flying standby

yourdeadwright

Hey folks
In 3 weeks today(Monday) I plan to fly stand by from Dublin to New York,
My ticket is actually open to any east coast Airport
I have to get to Detroit for a wedding on the Thursday
Does anyone have any experience of flying stand by from Dublin, will I be awaiting for days ?
It's a buddy pass from a friend who has 11 years service for Aer Lingus

coylemj

It depends on whether the flights on that day are full with passengers paying regular fares. Does your friend still work in Aer Lingus? If so then they are probably better positioned to answer your question than anyone here - especially as they should be able to find out if the flight is full or not.

yourdeadwright

coylemj wrote: »

It depends on whether the flights on that day are full with passengers paying regular fares. Does your friend still work in Aer Lingus? If so then they are probably better positioned to answer your question than anyone here - especially as they should be able to find out if the flight is full or not.

Ye he still works there, the flight i'm aiming for currently has 15econmy seats left with 3 weeks to go and 8 business,
Im sure there will be other waiting for stand by as well,

coylemj

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Im sure there will be other waiting for stand by as well,

You asked if anyone here had any experience of standby, I'm not really sure if anyone else's experience will count for anything, even if they flew yesterday.

It's all down to seat availability and whether there's other people on standby at the same time as you but who are further up the food chain. For example a 'buddy pass' could put you below people who actually work for the airline so staff will get a seat before you.

It's pot luck, you'll only find out on the day.

Full_TiltKeith

yourdeadwright wrote: »

Ye he still works there, the flight i'm aiming for currently has 15econmy seats left with 3 weeks to go and 8 business,
Im sure there will be other waiting for stand by as well,

If you are looking at 10 Aug very slim chance. 10 left on 103 6 on 105 and 2 on 109.

ProudDUB

Unfortunately, I'd say that the chances are worse than very slim, seeing as it's peak summer holiday season. There will be bone fide Aer Lingus staff who will be further up the queue than you, they will know every single trick in the book to get themselves on their targeted flight & they may very well know the check in staff at the desks, which always helps.

My father was ex Aer Lingus/Aer Rianta, with 30 plus years of service. He was fairly high up the official food chain, but even so, traveling standby in the summer - especially to the US - was a fcuking nightmare.

yourdeadwright

Full_TiltKeith wrote: »

If you are looking at 10 Aug very slim chance. 10 left on 103 6 on 105 and 2 on 109.

Thanks for the feed back greatly appreciated,
It mite be a bit cheeky to ask you but any idea what the Tuesday looks like ?


Thanks

yourdeadwright

I found out there is currently 13 free seats on the Tuesday morning flight,
So I guess that will be my best bet, so ifngers croseed there isn't to many more booking, or that some people don't show up

Full_TiltKeith

yourdeadwright wrote: »

I found out there is currently 13 free seats on the Tuesday morning flight,
So I guess that will be my best bet, so ifngers croseed there isn't to many more booking, or that some people don't show up

That is the most available flight plus or minus 3 days.

Be aware though the 2 later flights are fully booked so if you don't get on the 103 there would be no hope of getting on next two flights so I wouldn't hang around airport

yourdeadwright

Full_TiltKeith wrote: »

That is the most available flight plus or minus 3 days.

Be aware though the 2 later flights are fully booked so if you don't get on the 103 there would be no hope of getting on next two flights so I wouldn't hang around airport

Thanks for that, I guess ill try Monday and if it doesn't work out i'll try Tuesday morning

Thanks

lasno

Can you use that ticket from Shannon? Have you checked the loads on EI111?

smurfjed

Have you considered how you are going to get back? As a staff passenger, I would always have more than one planned route and tickets for each option. In your case you are stuck with a low priority EI ticket. You need to think of a plan "B".

yourdeadwright

smurfjed wrote: »

Have you considered how you are going to get back? As a staff passenger, I would always have more than one planned route and tickets for each option. In your case you are stuck with a low priority EI ticket. You need to think of a plan "B".[/Q

I plan to come back on a Wednesday and don't have to be in Work till the Monday so I'm not to worried about coming home, plus I can stay with a friends who actually works in the airport and lives close by if I need to stay a couple of extra days

yourdeadwright

lasno wrote: »

Can you use that ticket from Shannon? Have you checked the loads on EI111?

I'm not sure , that something I will have to ask my friend about ,

tricky D

Full_TiltKeith wrote: »

Be aware though the 2 later flights are fully booked so if you don't get on the 103 there would be no hope of getting on next two flights so I wouldn't hang around airport

Isn't there still a possibility of no-shows on the later ones?

yourdeadwright

tricky D wrote: »

Isn't there still a possibility of no-shows on the later ones?

The chances are if there fully booked there more than likely over booked (airlines do this) so they need no shows just to get all the prepaid people on
Frequently this doesn't happen and they offer money r flight vouchers for people to go on the next flight, iv heard of some people volunteer to be the "unluck ones" left behind for two flights in a row and make nearly 2 grand from it,

coylemj

OP, have you planned what you're going to do for Thanksgiving?

Full_TiltKeith

yourdeadwright wrote: »

The chances are if there fully booked there more than likely over booked (airlines do this) so they need no shows just to get all the prepaid people on
Frequently this doesn't happen and they offer money r flight vouchers for people to go on the next flight, iv heard of some people volunteer to be the "unluck ones" left behind for two flights in a row and make nearly 2 grand from it,

Without going into too much detail the above is common place with all airlines and you won't get onto a later flight due to above reason. Some may even need to be moved to the earlier flight making your chances slimmer I'm afraid

yourdeadwright

Full_TiltKeith wrote: »

Without going into too much detail the above is common place with all airlines and you won't get onto a later flight due to above reason. Some may even need to be moved to the earlier flight making your chances slimmer I'm afraid

All I can do is hope for that early flight not to fill up
I have back up plan if closer to the day it looks like the early one is full but it'll cost me and extra 150 euro .
When it come to it I won't mind paying it if it means getting out,

bigpink

How does standby work?its a cheaper price i take it

LXFlyer

bigpink wrote: »

How does standby work?its a cheaper price i take it

It's for airline staff and family.

Cheaper fares but dependant upon seats being free.

J.pilkington

lxflyer wrote: »

It's for airline staff and family.

Cheaper fares but dependant upon seats being free.

And friends ("buddy")

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

smurfjed

But Fred in those days it was cheap and worthwhile, EI/BA were charging close to 300 pounds for a midweek return, so staff tickets were great.
I flew in here last night on a staff ticket on BA. I could have easily purchased a confirmed ticket on EI/FR for less, the only advantage that the staff ticket now gives me is the flexibility to attempt to leave when I want.