That friend who swore by 'just show up at the airport for standby flights'

My buddy Mike kept telling me to ditch booking ahead and just roll up to JFK for standby deals. I tried it last month flying to Chicago, spent 8 hours in the terminal, and ended up paying $340 for a last-minute seat. Has anyone actually made the standby game work without burning a whole day?

2 comments

2 Comments

stella6149d ago

Lol the "standby hack" is basically just a way to turn a cheap flight into an expensive lesson in patience. I had a coworker who swore by it and he once got stuck in Denver for 18 hours because every flight was overbooked. The only time I've seen it work is for people who have zero time constraints and somehow magically land an empty seat at 2am on a Tuesday. Your buddy Mike probably heard this from some travel blogger who got lucky once and now acts like it's a universal law. Honestly you probably could have bought a regular ticket for less than $340 and saved yourself the airport food court depression.

avery6299d ago

Standby is just gambling with extra steps... I watched a guy at LAX camp out for 14 hours trying to get on a flight to Seattle and he ended up sleeping on the floor near baggage claim. The airline basically owns you once you commit to it.