I don’t understand how someone gets put on standby. Is there some sort of standby ticket? If so, how.. and do people really go through all the hassle of going to an airport while having a possibility of going home?
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There are times of the day that are very desirable. If you are a businessman who is flying out to headquarters for a week, you want to go out early on Monday, and go home around 5 or 6 in the evening on Friday (as one example).
This means the seats can be booked weeks in advance. In order to guarantee that you have a seat, sometimes a wealthy person will book two or three seats in case they get bumped (there may be two planes going to the same destination during a popular time/day).
Sometimes someone who has made a reservation simply has a car accident, or a heart attack, or changes their mind. For a variety of reasons, a seat will open up, and the airlines wants to fill that seat. The incentive for someone to wait for a standby seat is that the price is cheaper.
But…what if everyone shows up, and there are no standby seats? You sit in the airport until there is a seat, which can be until 11 O’Clock at night.
You can even make a reservation for 12:00 noon, but you show up at 6:00 AM in case a cheaper seat opens up, so then you cancel your 12:00 seat.
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