Anybody fly stand-by lately?

[mirlow]

I'm not sure if we should gamble this or not? We want to fly a nonstop flight from Denver to MCO in January. The cheapest ticket out of Denver is $311. There are 4 of us so that is a lot of money. We just found out last night that United reinstated buddy passes. We have enough for all of us, but I was thinking about buying a ticket on United or Frontier (they leave at the same time, but Uniteds ticket is $398) and have my dh and the kids fly standby? We have never had a problem flying standby before, but I have heard that it is hard getting out of Orlando? What have the loads looked like lately?

[flyingcircus]

Well, my sister is stuck in Seattle, as we speak, trying to get out on a buddy pass to Denver. Flights looked ok last night, and now they are all oversold!!
I would go ahead and buy the tickets to Orlando. By the time you pay the service charge on the buddy passes, you will only be paying a couple hundred more, and you will have positive space. I sweated it out in October going from Denver to Orlando, and that was a slow time, but flights were full. We couldn't fly out of Orlando- had to go to Tampa. Flights have been cut back, so there are not that many seats anyway going from Denver to Orlando.
I know on United, only 2 buddy passes per employee are allowed on any flight, so it seems like your family would have to split up.
If you want to PM me, I can try to help you out on loads!