Anyone ever fly standby?

I know airlines have different rules but generally speaking can you just show up at an airport and ask for a "standby" ticket? I'm willing to hang out in an airport for a day to save good money.
Which airlines does this work well with?

I did it once to fly to NYC for a friend's wedding. I only got bumped once to the next flight.

how much can you save doing this?

I used to fly standby often;.....I'd get free tickets from airline employees if I fly standby.....I got stuck in Quito Equador for about one week....and we flew standby on our honeymoon to Cabo;.....got stuck a few extra days...We also got bumped at Xmas one year while going to Pittsburgh, Pa....when our son was a 1 year old infant....bumped overnite;...that was irritating.....if you are in a hurry to get anywhere;..it can be irritating....if you like to save $ and don't mind getting bumped.....it's a good way to go for the po folk....

Can you purchase standy tickets anywhere? I always thought it was just the cheap flights they gave out to employee families.

David Sahalie wrote:i wasn't aware that flying standby saved you $, i thought it got you on the plane when you don't have seat, but then someone doesn't show. ...and how can you wait around the airport without having a ticket to get through security?

You can't fly standby without a standby ticket. These are basically just inferior tickets given to airline employees as a bonus that let them try to fly standby. Perhaps you can buy one or get one from a friend, but you can't just show up at the airport and wait for an open seat.

If you miss your flight, you can usually go as stand-by.

I may be wrong, but I believe you can go to the ticket counters, and purchase a stand-by ticket if flights are full. The ticket counters are outside the security areas.

Stich wrote:I did it once to fly to NYC for a friend's wedding. I only got bumped once to the next flight.

Did you just show up? Or did you get a ticket from a employee friend? Perhaps some airlines only give standby to employees but from what I hear you can get one at the ticket counter. I've heard of steep discounts, 50%+.

I work for an airline.

They were at one time available.

I'll ask the marketing people tomorrow, unless someone else answers.

I flew standby from NYC to Barcelona once via a friend of a friend that works for an airline. Round trip tickets were about $300 and I got first-class on the return trip. I would have gotten first-class both ways but apparently a lot of other airline employees got on the same flight on the way to Barcelona and that bumped me to Coach (but with extra legroom) on the way out. If it wasn't for that ticket, I never would have gotten a chance to climb all over Mallorca. #humblebrag #morelikeflailallovermallorca

I used to fly standby quite a bit in the late 80s in high school. My step father worked for Western, then Delta. Would often get put in first class and the cost around 20 to 30 dollars. Nowadays, airlines have a much higher propensity of overbooking flights. People paying full price of course have higher priority than standby so good luck getting a standby seat! And often they are asking people paying full price to take a free ticket and get on a later flight cuz they overbooked. I can still fly standby for super cheap, but these days it's worth paying to know I'm on the plane. I hate sleeping in the SLC airport.

You can also get on an earlier flight if you already have a ticket, by flying standby. Say you have a late flight, you can show up early and try to get on an earlier flight, but you may just waste your whole day at the airport. I recommend shots of Herradura to relieve the boredom.