We don’t have any trips planned for this weekend so I thought now would be a good time to explain the rules of flying standby. Although these rules are the ones in place for our particular airline, I am sure that other airlines follow similar rules.
Rule #1: Paying customers get on the plane first. Basically, anyone who purchases a standby ticket or is bumped from an earlier flight is going to get on the plane before people flying free. There is an exception for employees who need to get on the flight to get to their next work assignment and another exception for employees willing to “fly fourth”. Flying fourth basically means that the employee is willing to sit in the fourth, or extra, flight attendant’s seat. My husband advises that these seats are not the most comfortable but free is free.
Of the paying passengers flying standby, boarding passes are handed out in order based on when the customer was put on the standby list. For those arriving at the airport for a flight, you can put your name on the standby list no earlier than two hours before the flight. For those passengers who are on the standby list because of a missed connection of having been bumped from an earlier flight, you place on the standby list follows you from flight to flight.
So, for example, there are three people trying to fly standby for flight #1 and you are the third person to check in. One person gets on the first flight. You should be number two on the list for the next flight. You name should automatically roll over to the next available flight along with your place in line.
Employees traveling on leisure are next in the standby hierarchy. And, if that employee has traveling companions flying family (spouse and kids) or buddy passes, everyone in that group gets moved up to employee status.
Again, the passengers cannot get on the standby list until two hours prior to the flight but their place on the list follows them from flight to flight if they do not get on their first choice.
Spouses and dependants of employees are in the next tier of our hierarchy. And before you say “can you husband just say I am his sister/brother/mother?” No. His airline requires pretty convincing documentation that you are immediate family of the employee. And they require you resubmit this documentation annually to ensure that the family had not changed. As a funny side story, our documentations included a marriage certificate written in Greek (with translation) and a birth certificate in Chinese (also with translation). Our American born son looked pretty boring amongst us.
Parents of employees can also fly on the employee pass as well as registered domestic partners.
So, after paying customers and after employees and their friends, spouses and dependants are listed on standby next.
Finally, we have buddy passes. These are passes which employees can choose to receive quarterly. They are limited to how many they can get at a time and can elect not to receive them. Why would an employee not want to collect their buddy passes? Well, they are taxed as if the passes have a cash value. So, if an employee never plans to utilize buddy passes, they would be wasting money by collecting them and letting them expire - and they do have an expiration date. I would have to check with my husband but I believe that it is forbidden to sell buddy passes. But they can be given, traded or bartered. Anyone flying on a buddy pass is representing the employee and is the employee’s responsibility. Therefore, if an employee gives or trades a pass to someone they barely know and that person act up on the flight or in the airport, the employee can be disciplined.
Buddy passes, ass you can well imagine, are very valuable and employees often use them to entice co-workers to trade shifts and such. So, even though my husband can receive four passes a quarter, we rarely have any in stock.
People flying on buddy passes have to be especially patient and flexible since they are the last on the hierarchy.
The standby lists are, as you see, complex and are tracked by computer. It does not matter how nice or how desperate or how many bribes you are willing to pay, the list is the list and your place on it is where you will be.
Let me try to give a scenario without being too confusing. The list will be in the order that people checked in so get on the standby list.
Flight 1
Holds 127 passengers
Seats sold 125
Passengers on standby list:
A (paying customer on standby)
B (paying customer on standby)
C (paying customer on standby)
Me (spouse/dependant)
Lil’ Bit (spouse/dependant)
Big Boy (spouse/dependant)
D (buddy pass)
E (buddy pass)
Passengers A & B get on the first flight
Flight 2
Holds 127 passengers
Seats sold 125
Passengers on standby list:
C (paying customer on standby)
Me (spouse/dependant)
Lil’ Bit (spouse/dependant)
Big Boy (spouse/dependant)
D (buddy pass)
E (buddy pass)
F (buddy pass)
Passenger C and D would get on the flight because there are only two seats and I need three
Flight 3
Holds 127 passengers
Seats sold 120 (looking good, 7 empty seats)
Passengers on standby list:
Me (spouse/dependant)
Lil’ Bit (spouse/dependant)
Big Boy (spouse/dependant)
E (buddy pass)
F (buddy pass)
G (employee)
H (buddy pass, traveling with said employee)
I (buddy pass, traveling with said employee)
K (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
L (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
M (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
N (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
Passengers G through N get on the flight
Flight 4
Holds 127 passengers
Seats sold 126
Passengers on standby list:
Me (spouse/dependant)
Lil’ Bit (spouse/dependant)
Big Boy (spouse/dependant)
E (buddy pass)
F (buddy pass)
O (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
P (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
Q (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
R (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
S (employee)
Passenger O gets on list.
Flight 4
Holds 127 passengers
Seats sold 126
Passengers on standby list:
Me (spouse/dependant)
Lil’ Bit (spouse/dependant)
Big Boy (spouse/dependant)
E (buddy pass)
F (buddy pass)
P (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
Q (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
R (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
S (employee)
T (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
U (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
Now, I am going to re-order the list so that you can see how it is going to fall out.
P (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
Q (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
R (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
T (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
U (paying passenger bumped from another flight)
S (employee)
Me (spouse/dependant)
Lil’ Bit (spouse/dependant)
Big Boy (spouse/dependant)
E (buddy pass)
F (buddy pass)
As you can see, in this scenario, the kids and I started out as numbers 4-7 on the standby list and have fallen to 7-9th place. The two passengers flying on buddy passes have seen 12 people get on the plane before them and have fallen from 7th and 8th place to 11th & 12th.
This was actually a pretty close scenario to what happened to us on a recent trip to Orlando Orlando
Two of the women flying on buddy passes (a mother/daughter) were trying to see a dying relative before it was too late. They were anxious and upset but these are the breaks when you fly free. The started making a scene and going into hysterics about making it to see the family member. But, the computer rules the list and all the histrionics in the world will not get you on a flight earlier. At one point, they had to be admonished that they were representing he employee who gave them the passes and could get him in trouble if their behavior did not improve.
They just couldn’t comprehend how they could be waiting so long yet keep falling lower and lower on the list. They were implying that there was favoritism taking place. I pulled them aside as we were all trying to get on the last flight and said “you see that guy working the computer trying to get us on… well, I am married to him and he can’t get me on the flight. If there was favoritism, wouldn’t you think I would be on a plane by now?”
This all goes back to what I said in my opening salvo. You have to be patient and flexible when flying standby. We have taken quite a few flights and have really only had two trips like this. We usually end up on our first flight and with some careful planning (looking at the flight loads ahead of time) we do quite well.
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