Eli5 What is stand-by on airlines? Can I be placed on standby for an earlier flight w/o cost to me?
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Flying standby means you have a ticket from point A to point B but not on a specific flight. It’s very rare for this to happen on airlines anymore, but one use of it is like you said: booking a later flight but showing up early to see if there are seats available. The other big use is for airline employee benefits. Many of them can fly standby for free.
Standby is a situation where a passenger doesn’t have a confirmed seat for a particular flight but is waiting to take it if space becomes available.
In general, airlines charge passengers if they want to standby for an earlier flight, if even offered, with exceptions often granted based on loyalty program status, or for remediation for prior issues (such as if a passenger missed a connection due to a delay, and the next flight was already sold out)
Stand-by is basically being able to get on a flight if it’s not full.
Airlines oversell flights, so the last people to buy tickets may not have guaranteed seats and have to wait stand-by to see if there are cancellations, no-shows, etc. that free up assigned seats. There are also other classes of fliers who may be stand-by, like flight crew not working but traveling for pleasure or returning to their home base.
You might also be able to get on the stand-by list to try and get on an earlier flight… say you’re in Chicago for business and your meetings wrap early, there was minimal traffic to the airport, so you arrive at 4pm. You have a seat on a 6:30 flight to LA, but there’s a 5:15 flight, too, and you might be able to get on the stand-by list by asking. If there’s a seat open, you get home an hour+ early. If not, you have your seat on your booked flight.
The other two answers posted so far are excellent. FYI last time I checked I think Delta wanted $100 to be stand by on an earlier flight (only if I got on would they charge me). But that was quite a while ago. Not sure what the current price is.
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