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?
In: 80
I grew up in an airline employee family. Probably have flown on standby over 100 times. Also sorry for any formatting issues I’m on mobile.
Basically the goal is to fill the plane with paying customers (revenue customers), but sometimes not every seat is full, whether it be because the flight isn’t sold out, someone didn’t show up, missed connections, etc. These open seats allow standby passengers to get on.
There is a standby list and there is an order of priority that might vary between airlines.
Here are some examples:
-a revenue customer who missed their connection home and needs the earliest flight home might get booked on a later flight but ask to be put on standby for an earlier sold out flight with the hopes someone doesn’t show up.
-airline employees who need to get back to home base and they weren’t scheduled to work a return flight (this is called deadheading).
-airline employees traveling for leisure as a benefit of their job. They can add themselves to a standby list for a flight and generally seniority within the company plays a role in priority
-airline employees’ immediate family (spouse, children) get the same perk at most airlines
-retired airline employees get benefits for either a specified period or for life (depends on seniority when you retire). Retired employees are a lower priority than active employees on the standby list.
Latest Answers