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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Standing By?
Cheap Charlie · February 5, 2001

I have had a series of readers send me email about flying standby. It seems that many people have misinterpreted one of my earlier columns to indicate that flying standby is back in consideration by the airlines as a means of selling less expensive tickets.

No. No. No.

That is not the case. The airline world has not changed that much. There is no such thing as a real "standby" ticket. But if travelers know the rules and policies of the airlines, they can take advantage of many more bargains, frequent flier miles and low fares by becoming a standby passenger in a different sense.

In this world of advanced-purchase tickets, the world of standby has been severely curtailed. It is virtually impossible to fly "standby" except on the actual day of departure and return. But you can often turn this to your advantage if you are willing to take a chance on standby travel.

When airlines offer low fares, the seats are restricted. They only sell a certain number and then jack up the prices for the rest of the seats on the flight. If you have flexibility with your travel times you can often find discount tickets that may leave later or earlier than you desire. This is where the standby factor comes into play.

If your deep-discount ticket is written for a flight in the middle of the afternoon and you would rather fly in the morning, call the airlines and ask the reservationist what the load factor is like on the morning flights, a day or so before your scheduled departure.

Tell him or her that you are planning on flying standby and want to know which flight will give you the best chance to get a seat. The reservationist will normally be more than willing to let you know how the flights look. If you hear that it is "wide open," you can be pretty sure you will be able to get on without any reservation.

In this day and age, the chances are, you will be able to get a standby seat on the flight you wanted in the first place. But it is not guaranteed. If you want to change your reservation, you will be hit with a change fee of around $75. If you stick to flying standby, you can fly on the earlier (or later) flight for no additional cost.

This is not pure standby, but it will give you some additional flexibility

This process does not work well during periods of high overbooking, such as Christmas, New Years, Easter and Spring Break.

If you are flying on a frequent flier ticket, you can use that ticket on a standby basis at virtually any time. Each airline has its own rules, however most will accept frequent flyer tickets on a standby basis without any problem.

Ask to make certain. US Airways, for example, has a complex system of rules for making reservations for frequent flier tickets, but allows the tickets to be used anytime on a standby basis.

Good luck.

Charlie Leocha is the Boston-based author of Travel Rights: Know the Rules of the Road and the Air Before You Go. Cheap Charlie appears every Monday on this site. E-mail him at leocha@aol.com or access his Web site.