Stand by flights, Does it work from swampy?

[gb33]

Last minute and quite urgently, I might need to head off to America for a few days. Does anyone know how standby flights work and are they cheaper?

Thanks.

BKK - Florida return, need to leave on the 4th.

Thanks!

gb33

[kieran2698]

That's well old school.

Basically it used to be a way to get a cheap ticket. You sat in the Airport and waited for someone to not show up for their flight and then were charged a standard international fee no matter of where you were going which always worked out very cheap. Of course if you had a transit location then chances are you would of had to go through the same process there and probably wait over night or worse.

Since like the 80's or something it's been different. Now standby just means you're hoping to get an empty seat and then you will pay the full price which is always much more than if you just bought the ticket before hand.

It used to be the later you bought the ticket the cheaper it got but now it's the earlier you buy it the cheaper.

Better idea is to keep checking skyscanner.net for a cheap deal and you could also consider a cheap flight to Singapore or KL and then on from there.

[oldsailor35]

Yes you can get standby at Swampy, but they know that you are desperate so of course the price will go up . This is Thailand, any excuse for a rip off.

[kieran2698]

Nothing to do with it being Thailand, nothing to do with the sales people knowing you are desperate. Same procedure for Airlines the world over, full fairs only at the Airport.

[GrantSmith]

Not really "standby" if you're leaving on the 4th. Most airlines (even Thai Airways) allow a 4 hour prior to departure booking...

Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[craigt3365]

Not so sure about right now, but before the protests, almost all planes were full, with some booked passengers being bumped. Airlines are doing everything they can to have flights fully booked now, unlike 20 years ago when you could get an entire row to crash out on on the red eyes.

[lomatopo]

The days of of last-minute stand-by fares being inexpensive went out the window ~ 40 years ago.

In these modern times last-minute fares tend to be in the least-restrictive/most-expensive fare buckets: so Y/B for economy, as all the other fare buckets have sold out. Obviously if fares dropped close to departure (some/many) people would wait until the last minute to purchase; this is not behavior the airlines want to encourage.

Your best bet would be to book/issue a ticket as soon as possible. I see fares of 50,000 - 60,000 THB all in, I used MCO and May 4/18.

Note that most airlines use the term "stand-by" to mean that these passengers are waiting until all passengers have been checked in/accounted for/upgraded, and then the "stand-by" list, which is made up of passengers (dead-heading crew/employees/airline retirees/family, people who missed an earlier flight. etc.), is processed in the requisite order.

Edited April 29, 2014 by lomatopo

[WhizBang]

Not so sure about right now, but before the protests, almost all planes were full, with some booked passengers being bumped. Airlines are doing everything they can to have flights fully booked now, unlike 20 years ago when you could get an entire row to crash out on on the red eyes.

Very true. The last time I saw empty seats on a flight was in the weeks and months after 9/11.

Now when I fly, they are usually calling for people to give up their seats as they are overbooked.

[lomatopo]

The last time I saw empty seats on a flight was in the weeks and months after 9/11

I flew BKK-NRT-ORD-BOS on 27 March, and our 747 for NRT-ORD was ~ 25% full in economy.

Obviously unless you fly every single day, on every single flight, your experience is well...less than useful.

Yes, airlines are continually trying to maximize load factors, and aircraft utilization, but really...

DL 284 BKK-NRT on 4 May, which might represent the OP's first segment, still has 30+ unassigned economy seats, and showing "nines across the board". (Yes, some passengers might have an issued ticket, but do not have a seat assignment.)

Departing 05/04/14 - Sunday

DL 284 0 BKK

05/04/14 6:10 AM NRT

05/04/14 2:10 PM 744

J9 C9 D9 I9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 S9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 T9 X8 V8 E8

[stevenl]

The last time I saw empty seats on a flight was in the weeks and months after 9/11

I flew BKK-NRT-ORD-BOS on 27 March, and our 747 for NRT-ORD was ~ 25% full in economy.

Obviously unless you fly every single day, on every single flight, your experience is well...less than useful.

Yes, airlines are continually trying to maximize load factors, and aircraft utilization, but really...

DL 284 BKK-NRT on 4 May, which might represent the OP's first segment, still has 30+ unassigned economy seats, and showing "nines across the board". (Yes, some passengers might have an issued ticket, but do not have a seat assignment.)

Departing 05/04/14 - Sunday

DL 284 0 BKK

05/04/14 6:10 AM NRT

05/04/14 2:10 PM 744

J9 C9 D9 I9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 S9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 T9 X8 V8 E8

All fine, but I doubt that will lead to cheap last minute tickets.

[lomatopo]

All fine, but I doubt that will lead to cheap last minute tickets.

Who said anything about "cheap"?

I was addressing the claim that all flights are over-sold/over-booked since 9/11, rather than relative cost/price.

I said I am seeing 50,000 - 60,000 THB all in for BKK-MCO-BKK on May 4/18. DL was ~ 59,xxxx when I looked.

[stevenl]

All fine, but I doubt that will lead to cheap last minute tickets.

Who said anything about "cheap"? <snip>

The OP.

[WhizBang]

The last time I saw empty seats on a flight was in the weeks and months after 9/11

I flew BKK-NRT-ORD-BOS on 27 March, and our 747 for NRT-ORD was ~ 25% full in economy.

Obviously unless you fly every single day, on every single flight, your experience is well...less than useful.

Yes, airlines are continually trying to maximize load factors, and aircraft utilization, but really...

DL 284 BKK-NRT on 4 May, which might represent the OP's first segment, still has 30+ unassigned economy seats, and showing "nines across the board". (Yes, some passengers might have an issued ticket, but do not have a seat assignment.)

Departing 05/04/14 - Sunday

DL 284 0 BKK

05/04/14 6:10 AM NRT

05/04/14 2:10 PM 744

J9 C9 D9 I9 Z9 Y9 B9 M9 S9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 T9 X8 V8 E8

My reference to flights immediately following 9/11 was ment to be anecdotal more than anything. The frequent calls for people to give up their seats is, in fact, based upon my current experiences in flying.

But it is also true that empty seats do sometimes exist, but that can be due to many factors, including the airline, the route, the equipment, time of day, day of the month or week, and possibly even the phases of the moon. Who knows.

Unassigned seats do not mean seats available for purchase.

[Chivas]

Not so sure about right now, but before the protests, almost all planes were full, with some booked passengers being bumped. Airlines are doing everything they can to have flights fully booked now, unlike 20 years ago when you could get an entire row to crash out on on the red eyes.

Very true. The last time I saw empty seats on a flight was in the weeks and months after 9/11.

Now when I fly, they are usually calling for people to give up their seats as they are overbooked.

Not my experience from last 3 Return flights out of Heathrow !! Very quiet

[krisb]

Not so sure about right now, but before the protests, almost all planes were full, with some booked passengers being bumped. Airlines are doing everything they can to have flights fully booked now, unlike 20 years ago when you could get an entire row to crash out on on the red eyes.

Very true. The last time I saw empty seats on a flight was in the weeks and months after 9/11.

Now when I fly, they are usually calling for people to give up their seats as they are overbooked.

Not my experience from last 3 Return flights out of Heathrow !! Very quiet

Same from Australia. Always empty seats. Plenty of full rows with no bums on them. Last week was the last flight we did.

Does Air Asia fly to the states? That's gotta be cheap if they do.

[lomatopo]

Unassigned seats do not mean seats available for purchase.

Understood, I did address that issue by saying...Yes, some passengers might have an issued ticket, but do not have a seat assignment.

But: Y9 B9 M9 S9 H9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 T9 X8 V8 E8 does in fact mean there are seats available for purchase.

Something like Y0 B0 M0...would be indicative of there being no seats available for purchase.

I fly a fair amount and cannot recall a single recent VDB, or IDB, situation save for some domestic U.S. segments, usually as a result of IRROPS.

[flightcrew1]

just my 2 cents. We have 3 daily flights in and out of BKK from Abu Dhabi. 840a, 1020a, 2140. The first flight is nearly always full into BKK as many passengers connecting from Europe which arrives into AUH around 6am. The second flight is generally less than half empty as is mainly middle eastern passengers and also means a 4 hour layover for passengers if coming in from Europe. The third flight is again generally full as it's an overnight into BKK with early morning arrival and a direct connect for those morning flights that left Europe or North or South America.

On the outbound the flights leave at 0255, 0835a, 2035. The first flight again is generally the less crowded of the 3 as again the connections into Europe mean a 4 hour layover whereas the other two have about 2 hour connections.

That said from AUH to Europe depends on the day of the week if flights full or not. I worked a flight from FRA to AUH 2 weeks ago that had 42 passengers total on board with nobody in Business class. A couple of days ago I worked a flight from LHR that was full 100pct with upgrades to First and Business being done at the gate.