Does anyone have experience flying standby?

[bittyx2]

My husband is a FedEx employee and we are able to purchase tickets on Southwest Airlines at a huge discounted rate, but we have to fly standby. I have signed up to take the Disney Magical Express, but am wondering what will happen if we are not able to make the first flight out.

Has anyone flown stand by before? Just not sure what to expect.

 

[sherry]

I am also interested in this. My dh was just hired by US Airways (he is in training now). The biggest perk is that we get free airfare, but have to fly standby.

 

[lilyv]

Are you planning to travel this summer? Please, please keep in mind most airlines are really overbooked as it is right now. If your plans are extremely flexible, then standby might be great. If not, you could spend a considerable amount of time (not just hours, but potentially days) waiting for a flight. Standby passengers are ranked, and it's easy to have your "priority" bumped down.

Get as much info as possible. Have flights in mind? See if you can check availability online. That would at least give you a little info. You might have better luck with odd or less desirable flight times.

Last thing, if it's one or two adults, that's one thing. If you're trying to fly standby with a family, that's a different experience altogether. Every additional passenger makes it harder for you all to get onto a standby flight. In addition, most kids aren't exactly thrilled about spending many, many hours waiting.

--Personal experience-I was on a flight last month that was overbooked by about 12 passengers. There were over 20 hoping to go standby. They offered great compensation for ticketed passengers to take a later flight, but only 4 takers. None of the standby got on, and there were about 8 folks that thought they had a sure thing that were rebooked for much later in the day.

 

[Redbudlover]

Yes it is really unknown whether you will get on a specific flight or not. Having said that though, I have flown standby when I missed a flight or had one cancelled and never failed to get on the standby flight - though once I was the last one on and a woman I had been talking to didn't get on....

 

[parith1114]

Hi all, I am a flight attendant with Southwest . It's not as hard as it seems to fly standby as long as you research the flights in advance.

Typically, the first flight of the day will be the easiest to get on, sorry no sleeping in. My children and I only fly standby and have never had any problems getting to or from Disney. We fly in and out of the St. Louis airport. The key is to call and check availability a week out and then again a day or to before travel. This will give you an idea of what you are up against. Be flexible and patient and you'll probably be on the flight you planned for.

As far as the magical express I call a couple days before we leave directly to the magical express number and they put our flight info in. They have told me in the past that if our flight changes just to call them, and they'll be happy to come and get us. Of course we all know they are already there, but still I thought that was a good thing to say.

Anyway, the moral of the story is you got a good deal and have extra money for Disney. Again just check flights in advance and be willing to be flexible. If your husband and you have children there is a possibility you may have to be split on two seperate flights, be prepared for that. I don't see it happening, but never rule anything out. First flights of the day even if overbooked tend to go out light, due to people sleeping in. So in this case be the early bird! Good luck and have a great vacation !

 

[robinb]

I used to fly stand-by quite a lot when my step-father worked for United. I almost always eventually got out on a flight ... except when a big snow storm closed down the midwest and we could only get as far as Denver. In that case, we drove the rest of the way.

My advise, in no specific order ...

1. I would check the rules for standby on SWA. For instance, you may have to dress up (we had to for United).
2. I would check the order in which the empty seats are allocated: FedEx employee you may be the last ones to be boarded. My guess is the revenue passengers are first, "dead headed" employees (ones going to another location to work) are next, employees traveling for pleasure next, employee's families traveling without the employee next and then ... you.
3. Find out how and when you can get your name on the standby list and do it as soon as you can. They usually take each class of stand-by passenger in order of when they were put on the list.
4. I would travel with carry-on luggage ONLY. Don't even think about checking anything.
5. Be prepared to be split up and sit in the middle seat. You will not be able to sit together. If you have kids this may be more of a problem. Don't expect someone else to move so your family can sit together. It is very unlikely it will happen!
6. Plan on being at the airport for the very first available flight (even if it's at the crack of dawn) and in plenty of time to check in.
7. Be flexible! If you don't get on the first flight to Orlando consider taking a flight to Tampa and renting a car for the day instead. The gate agents will know on the day of travel which flights will be your best bets. Follow their advise and waitlist for the flight that they suggest.
8. Be prepared for a long wait. You may not get out for hours after you get to the airport.
9. ALWAYS be polite, patient and charming to the gate agents. They hold your fate in their hands.

Good luck!

 

[parith1114]

If you want to PM me your e-mail address I would be happy to check the flights the night or two before you leave. I can't give our web site out, but would check it for you. Also, I forgot to mention if possible fly on a Tues.,Wed.,Thurs., or Sat., they tend to be lighter. We always do our vacation Tues. to Tues. or Thurs. to Thurs.

 

[parith1114]

I used to fly stand-by quite a lot when my step-father worked for United. I almost always eventually got out on a flight ... except when a big snow storm closed down the midwest and we could only get as far as Denver. In that case, we drove the rest of the way.

My advise, in no specific order ...

1. I would check the rules for standby on SWA. For instance, you may have to dress up (we had to for United).
2. I would check the order in which the empty seats are allocated: FedEx employee you may be the last ones to be boarded. My guess is the revenue passengers are first, "dead headed" employees (ones going to another location to work) are next, employees traveling for pleasure next, employee's families traveling without the employee next and then ... you.
3. Find out how and when you can get your name on the standby list and do it as soon as you can. They usually take each class of stand-by passenger in order of when they were put on the list.
4. I would travel with carry-on luggage ONLY. Don't even think about checking anything.
5. Be prepared to be split up and sit in the middle seat. You will not be able to sit together. If you have kids this may be more of a problem. Don't expect someone else to move so your family can sit together. It is very unlikely it will happen!
6. Plan on being at the airport for the very first available flight (even if it's at the crack of dawn) and in plenty of time to check in.
7. Be flexible! If you don't get on the first flight to Orlando consider taking a flight to Tampa and renting a car for the day instead. The gate agents will know on the day of travel which flights will be your best bets. Follow their advise and waitlist for the flight that they suggest.
8. Be prepared for a long wait. You may not get out for hours after you get to the airport.
9. ALWAYS be polite, patient and charming to the gate agents. They hold your fate in their hands.

Good luck!

Great advice. Southwest is pretty laid back as far as dress code goes. No short shorts, or torn clothing, pretty much everything else is fine.

 

[karla63]

Redbudlover, this isn't quite the "standby" that the OP was talking about. They were talking about actual airline employees flying standby and not a regular paying passenger flying standby. My dh works for Delta and we are going to be doing this exact thing this weekend when we go up to Hartford Ct to take my son to soccer camp. You just need to/or must check every possible flight that can get you from "A to B". What would you do if you were to be split up or can you fly into another airport close by. A couple of stories that I tell...we go to Vegas every year for the Nascar race, well we actually buy positive space on a flight, because it was just impossible to try to fly into Vegas from anywhere on standby. My other story...we were in the process of moving from Orlando to Indiana, dh,dd and ds had already move north and I stayed in Orlando to sell the house, but I flew north every weekend. Several times I had to fly into New York in order to get to Orlando. But one time I had to fly into Melbourne and then rent a car for the 30min drive to Orlando to pick up my own car to drive home. You just need to be very flexible in your travels. It sure was a nice perk when DH started in 1989, but today there are fewer flights and the flights are usually oversold, so it is harder to fly anywhere.

Good luck

Yes it is really unknown whether you will get on a specific flight or not. Having said that though, I have flown standby when I missed a flight or had one cancelled and never failed to get on the standby flight - though once I was the last one on and a woman I had been talking to didn't get on....

 

[GoofyBaseballMom26]

I haven't flown standby before but I did have a flight changed at the boarding gate due to a computer problem on the plane. It delayed my arrival time by 4-5 hours. I just called Magical Express and they changed it in their system. It wasn't a problem at all.

I don't if this really answers your question but my point was that Magical Express was flexible.

 

[dburg30]

[*]ALWAYS be polite, patient and charming to the gate agents. They hold your fate in their hands.[/LIST]Good luck!

LOL that goes for any service / retail business. I'm in a service related business and if folks have an issue with our work, we have no problem taking care of them. BUT, someone that's sincere, understands that we're humans and sometimes 'stuff happens' will get taken care of much faster then someone who is just a big ******, come in and starts cussing at us, threatening to sue us for his $50 bill etc etc.. Sure they get taken care of, and taken care of properly..... eventually..

 

[ParrotBill]

That list of recommendations had an important one in there - avoid checking luggage if you can since there is no way to know for sure what flights you will be on. If you have too much to avoid it, pack everything you need for 2 days in your carryon and make sure each person has their own carryon in case you have to split up.

Your checked luggage could arrive ahead of you... with you.. or behind you.


Bring a book and things for the kids to do. have your phone fully charged and for that matter carry your charger in case of weather or mechanical problems so you can get on the phone instead of a line of 300 people!

 

[bittyx2]

We are planning on flying out on the first Saturday morning flight, which is 6:35 a.m. Leaving STL.

I called a couple of days ago and Southwest told me that there were still 150 seats available on that particular flight. It is still 3 weeks away though.

We did get a very strict dress code from FedEx. No shorts, no jeans, no sandles, no tennis shoes, no t-shirts and it did mention that socks are to be worn.

It even said that for the children, any child over the age of 12 is also to follow the adult dress code. Sitting in an airport for hours could prove to be uncomfortable in those clothes.

 

[Lewisc]

SW will let you check luggage. Your luggage will go on the flight even you don't clear. Just use DME tags and your bags will be on their way to your resort even if you don't clear. You have to check in at the counter inside. The skycaps outside can't check your luggage.

Show up for the first flight of the day. A number of passengers over sleep, don't allow enough time for traffic or don't allow enough time for security.

Be willing to split up. Understand you'll probably be boarding after the "C"s and will wind up with middle seats.

You won't know anything until a day or two before your flight. The day before try to reserve 8 seats, then 7 etc.

 

[ExPirateShopGirl]

You've been given great tips. Always get to the airport about the time they open security for the first flight of the day. Check in as soon as possible. ALWAYS make contigency plans. Try and travel with carry-on only if you can. If you can't, make sure each person carries onboard with them contingency supplies (toiletries, cash, phone, charger, credit cards, undies, medication, etc.) AA doesn't fly non-stop to MCO from SAN, so I've had to put the kids on a flight to Dallas while I waited for the next flight. When I arrived in DFW we didn't take the next flight to MCO, but rather we waited an hour for the 2nd flight to MCO as it was only half full and we could secure first class seats instead of scattered coach seats. If I hadn't been able to fly into DFW to catch up to my kids, they would have flown back to SAN. Contingency plans!

Good luck!!

 

[kileybeth]

sounds like the people "in the know" have given you their best advice (isn't the DIS great!) however suprising I found it! Our flights out of PHL (our home airport) the first flight out is always overbooked but maybe that is b/c we are the hub for so many nearby cities? My DH flies often to MCO for buisness and hates that first flight of day when he is on buisness when he is flyiing with his famly of 6 though, seems perfectly normal, imagine!
Anywho, my knowledge is only from phone calls to Disney's Magical Express (866 599 0951 direct #) and they are happy to accomadate you and your changing flights as late as day of flight. Also I would try posting over on the transportation board as those folks over there have seemed to come up with every possible scenario you could ever dream up and find answers too!

good luck to you and cograts for having such a perk!

 

[Lewisc]

I flew standby during Presidents week in 2006. I had a bad flight book later in the week. I did standby for the first flight of the morning. At least 3 passengers had obtained BPs but didn't get to the gate in time.

The OP is a non-revenue standby and would have been at the end of the list.

If nothing looks good the OP might consider flying to Tampa and renting a car.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I called a couple of days ago and Southwest told me that there were still 150 seats available on that particular flight. It is still 3 weeks away though.

Oh, boy. You might want to check that again. Southwest only uses one type of plane (737), and each plane only has 131 seats.

 

[Lewisc]

Oh, boy. You might want to check that again. Southwest only uses one type of plane (737), and each plane only has 131 seats.

Unless the plan is empty and SW is planning on overbooking by 19 seats.

The agent isn't supposed to tell you exactly how many seats are available, that's a trade secret. My guess is 150 is an expression that means the plane has a lot of empty seats.

If the OP is still reading this thread, just keep checking for 8 seats, if 8 aren't avaible check for 7, then 6 etc.

Don't bother SW by calling, you won't know anything until the day before. IF the available seat is 3 or less call and ask if the flight is overbooked.

 

[leanne2255]

Thanks for all the info. My DH is an AA/TWA retiree, and we are looking to fly stand-by on SW in September, week-end after Labor Day. Hoping that most of the summer travel is done by then and the flights are open. Leaving Friday and coming home on Monday.

I forgot how much I hated flying stand-by, although the price was always right. We have been purchasing full fare tickets, but needed to use these stand-by ones before they expired.