Is 'stand-by' a thing of the past? Always book well in advance myself, but a friend was looking for last minute flights to Bkk and said they were all expensive (from France). Flew from France to Bkk via Zurich myself last month, two-thirds of the seats on the Thai Air flight were empty. Just wondered if anyone knew whether a day or so before flying, or on the day of the flight itself, there are ever significant reductions.

Is 'stand-by' a thing of the past? Always book well in advance myself, but a friend was looking for last minute flights to Bkk and said they were all expensive (from France). Flew from France to Bkk via Zurich myself last month, two-thirds of the seats on the Thai Air flight were empty. Just wondered if anyone knew whether a day or so before flying, or on the day of the flight itself, there are ever significant reductions.

Usually, the price goes up on international flights. For flights within the EU, however, I'd imagine they might have last minute discounts - this sometimes happens on domestic US flights as well - but I don't think I've ever seen an airline discount seats for last minute on long-haul.

Is 'stand-by' a thing of the past? Always book well in advance myself, but a friend was looking for last minute flights to Bkk and said they were all expensive (from France). Flew from France to Bkk via Zurich myself last month, two-thirds of the seats on the Thai Air flight were empty. Just wondered if anyone knew whether a day or so before flying, or on the day of the flight itself, there are ever significant reductions.

Usually, the price goes up on international flights. For flights within the EU, however, I'd imagine they might have last minute discounts - this sometimes happens on domestic US flights as well - but I don't think I've ever seen an airline discount seats for last minute on long-haul.

I flew 'stand-by' from Los Angeles to London two years ago, waited 16 hours for a seat but it cost me a little over 5,500 Baht one way. I think 'stand-by' is still a big think in the USA but no used so frequently anywhere else in the world. My brother who flew more long-haul flights than i can ever remember always used to call the airlines direct a few hours before to see what he could get. Rather than try your luck with somebody sat behind a desk who hasn't the authority to discount flight prices. He claimed it always worked for him.

Is 'stand-by' a thing of the past?

As you said, it is a thing of the past.

I tried twice from London Heathrow and the prices quoted were higher than what I can get on the high street.

No, bargains any more, don't lnow why, because many flights go half empty.

Seems airlines are doing lots of money, so thei are not interested to give us a bargain.

Last month, I flew last minute with Qatar for less than 28,000 THB (Bangkok-Paris).

They also had a promo running for about 5xx Euro, a bargain in July/August, from Paris to Bangkok.

Yes, don't understand the logic of not having a system to sell off seats at a discounted rate in the last couple of days before the flight, especially with so many empty seats right now.

Last month, I flew last minute with Qatar for less than 28,000 THB (Bangkok-Paris).

They also had a promo running for about 5xx Euro, a bargain in July/August, from Paris to Bangkok.

You got done!!!! Considering at the moment stands at 350GBP return London-Bangkok.

28,000THB = 550GBP

Last month, I flew last minute with Qatar for less than 28,000 THB (Bangkok-Paris).

They also had a promo running for about 5xx Euro, a bargain in July/August, from Paris to Bangkok.

You got done!!!! Considering at the moment stands at 350GBP return London-Bangkok.

28,000THB = 550GBP

Yes, but it's always cheaper to fly from Europe to Bangkok that the other way round - well recently anyway.

Last month, I flew last minute with Qatar for less than 28,000 THB (Bangkok-Paris).

They also had a promo running for about 5xx Euro, a bargain in July/August, from Paris to Bangkok.

You got done!!!! Considering at the moment stands at 350GBP return London-Bangkok.

28,000THB = 550GBP

Yes, but it's always cheaper to fly from Europe to Bangkok that the other way round - well recently anyway.

Back in March I could not get a flight to London under 600GBP return no matter which agent or website I used. Meanwhile my mates were flying in the opposite direction for 350GBP return.

Talking of 'Standby' ; back in the 80's+90's I used to live in UK and often travelled to USA for work purposes and I would arrive at Gatwick and walk around the numerous airlines desks and take the best offer. My best result was 99GBP return to LAX! Of course, there were far too many seats available across the Atlantic at that time and subsequently a lot of Airlines like 'People Express', 'Air Florida', 'TWA', 'LAKER', Etc etc all went belly up before the 90's were out. These days if you arrive at Heathrow or Gatwick and ask for standby they look at you as if you are some kind of Alien!

Its all down to tighter airport security ye bunch a <deleted>. If you didn't know that then you should really be wondering why