go whenever I want. Sometimes it does cost me an upgrade, but if the money is out of my pocket, I'll give up the upgrade to save money.

People buy tickets on the flights they want to be on. And unless it's on a route with very frequent service, it makes no sense for someone to go to an airport several hours early to standby on a flight that they may or may not get on. People standby because there's some change in their travel plan, and/or they get to a connecting hub earlier than they anticipate.

Airlines let people standby because there's really no downside to them. They can still sell that seat all the way until just before door closes, and then clear the standby list. At hub airports, they need to get people on earlier flights so that there will be room in the later flights for those who had missed connection to the earlier one.

I often don't know exactly when my meetings will end of a given day. I book a flight that's late enough to feel safe, and I often end up standing by for an earlier return.

I have similar sentiments for UA. I have been flying UA for the routes, not the standby policy, but now that I've taken advantage of it, its addictive.

The situation is very different in USA compared to Europe where different attitudes prevail. I've never had a problem with standby in the US. If a seat is spare, they will get you in to it, irrespective of fare class. Compare this with Europe, where it is very difficult to standby on cheap fares, except by paying a fee.

As an example, I had a situation recently flying from Munich to London on an LH cheap fare. My meeting finished earlier than expected, so with nothing better to do I went to the airport, prepared to hang around. As it happened I arrived in time to make an earlier flight, and asked if I could standby. The ticket agent said the earlier flight was wide open and if I paid a 50 euro fee I was OK to go. This was despite the fact that the later flight I was booked on was full. As the 50 euro would have come out of my pocket, I chose not to 'standby'. I understand this policy is to encourage PAX to buy more expensive flexible tickets. The downside on this occasion may have been that a full fare PAX may have been denied standby on the later flight!