Flying standby

On most modern airlines, flying standby occurs when a passenger travels on a flight without a prior reservation for that specific flight. There are four circumstances in which passengers typically fly standby. First, a missed flight may require a passenger to fly standby on the next flight to the same destination, as they now lack a reservation. Secondly, a passenger may arrive at the airport early (whether accidentally or on purpose) and wish to take an earlier flight listed for that day. They will then attempt to travel standby on the earlier flight, and failing that, proceed to take their booked flight. This is referred to in the industry as “go-show”.

Standby can also occur for upgrades. Many airlines (particularly in the United States) give free space available domestic upgrades to First Class for their elite tier fliers. If first class sells out or upgrades full with higher-tiered passengers, elite fliers can standby for a first class seat, should one open up due to a cancellation, no-show, misconnect, irregular operations or an equipment change. If a passenger clears for an upgrade, they may be given new boarding passes at the gate. Some airlines, such as American and United, have gateside monitors that show the upgrade (as well as general) standby list, and will also announce when First Class checks in full (i.e., no further upgrades will be given).

In some cases, when a flight compartment is overbooked, an airline will designate all passengers who do not have a seat assignment as “standby” at some time prior to boarding.

History
Airline employees and some of their family and friends may also travel standby, often at discounted fares or free of charge. They typically have lower priority than regular passengers and are only allocated a seat after all passengers paying a regular fare have been allocated seats. It can even occur that a passenger traveling standby is allowed to take their seat on the aircraft, only to then be asked to vacate it to make way for a regular passenger.

Travelers get themselves onto the standby list by speaking to a ticket agent or a gate agent. Almost always, this must occur in person at the airport, and not over the phone. When the flight is boarding, any unclaimed or available seats will be given to those passengers on the standby list, who must wait at the gate to be called. Any passengers on the list who are not given seats are rolled into the standby list for the next flight. Passengers on the standby list are typically given priority based on how much they paid for their tickets and their relative status in the airline’s frequent flyer program.

A person who paid full fare will have higher priority than someone who purchased a 21-day advance fare. Some low-cost carriers, Southwest Airlines in particular, have policies that only allow full fares to standby. This means that if one purchased a discounted airfare, like a web-only fare or 14-day advance ticket, they would be ineligible to fly standby unless they upgraded their ticket to a full-fare (unless the original Southwest Airlines flight is delayed, in which case no upgrade would be necessary).

While standby for earlier flights began as a free service on many airlines, as of April 2010, most US airlines charge for unconfirmed standby, with a USD 50-75 fee being standard. Currently, United Airlines charges a USD 75 fee for standby travel to all passengers except passengers on full fare tickets, 1K passengers, Global Services passengers and premium cabin passengers. American Airlines restricts free standby to passengers who have elite status or fully refundable tickets, and charges a USD 75 fee for all other passengers who wish to secure a confirmed standby seat within 24 hours of their desired flight time. In all cases, distressed passengers (passengers whose flights have been cancelled, denied boarding, etc.) are given free standby and highest priority.

Reservation Systems
Many airlines and travel agencies are connected to central computerized flight reservation systems. Four privately operated reservation systems with significant market share have established themselves worldwide . They are in alphabetical order: Amadeus , Galileo , Saber and Worldspan . These dominant positions may entail the disadvantage for air passengers of not always being offered the cheapest flights offered on the open market ( oligopoly character due to the terms of business between the travel agency or airline and the reservation system)the reservation systems). In that regard, it is advisable to carry out with the help of the Internet own price comparisons and book the desired cheapest flight, if necessary, directly online at the provider company.

Rebooking
Depending on the selected fare or class , it is possible to rebook the ticket so it will be valid for another flight. This can be associated with costs, but which must be noted in the booking conditions.

Waiting List (Stand-By)
Is the passenger desired class of travel booked on a flight, it can be classified chronologically on a waiting list for scheduled flights. The inclusion in the waiting list does not yet entitle to transport on the desired route. If passengers return with a confirmed booking, or fail to arrive in time for check-in, the waiting list bookings will be confirmed in the order of the entry. This can often happen until just before departure. Customers with frequent flyer status often receive a waiting list priority, which means their waiting list booking is preferred.

It is also possible to register in such a waiting list, who would like to use substantial discounts of the respective airline by waiting for it at the airport until shortly before departure or hopes that a passenger machine is not fully booked. The traveler can book the respective flight at the airport on a stand-by basis. However, a stand-by booking is always associated with the risk that too many interested parties will be added to the waiting list at short notice, so that a seat is available for each candidate. However, a stand-by flight is not to be confused with the low-priced last-minute offers, which can be booked, in particular for charter airlines or tourism companies, generally longer time before departure, sometimes even weeks in advance.

Overbooking
Since it happens again and again that passengers do not start a booked flight (no-show), it is customary for airlines to confirm more bookings for flights than there are seats. This usage is based on observations and computer evaluations for the respective route. This means that overbooking can only account for five per cent of the available seating capacity on one leg of the route and 20 per cent on another.

If a passenger with a confirmed flight can not be taken on the flight he has booked, the airline is obliged to take it

to offer the fastest possible replacement transport. If the flight within the EU starts or is performed by a resident in an EU member state airline and ends within the EU, a passenger 1 may alternatively, the ticket refund request (Article 4 para 3, Article 8… Air passenger rights – Regulation of the EU , formerly EC ).

to make compensation payments in accordance with Art. 7 Passenger Rights Regulation. This applies at least in the case of overbooking to connections with departure or destination in the EU, associated countries or Switzerland to which the Passenger Rights Regulation applies.
if applicable, to pay additional compensation within the limits of the Montreal Convention .

In the US, airlines are also required to regularly report the number of overbooked passengers to the US Department of Transportation’s Consumer Protection Department .

Accordingly, the number of denied boardings , ie the passengers who are rejected in the overbooking case despite promotion claim, in the large US companies for many years between 0.1 and 0.2 percent. The overwhelming majority of those affected voluntarily renounce the space in the booked aircraft and consider the compensation offer of the airline. However, in 2016, around 0.006 percent of all passengers (6.2 per 100,000 passengers) were not promoted, even though they insisted on their promotion. The rate of involuntary denied boarding varies by airline and in 2016 was between 0.5 per 100,000 travelers ( Hawaiian Airlines ) and 15 per 100,000 travelers ( ExpressJet Airlines ) for the large companies .

Priority
Employees of airline companies and their families or friends may be able to board in vacant waiting, in which case you can board a discount fare or free. In the case of such boarding, the priority is low, and vacant seats come only after all seats are assigned to passengers boarded on ordinary fares. In some cases, even though a seat has been addressed, there are occasions when you have to give up seats to passengers of ordinary fares that came later.

In order to participate in the list waiting for vacancy, it is necessary to offer at the ticket window or boarding window. The principal needs to visit the counter directly and can not generally apply by phone. At the time of starting boarding, passengers who have not completed boarding procedures and unsold seats are released to passengers waiting for vacancies. If you wish to vacancy, wait for the name to be called near the boarding gate. If it gets stuck, it will be added to the vacant waiting list for late flights. The priority order is determined based on the face value of the boarding pass, the cumulative mileage number so far, and the like.

If you have a boarding pass with a normal fare, the priority for waiting for a vacant seat is high, and in the case of a discount fare, a seat is assigned after vacant seats have passed for passengers with normal fares. Some airlines, such as Southwest Airlines , do not allow passengers other than regular fares to board boarding from waiting. For example, if you use Internet discounts or early discounts, you can not wait for vacancies unless you change to normal fares. However, this is not the case if the connection could not be handed over due to the arrival delay of the connected flight.

In the case of ANA domestic and JAL domestic routes, the priority is classified according to the alphabetical classification.

Type ANA JAL
S Diamond status holder JMB Diamond, JGC Premier, One World Emerald status holder
A Platinum, Bronze, Super Flyers Card , Star AllianceGold, Silver status holder JGC, JMB Sapphire, JMB Crystal, One World Sapphire, One World Ruby Status Holder
B General General
C Other

Additional charge
The Go show was originally free of charge, but as of April 2010, an airline in the United States requires an extra charge of US $ 50 to US $ 75 when boarding on a vacant seat It is often.

Currently United Airlines will need an additional fee of US $ 75 when waiting for a vacancy. However, this does not apply if you pay a normal fare or if you have a 1K or global service member, business or first class boarding pass for the company.

Even with American Airlines , unless you have an above customer or refundable boarding pass, you need to pay an extra $ 75 to secure vacancies within the 12 hours of departure. However, if you receive a scheduled flight or a refusal to board a flight, it will be added to the beginning of the waiting list for free.

Source from Wikipedia