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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Standby policies vary by airline
Back in the days of regulated airline fares some airlines used to actually sell standby tickets, some airlines called this “student standby”, you would buy a ticket and go to the airport and hope there were empty seats on your flight, if there weren’t you would either hang around until you got on a flight or you would keep coming back to the airport. These tickets were way cheaper than regular tickets so it was worth the inconvenience for some people. AFAIK no airline offers this kind of fare anymore and hasn’t for decades.
In modern terms when people talk about flying standby it’s means they have a ticket/reservation for a flight but they are trying to get on a different flight, either they got to the airport early and want to try getting on an earlier flight, or they missed a connection, when this happens the airline will book you a reservation on a future flight which could even be the next day or even longer (I once had a situation where my flight was canceled by the airline and the next available seat was 3 days later), if this happens you can hang around the airport and standby for what would normally be full flights and hope for a last minute cancellation or for someone else to mis-connect.
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